2020 NFL Draft: Justin Herbert goes No. 1 in first-round NFL mock draft

With Oakland’s second pick, the Raiders opt for an elite wide receiver in Henry Ruggs III. The Raiders may have nonchalantly released Antonio Brown back in September, but don’t be fooled, this team was counting on his production this year. Even Jon Gruden says so. Antonio Brown was going to be the big star that drew in the fans when they moved to Las Vegas. After all, no one goes to a show in Las Vegas that is serviceable and unremarkable.

I believe that unless something catastrophic happens this year, the team will keep riding with Carr at quarterback. If Gruden really didn’t like Carr, he would have benched him last year when they only won four games. But Carr still needs receivers to throw to. How do you balance the need for fan hype and the needs of an NFL team? Simple, you reach for a wide receiver in the first round from a big school.

“Reach” might be too harsh a term here. Ruggs is an exceptional athlete who deserves to be drafted in the first round. But I am not totally sold that he is better than say Colorado’s Laviska Shenault. Still, Ruggs is a good enough athlete all on his own, and I suspect his detractors compare him too much to Jerry Jeudy and not the average wide receiver playing in college.

The Raiders simply need to find a more legitimate threat on the outside.You can start the season 6-4 doing things the way that they have, but making it deep in the postseason requires more weapons than they currently have.

The Raiders are in need of a wide receiver who can give them the much-needed production they had hoped Brown would give them. In the 2020 NFL draft, Ruggs is a player who will be ready to contribute immediately to this offense in a significant way.