Match made in heaven? Sorry, you'll have to ask Rodger Lodge that one.

Wow, I never would have thought I’d say the Raiders had the best 2010 draft of their division, bus as I see it right now, we did! I wrote a week ago that I was scared as hell about what we’d do with our picks, because a lot of times, it isn’t always clear what Al was thinking or if he was really thinking at all. I’m not sure what happened in the draft room this year, but I have a gut feeling Mr. Burns let Cable give him some input into the picks. I mean, if Coach Cable is geeked to get a player, he must’ve had a hand in the decision. I have reserved high hopes this year. I could see them being the team that was good at the end of the year, or I could see them being terrible until it doesn’t matter and start winning then. Either way it feels like Cable does have a say in the teams decision making, unlike the past four or five coaches. Isn’t he the one that was highly against starting Jamarcus, and finally convinced Al to let him bench Russell. Cable knows how to reason with Al a little, and that is a rare thing, so I prey it keeps happening, so I can be excited about future drafts. Their best news is the guys we got wasn’t even the biggest news of the day. As Mceezy wrote about earlier. Who knows if any of these guys we drafted will work out, but I feel like we gave ourselves as good a chance at future success by picking some solid talent. Here’s how it all went down.

Pick #8 – Rolando McClain, LB, Alabama

I’ve heard a handful of people say they didn’t like the pick, but if picking him got Cable geeked, then he must see him as our defensive leader on the field. If you caught any of Bama’s games last year, he was the motor of that Championship defense, and seemed to be in the right places making the right plays more often than not. He was also in charge of all their audibles and led them to the 4th ranked defense in the nation. I’m glad we didn’t take Bruce Campbell like so many people were saying we would that might’ve set us up for the Robert Gallery version 2.0. Lando is a pretty safe bet to be good in the league, and he better be since we traded away Morrison to Jacksonville for a box of cracker jacks to move up a round in this years draft. I think we should’ve asked for more, but I like the receiver we got with the pick, which I’ll get to later.

Pick #44 – Lamarr Houston, DE, Texas

I wasn’t completely for this pick, but the more I thought about it the more I like it. The guy is durable, and can play in multiple spots on the line in the DT or DE spots. Weighing in at slightly over 300 pounds will make him a menace for any linemen to handle, especially since he does have speed, and one of those “motors” that Jaws is always talking about. Does that sound familiar to a guy we already have? Like say Richard Seymour. Seymour is the perfect guy to mentor him because he plays the same type of game that Houston does. It can’t hurt him to learn from the best in the business. This guy is good at stopping the run and paired with McClain it will be a much improved front line with a few less holes to run through. All in all, not a bad pick, he’ll look good in silver and black.

Pick #69 – Jared Veldheer, OT, Hillsdale Continue reading