Mizzou Football: Ten NFL landing spots for Drew Lock
By Cullen Jekel
Oakland Raiders
Pick: 27
Current Quarterback: Derek Carr
Quite honestly, the only way I see the Raiders taking Lock is if he falls to them at pick 27. It appears that the Raiders are taking a page out of the Rams’ playbook for burning down a team before leaving its current city only to make a huge splash at the game’s most important position once settled into the new city.
To recap: the St. Louis Rams were awful for years after losing to the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVI. But once the team landed in Los Angeles, general manager Les Snead made a big trade, moving up to the number one overall pick in the 2016 draft to select Cal quarterback Jared Goff.
As recently as 2016, the Raiders were a playoff team contending for the AFC West title. But after that season ended in the Wild Card round, owner Mark Davis started tearing things down.
After a disappointing 2017, Davis fired head coach Jack Del Rio and replaced him with Jon Gruden, who hadn’t roamed the sideline for nearly a decade.
Gruden continued the tear down, dealing away Khalil Mack to the Bears and Amari Cooper to the Cowboys late first-round draft picks. The team can pretty easily move away from Derek Carr anytime they want to, but they may wait a little while longer.
Why? To land a huge name entering their first or second season in Las Vegas. It would be no surprise for the Raiders to wind up for the number one overall pick in a year when one of these three quarterbacks are available: Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, Georgia’s Jake Fromm, or Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence.
But if Lock’s still around at number 27 this year, the Raiders may be tempted. Just don’t expect them to, you know, improve the roster while still in Oakland.