It seems, after three seasons on the job in Oakland, Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie has finally gotten the hang of that whole drafting thing - at least, if you look at this year's results and combine them with last year's, it's a conclusion that's not difficult to come to.
While the 2015 NFL Draft brought exciting reinforcements for the Raiders franchise in the form of wide receiver Amari Cooper, defensive tackle Mario Edwards Jr. and tight end Clive Walford, it was the work McKenzie did in the 2014 NFL Draft that may ultimately reverse the brutal fortunes of the NFL's Oakland-based franchise.
ESPN recently took a look back at the 2014 draft with the help of some "NFL evaluators" and determined that if the league's 32 teams were given a do-over, McKenzie's two top picks, linebacker Khalil Mack and quarterback Derek Carr, would have gone much, much higher than they initially did.
Mack, a defensive building block nabbed with the fifth-overall pick, is considered by ESPN to have shown so much promise and such ample athletic ability in his rookie year that he was actually worthy of the first-overall pick.
"Mack validated his top-five status with a promising rookie season. The Raiders expect him to spend less time in coverage and more time rushing the passer this season."
Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio did intimate as much recently - that Mack, who nabbed 75 tackles, one forced fumble and four sacks last year, will likely spend more time terrorizing quarterbacks in 2015.
"We feel like that's where he has a chance to take off and grow," Del Rio said at the NFL owners meetings last month, via Scott Bair of CSNBayArea.com. "Adding some of that bend on the edge and finishing capability around the quarterback will take him from someone who is close all the time and breathing down the neck of the quarterback to someone who is getting the passer on the ground, forcing fumbles, and creating turnovers."
Mack echoed that sentiment at Raiders OTAs this week.
"I definitely want to get after the quarterback more this year," Mack said recently, per Jeffri Chahida of ESPN.com. "I got some hits [in 2014], but people didn't really see what I can do. Those sack numbers I had really weren't me. At the end of the day, you want people to see you at your best."
Considering it's a passing league, if Mack can take off in Year Two and create more havoc in the opposition's backfield, the Raiders defense as whole will likely be able to take a big step forward in 2015.
On the other side of the ball for the Raiders, their own young passer, Carr, garnered top marks from ESPN in their do-over as well.
Carr completed just 348 balls for 3,270 yards, 21 touchdowns and 12 interceptions his initial NFL season, but he showed a grit and veteran savvy few knew he possessed, causing ESPN to vault him all the way up to the 11th pick in the first-round.
"The stats say Carr was ineffective as a rookie, but most of the coaches and evaluators I've consulted favored him over the other 2014 rookie QBs based on his max potential."
Carr ended up with Oakland at the top of the second-round, pick No. 36, in 2014.
Perhaps just as exciting, if not more so for Raiders fans, than the promising futures for Carr, Mack and 2015's haul of fresh faces like Cooper and Edwards, is the revelation that McKenzie's drafting acumen seems to be improving significantly.
If that is, in fact, the case, then the Raiders could very well find themselves out of the NFL's doldrums and back into the conversation as one of the league's elite much sooner than anyone would have expected.
