Six new faces
After trading back twice on Friday, the Raiders stayed put with their six picks on Saturday, adding three offensive players and three on defense to cap off the draft class. WR Dont’e Thornton Jr. was the first pick of the day, followed by DT Tonka Hemingway, DT JJ Pegues, QB Tommy Mellott, QB Cam Miller and LB Cody Lindenberg.
“The competitiveness of this group is pretty unique,” Raiders director of college scouting Brandon Yeargan said post-draft. “The competitiveness, toughness stands out to me, especially with some of these late-round guys that we added.”
This is the Raiders’ largest draft class since 2007, when the team also selected 11 total players. General Manager John Spytek couldn’t be more pleased with not only how the class came together, but of how his team worked together to solidify the new group of Raiders.
“I felt like the strategy that we approached it with, the manner in which we accomplished it was really solid,” Spytek said of his first draft as general manager. “Now we’ll just see. There’s 32 teams, like i said the other day, that all feel good about it. I’m happy with the way it went because of the teamwork that we had, the people that worked hard, the unselfishness of the group. Just what everyone took to make the Raiders better, that’s what the room was about and I felt like we did that.”