With the 8th Pick in the 2010 Stampede Blue Community Mock Draft, the Oakland Raiders select...

How about:
- Best pick for the Raiders; Al Davis must no longer be in charge
- Right position, wrong player
- There are more pressing positions of need
- Don’t you know Al Davis will take Tim Tebow at #8?

After reviewing the list 3 times and not finding John Madden on it, Al Davis begrudgingly calls in his pick – Michael Crabtree.

The scary thing is, the guy’s senile enough to actually do that.

Poll option numero uno!

No, not choosing Crabtree , but Davis going after the freakiest athlete in the draft at a position that can definitely use an upgrade. In my limited experience paying atttention to the Raiders, it seems like Davis values physicality and athleticism over football saavy. Anyone with better knowledge than me of course should speak up and correct that if need be, but to me, that’s the sort of prospect Davis picks. Now, generally there’s nothing wrong with valuing athleticism – on the contrary, it’s a very important characteristic of, you know, athletes – but it can be overdone, and I think Oakland’s an example of that.

What was that criticism I read a while back? Davis is building one of the best track teams in the NFL? Something like that?

My point is, I’m not sure he’s truly building a team in that he’s looking for parts that mesh well. As a contrast, look to our team: I don’t think you’d see Polian ever going after a Vince Wilfork type because that sort of player simply wouldn’t mesh right with Indy’s defensive philosophies. The beauty of so many prospects being available is that there’s a diversity of player-types out there, and a wise GM can mix and match to build a real team instead of a collection of athletes. Does Davis do that? Well, talking with a Raiders fan where I work, I don’t think so. Not in his nor my opinion anyway. He goes after the fastest, nevermind how well they mesh.

But, in this one case, it might end up being a good fit anyway. Forget the “freak” aspect of his combine workout, the scouting reports say he’s got real pass protection skills and is a genuinely good tackle who fits a genuine need on Oakland’s front line. Davis may be making the right choice by accident if he does pick him on the basis of his crazy-good combine performance, but I think he’d still be making the right choice.

FYI: Spamtrackers.eu has a wiki on the Xinnet.com registrar that all those recent spams have been coming from.
http://spamtrackers.eu/wiki/index.php?title=Xin_Net#Where_to_send_abuse_complaints

There’s some contact info there, and I’m all for filling those bastards inboxes with complaints about link spam from their site, especially since that Wiki has tracked attempts to dodge complaints and has published better, usable email addresses as a response. I’m going to tell the SB Nation folks about this too. Anyway, figured you and BBS might like to know who to bitch at.

I actually see Al Davis and the Raiders selecting the Tebow.