Round 3:
Projected picks: David Sills WR West Virginia and Jace Sternberger TE Texas A&M
Actual picks: Diontae Johnson WR Toledo and Justin Layne CB Michigan State
Honestly, I was shocked that Sills went undrafted. He signed with the Buffalo Bills as an undrafted free agent. We did draft a receiver and a corner. Don’t think for one minute the irony of drafting Johnson, who is similar in stature to Antonio Brown ( Johnson is listed at 5’10” 183 LBS and Antonio is listed at 5’10” 181 LBS, according to the Raiders official team site) and who also played in the MAC was lost on me. So how did we do with this pick? So as not to sound repetitive, let’s just stipulate that all of our draft picks fall into the category of “TBD”, to be determined, in terms of performance. What could this pick signify? This one is interesting, in my opinion.
Although we traded Antonio, we did draft James Washington in the second round last year. One would assume that with the departure of Brown, Washington would garner an increased role this season. An assumption that, in my opinion, is premature. The drafting of Johnson tells me that we want to provide competition for Washington. I would not be at all surprised to see Johnson ascend quickly as the “slot” receiver and/or a wideout in a four-receiver set. Also, I think Eli Rogers and Ryan Switzer BOTH make the team, just as an aside. Washington; however, could be in some dutch.
Justin Layne is listed at 6’2″ 192 LBS. He’s a big corner. He’s one inch shorter than Brian Allen and one of three DB’s currently on the roster who is listed at 6’2″. What does that mean? Well, for starters, it means that, from a physical standpoint, he can match height with some of the taller receivers in the league; he can, hopefully, be a factor in run support and he can, hopefully, keep up with the big TE’s running around the league nowadays. How much playing time he sees depends on many factors, in my opinion.
His competition will be Mike Hilton, Cam Sutton, Brian Allen and Artie Burns. If we assume Joe Haden and Steve Nelson will be the starters and Mike Hilton will be the “slot” corner, where does Layne fit in? I hope he establishes himself as a core special teams player and maybe a “sub-package” corner. Can he play safety? If there was one position that was not addressed in the draft, it was safety. I know we signed some UDFA’s (Un-Drafted Free Agent) but the depth at those positions scares me.