Jon Gruden is putting in the work before the NFL draft.
The Raiders own the fourth, 24th and 27th picks in the first round of the upcoming 2019 NFL Draft
When asked if the late-round picks could be in play for a trade, Gruden said they could. And so could No. 4.
“I think there’s a lot of potential for trades,” Gruden told J.T. the Brick on “The Game Plan” podcast. “I think that’s one of the things I’m really excited about. [New Raiders general manager] Mike Mayock what he brings to the table, he’s got great resources around the NFL. He’s been in every building, he’s on a first-name basis; everybody knows Mike. And I think he’s gonna be on the phones quite a bit, not only with those two picks you talked about, who knows, we may move up with the No. 4 pick, we may move back with that pick. We’ll see how it all unfolds.”
"That's a tall order for us."
Jon Gruden knows the Raiders have their work cut out for them this offseason (via @BairNBCS) https://t.co/QdXEHMk9H7 pic.twitter.com/TkepWtmQKo
— Raiders on NBCS (@NBCSRaiders) February 23, 2019
Currently, studying up on free agents is the priority, but the draft looms larger ever now it would seem.
“That’s what we’ve been doing the last 10 days. We have been doing nothing but studying free agents, guys that’s contracts are up,” Gruden said.
“Obviously we’re not looking to add players that are at the end of their career, we’re looking for blossoming young players. Those guys usually don’t get to free agency. So the pickings are slim, for everybody, but there are a couple diamonds in the rough. We’ll see where the market goes. But you don’t want to spend all your money that you have on a few free agents, you want to try to keep some of that money available in case a trade might develop during the draft.”
“No one can lock anybody in to who we’re picking yet, because we don’t even know — trust me,” he said.
“We’re really proud of obviously the tradition of the Raiders, but we’re very well aware we’ve got to fix the recent tradition,” Gruden said. “We’ve had one winning season in the last 16 seasons and it’s repulsive and we’ve got a long way to go, but we’re going to get there.”
Gruden has 100 million reasons to make the Raiders relevant again.
Vegas awaits.