The Oakland Raiders took a major gamble in the first round of the 2017 NFL draft, selecting embattled cornerback Gareon Conley.
Conley was a lock for the first round based on his lockdown-corner tendencies in college, even if the national spotlight went to those around him instead.
But he was then accused of rape earlier this month, which sent teams scrambling for information, which we documented in detail here.
Conley had denied the accusations to anyone who would listen and the Raiders put in the research behind the scenes to justify the pick. Here’s general manager Reggie McKenzie, per the as Vegas Review-Journal‘s Ed Graney:
“We did our due diligence throughout this whole process, and we trust our research, reports, everything we have on Mr. Conley. We feel really good about having him join the Raiders, and having him be a great teammate. The research was done. It wasn’t just a gut [feeling]. It was based on research, and we are very confident in all the information we got. I don’t want to get into all the details about who we talked to. The bottom line is, we’ve done miles and miles of research to make sure we were totally comfortable with our decision, which we were. We feel really good about the pick and where it’s going.”
The Raiders took a major gamble here, but it’s clear the front office feels confident in the decision.
If it works, the Raiders have arguably the top corner from the class and an assured quality production at a premium position for a long time.
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