now just add a report that Donte Whitner is visiting Oakland, and my head will explode.
If they can go into the draft with Aldon Smith, Donte Whitner and Reggie Nelson all under contract, it would be the best off-season ever and the best we've looked heading into a draft in a very very long time. Then making a move to snack Elliot would be amazing.
"snack" Elliot?
sure. or we could snag him as well.
Even in the Gruden/Gannon hey dey, I don't recall an off-season like this. I feel like it was mostly old re-treds in a great system than us building a young core.
I mean, heck, Al Davis was drafting KICKERS in the 1st round in 2000 and we still somehow stayed a perennial playoff team in the early 2000s.
Just searched and found out draft history from those years. Not a Derrick Carr or Khalil Mack in the bunch to build from...
2002
1a. Phillip Buchanon, CB, Miami, Fla.
1b. Napoleon Harris, LB, Northwestern
2a. Langston Walker, OL, California
2b. Doug Jolley, TE, BYU
5. Kenyon Coleman, DE, UCLA
6a. Keyon Nash, DB, Albany State (Ga.)
6b. Larry Ned, RB, San Diego State
7. Ronald Curry, QB, North Carolina
2001
1. Derrick Gibson, S, Florida State
2. Marques Tuiasosopo, QB Washington
3. DeLawrence Grant, DE, Oregon State
5. Raymond Perryman, S, Northern Arizona
6. Chris Cooper, DE, Nebraska-Omaha
7a. Derek Combs, RB, Ohio State
7b. Ken-Yon Rambo, WR, Ohio State
2000
1. Sebastian Janikowski, K, Florida State
2. Jerry Porter, WR, West Virginia
4. Junior Ioane, DT, Arizona State
5. Shane Lechler, P, Texas A&M
7a. Mondriel Fulcher, TE, Miami (Fla.)
7b. Cliffton Black, DB, S.W. Texas State
1999
1. Matt Stinchcomb, T, Georgia
2. Tony Bryant, DE, Florida State
4. Dameane Douglas, WR, California
5a. Eric Barton, LB, Maryland
5b. Roderick Coleman, LB, East Carolina
6. Daren Yancey, DT, BYU
7. JoJuan Armour, LB, Miami (Ohio)
ETA: to be fair, we snagged Woodson in 98...but Darrell Russell the year before that. Call it a wash?