by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Oakland Raiders as we all know had a lousy season in 2013 but having a lousy season means your going to have fun in the draft because your a the top of it. The Raiders have the number five pick in this year’s draft.

Who their going to pick? We can make a number of guesses at this stage that’s because there are several decent quarterbacks in this 2014 draft. The real question mark here is who is going to get selected in what the Raiders want in the quarterback and this is scheduled to be one of the deepest drafts in recent years.

There are a lot of high quality players that the Raiders can take with them at the number five pick. The other complicating factor is the Raiders need help everywhere, there are very few positions where you can confidently say that the Raiders are set with who they have.

The Raiders need help at every position that means that you take the best available player and it also means that if you have that many holes to fill maybe you don’t pick a number five. Maybe you trade back from number five to go down the latter and stock pile draft picks in a very deep draft.

You trade down from number five to let’s say to number nine to pick up a second and a third round pick, so you could add more bodies to compete for the starting squads on your roster. Personally I don’t have a strong opinion on who the Raiders should pick in the first round.

If you ask me they should pass up a quarterback in the first round, it seems like a lot of the quarterbacks in this draft there are a lot of guys who are good but there are no one you would consider great or for example the next Johnny Unitas. If your the Raiders and your looking for a quarterback and the Raiders say, “we signed Matt Schaub to this contract” and anyone you draft to be a quarterback will end up being a back up this year.

No matter what Oakland does, the new recruit is going to be a back up quarterback unless Schaub gets seriously injured. The Raiders may not select the first round pick for quarterback but select a blue chip prospect at left tackle, wide receiver, or a pass rusher. It’s going to be one these kinds of guys whose building blocks are at the top of the draft and get a quarterback in the second round or maybe even in the third round.

NFL draft day is Thursday May 8th at Radio Music Hall New York City

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk radio