There’s been some debate surrounding the value of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ selection of offensive tackle Anton Harrison at No. 27 overall. While picking a Jawaan Taylor replacement made sense, some thought it was a little early for the former Oklahoma tackle to come off the board.
The Las Vegas Raiders were certainly not in that boat.
Peter King of NBC Sports spent Thursday night in the Raiders’ draft room. In a column published Monday morning, he said that Las Vegas caught wind that the Arizona Cardinals — who had traded down to 12th overall earlier in the evening — were interested in trading back up into the top 10.
The Raiders owned the seventh pick and were hoping to land Ohio State offensive tackle Paris Johnson Jr. or Texas Tech pass rusher Tyree Wilson. But a potential trade with Arizona opened up a third possibility: moving down and picking Harrison at No. 12 overall.
5:42 p.m.: Cards GM Monti Ossenfort called Ziegler. Hushed discussion, presumably exchanging potential offers for the pick. Then Ziegler and McDaniels huddled. Having the 12th and 33rd overall picks, to go along with the Raiders’ 38th choice, would be tempting. “We could get [Oklahoma tackle Anton] Harrison at 12,” McDaniels said. The Raiders loved Harrison—not as much as Johnson, but enough maybe to lose the fourth non-QB they love in order to pick up the 33rd pick. They mulled.
Alas, the Raiders never got the option. The Cardinals struck a deal with the Detroit Lions for the sixth overall selection and nabbed Johnson. A pick later, Las Vegas took Wilson at seventh overall.
The Raiders didn’t pick again until the second round, but King says the started mulling a trade back into the first round due in part to Harrison still being available. That fell apart once the Jaguars took the tackle with the No. 27 pick.
But there wasn’t much enthusiasm to deal after Banks and Harrison went off the board. Ziegler made a couple of calls about moving up to fill a hole left by the trade of tight end Darren Waller with Mayer, but never got far—or appeared enthusiastic to do it.
Las Vegas eventually moved up a few picks on Friday to secure Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer.
It’s impossible to know if there were other teams that had a high opinion of Harrison, but were similarly out of position to make a move. But now there’s proof that at least one team thinks as highly about the tackle as the Jaguars do.
