The Rome report

One of my favorite sporting events of the year is the NFL Draft. There is just something about watching teams pick guys out of college.

But whenever the Raiders are on the clock, I get a sick feeling in my stomach. I just know that the Raiders are going to do something that makes me scratch my head.

This year was no different.

With Oakland on the clock, there were still marquee players on the board like Texas Tech wide receiver Michael Crabtree, Virginia offensive tackle Eugene Monroe, Missouri wide receiver Jeremy Macklin and Boston College defensive tackle B.J. Raji.

Instead of taking one of those players, the Raiders decided to take Maryland wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey.

That’s right, Darrius Heyward-Bey.

When the pick was announced I slapped my head and groaned in agony.

Come on!!! Darrius Heyward-Bey!?

No offense to Heyward-Bey but he was, at best, the fifth-best wide receiver in the draft behind Crabtree, Macklin, Florida’s Percy Harvin and North Carolina’s Hakeem Nicks. There were some people who even had Rutgers’ Kenny Britt ahead of Heyward-Bey.

The only reason Heyward-Bey went that high was because he ran the fastest 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine. Heyward-Bey ran the 40 in 4.3 seconds and that’s all Raiders owner Al Davis needed to know.

The one thing that Al Davis covets in his wide receivers is speed and while Heyward-Bey certainly has that, Crabtree, Macklin and Harvin have enough speed to get it done in the NFL.

But you can’t blame Heyward-Bey for being picked seventh. You have to blame Davis.

No other team had Heyward-Bey in their top 20 of overall players except the Raiders and that is why the Raiders, along with the Lions, are the laughing stock of the NFL.

I know that it sounds bad but the Raiders will not return to the NFL’s elite until Davis dies.

The reason I say this is because all decisions go through Davis and he is not going to relinquish control to someone else.

Davis has shown that he doesn’t have the ability to make sound football decisions.

If Davis liked Heyward-Bey that much, he could have traded down with another team, acquired more picks and still could have gotten Heyward-Bey around the 25th or 26th pick.

I could have dealt with that. While I still would have been disappointed with the pick of Heyward-Bey, at least the Raiders would have gotten more picks out of the deal.

Even if the Raiders couldn’t find anyone to trade out of the seventh spot with, they could have taken another player seventh and traded back into the first round to take Heward-Bey later.

Those options would have been better than taking Heyward-Bey seventh overall.

But I will get over it. I am still a Raiders fan. The only thing I can do is hope Heyward-Bey turns out better than I think he will and prepare for Davis to strike again.