Despite the fact that there a consensus on who the Raiders should or would select at the 14th overall pick could not be found prior to the 2016 draft, one of the players who was mentioned quite a bit was Clemson's Shaq Lawson. Some believed him to be the second best 4-3 defensive end in the draft and a top ten pick.
Not only was Lawson not chosen in the top ten, he fell all the way to the 19th overall pick when the Bills grabbed him. Now we could be seeing why that happened -- he had a shoulder injury that will require surgery.
Lawson will have his surgery tomorrow and the hope is that he will be able to return in time for the start of the regular season. Said the Bills in a statement:
"The Buffalo Bills are taking measures to prevent the possibility of Shaq Lawson aggravating a pre-existing shoulder condition during the season. Whle he could continue to play, the Bills medical staff has determined that surgery is the best course of action for the overall health of his shoulder moving forward. He had an occurrence of the condition last week, but that would not preclude him from participating in the offseason program. Shaq is scheduled for surgery tomorrow on his shoulder with a rehabilitation program to follow. A timetable for his return is still being established."
This is not to say every team that passed on drafting Lawson did so because of his shoulder. The Raiders, for instance, drafted Karl Joseph, who will miss the offseason while he continues to rehab his injured knee. He is expected to return for training camp, perhaps even take the field the first day of camp. Also the return of Mario Edwards Jr, who was cleared to return from his neck injury, made defensive end less of a need than safety.
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