SB Nation 2018 draft do-over has Raiders landing the player they wanted all along

It’s that time of year when the draft do-over pieces emerge. What if each team had drafted as they should have drafted based on what we know? Things would have been a lot different. The fallout, according to SB Nation’s re-draft is the Raiders would land the guy they wanted from the beginning — offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey.

As we all know, the Raiders missed out on McGlinchey because the 49ers — who won the coin toss between the two teams — took him with the pick before them. In the draft do-over, the domino effect of that starts much earlier with — who else— the Browns at 4th overall.

The Browns surprised a lot of people by taking Denzel Ward at fourth overall. The draft do-over has them taking safety Derwin James instead.

As you might recall, James was the player who was on the board when the Raiders picked at 10th overall who many thought they should have taken. He was also on the board after the Raiders traded down to 15, but they had their sights set on getting a tackle so they took Kolton Miller, allowing James to fall into the laps of division rival Chargers.

In the re-do, with the Browns taking James, that not only eliminates the Raiders responsibility for not drafting him, but it leaves Denzel Ward on the board. Ward remains on the board at 9th overall where the 49ers take him instead of McGlinchey and therefore the Raiders get the guy they wanted all along, though, shockingly at 15th overall in this case.

McGlinchey’s slide ends at pick 15, where Oakland gets a major upgrade over the inconsistent Miller. The Notre Dame product was a powerful tackle in Santa Clara, earning high marks from Pro Football Focus and creating the space that allowed three different 49ers quarterbacks to have big games. He was also a standout run blocker, creating the holes that helped Matt Breida run for 5.3 yards per touch last year. McGlinchey played right tackle as a rookie and left tackle in his senior year at Notre Dame, meaning he’s a flexible fit alongside 2019 addition Trent Brown — another guy with experience on both sides of the line.

The do-over gets that one detail wrong. The Raiders never would have traded down to 15 had McGlinchey been there. Either way, they get him. And since in real life they just threw away the 3rd round pick they got for the trade down, we can all just pretend they never had it and call it even.