Dave Ziegler: Best Player Available Mentality During Draft

Raiders General Manager Dave Ziegler emphasized multiple times that the draft worked itself out how it worked itself out.

As we’ve covered extensively here at Sports Illustrated’s Raider Maven, Las Vegas Raiders General Manager Dave Ziegler ran on the best player available mentality and plan throughout the 2022 NFL Draft.

The fact that there were two running backs, two offensive linemen and two defensive linemen was because that’s simply how the draft worked itself out.

“I would say that's exactly how it played out,” Ziegler said at the post-draft press conference. “Those were the players who at that time we felt were the best available players, and so we took those players.

“That's the philosophy that we talked about going in that we wanted to stick to. That's what we did, and that's where we ended up at those spots.”

When it came to whether the Raiders drafted with a scheme in mind, that wasn’t it either. Ziegler continued to emphasize that it was simply how the draft worked itself out.

“I don't think it was a theme we saw coming in, that's just how it ended up working out," Ziegler said. "Those were the players who were available.

“Just like (Coach) Josh (McDaniels) said, everybody has certain types of players that you look for, right? Certain teams like a certain style of -- whether it be a certain style of running back, a certain style of offensive lineman, defensive lineman, corner, whatever it is.

“Those are going to maybe drive in terms of what we like maybe versus what someone else values. But at the end of the day, we didn't go in and set out a plan and say, 'Hey, we're going to draft interior linemen and interior offensive linemen and power running backs.'

“That's how it kind of came together. Those were the players who were there. Those are the players who we felt fit the system, and then we selected them.”

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