Draft analyst on Raiders’ 1st-round preference: ‘Roquan Smith is the guy’
Updated 1:02 pm, Wednesday, April 18, 2018
The Raiders have been widely projected to target an inside linebacker with their first-round pick in the upcoming NFL Draft.
NaVorro Bowman, their starting middle linebacker for the second half of last season, remains a free agent and the Raiders don’t have a clear long-term successor at the position.
Georgia’s Roquan Smith and Virginia Tech’s Tremaine Edmunds are considered the two best inside linebackers in this year’s draft class. But according to ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay, there’s no question which player the Raiders would prefer to land April 26.
“Roquan Smith is the guy,” McShay said on a conference call Wednesday morning. “I don’t know that they would be willing to give away additional picks later to go up and get him. But he’s the guy they want.”
Smith (6-1, 236) won the Butkus Award as the nation’s top linebacker in his final college season when he recorded 137 tackles, 6.5 sacks and 14 tackles for loss. He was also named the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year and Defensive MVP of the Rose Bowl, where he had 11 tackles and displayed his coveted instincts and sideline-to-sideline ability.
The question, as McShay indicated, is whether Smith would be available when the Raiders pick at No. 10. Among other teams that may covet Smith are the Colts (No. 6) and the Bears (No. 8). Then there’s the 49ers (No. 9), who suddenly have a potential need at inside linebacker given the legal issues of 2017 first-round pick Reuben Foster.
Because the Raiders don’t have extra picks in the early rounds, trying to swing a trade to move up in the first round could be difficult or costly.
“Again, I don’t know that they want to move up and go get him,” McShay said. “But I do know that there’s a lot of love for Roquan Smith in that building.”
“There are several teams that are interested in Roquan. They think he’s going to be kind of a ‘face-of-a-defense’ type player. And I agree. I think he’s special. I think Luke Kuechly, that type of impact right away and for many years on your defense. I compare him to Jonathan Vilma, who’s obviously not in the league anymore, but that type of player.”
Draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah of the NFL Network recently made another flattering comparison for Smith, likening him to Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks, who played under now-Raiders head coach Jon Gruden in Tampa Bay.
“To me, you look at the Bay Area teams, 9 and 10, that makes a lot of sense for (Smith) there,” Jeremiah said on a conference call last week.
“You look at Jon Gruden having been around Derrick Brooks, I would think he could see a little bit of Derrick Brooks in a guy like Roquan Smith, so that makes sense there.”
McShay said he has heard two other potential players linked to the Raiders in the first round: Edmunds, who’s considered a remarkable athlete but perhaps less polished than Smith, and Vita Vea, the versatile defensive tackle from Milpitas who played at Washington.
Matt Kawahara is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mkawahara@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matthewkawahara