Ten things to know about the Raiders’ 2021 draft class as selected by coach Jon Gruden and general manager Mike Mayock:

Myth of the `best available player’ takes a hit

How about “best available player at a position of need” instead.

You’d have to live on another planet not to know the Raiders needed to come out of the draft with a starting right tackle and a starting free safety.

Here comes Alex Leatherwood in the first round and Trevon Moherig in the second.

The Raiders had to upgrade a defense that gave up a staggering 473 points and supply new coordinator Gus Bradley with some speed and explosive athletes.

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So they took edge rusher Malcolm Koonce in the third round, weak side linebacker Divine Deablo in the fourth on Friday, then on Saturday selected safety Tyree Gillespie and cornerback Nate Hobbs.

The two who weren’t defensive players, Leatherwood and Pitt center Jimmy Morrissey (seventh round) joined a unit that was depleted after the trades of Rodney Hudson, Gabe Jackson and Trent Brown.

The Raiders didn’t need any skill position players (quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end) so they didn’t take any. That’s never happened in the history of the franchise.

Experience mattered

Each of the Raiders seven draft picks played between 39 and 51 games, totaling 306 games with 226 starts.

It began with Leatherwood (48 games, 41 starts) and ended with Pitt enter Jimmy Morrissey, who started all 47 games in his college career.

In a pre-draft conference call, Mayock said players who opted out of the 2020 season with pandemic concerns would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

In every case through the first six picks, the Raiders went with players who played in 2020. Not an opt-out in the bunch.

Mayock cited the uncertainty of the off-season and training camp and said he and Gruden determined the best plan of attack was to gain as much information as possible through game tape. Players with experience have a lot of tape.

“All that tape, all that history, the ability to talk to coaches that were there and see guys who played 30, 40, 50 games meant a lot this year to us,” Mayock said.

Loving some Leatherwood

The Raiders were considered the lone ranger in their assessment of Leatherwood, given the social media firestorm created by taking their new right tackle  at No. 17 overall.

The Raiders were mocked often with the likes of Christian Darrisaw, Alijah Vera-Tucker and Teven Jenkins and were considered too far down in the draft order to have any shot at Penei Sewell or Rashawn Slater.

Mayock said flatly that Leatherwood was the highest ranked tackle on their board at No. 17, which seems like a legitimate claim given that they bypassed Darrisaw (No. 23 to Minnesota) and Jenkins (No. 39 to Chicago).

It goes farther. Mayock didn’t say it, but my understanding is that the Raiders believed Leatherwood was the best tackle on the board — including Sewell (No. 8 to Detroit), Slater (No. 13 to the Chargers) and Vera-Tucker (No. 14 to the Jets as a guard).

Not coincidentally, Sewell, Slater and Vera-Tucker were all opt-outs in 2020.

The Leatherwood pick will undoubtedly torpedo the nonsensical “grades” of the Raiders draft (before anyone has ever played a game). Which is amusing considering if they’d drafted Moehrig first and Leatherwood second, they’d have gotten a better grade with the same two players.

As much as I love my family, some are convinced they can diagnose symptoms like doctors because of what they read on WebMD. And sometimes they’re even right. But that doesn’t make them doctors any more than armchair general managers who don’t work in NFL and have spent a fraction of the amount of time evaluating talent.

Hopping on the Gus bus

The Raiders went above and beyond in terms of effort in supplying new defensive coordinator Gus Bradley  the kind of young talent that fits his scheme.

Moehrig to play center field alongside Johnathan Abram. Another strong safety in Gillespie to go along with Karl Joseph, both of whom will push Abram. A second sleek pass rusher in Koonce of Buffalo (third round) to join big ticket free agent Yannick Ngakoue. A potential slot corner in Hobbs where there is only Amik Robertson and Nevin Lawson.

Then there’s Divine Deablo (fourth round), a player who will be classified as a weakside linebacker but could be creatively employed in different packages to take advantage of his speed.

Bradley will have the tools to make the defense faster and more explosive. Now it’s up to him to remake the worst defense in modern franchise history.

A star is born

Whether or not Hobbs emerges as something special remains to be seen, but he was an instant media star during his video conference. Grateful and enthusiastic, Hobbs thoughtfully told his story, which included losing his father at age 12, a father-figure in his uncle last season an his grandmother to cancer.

“My mother, she raised me, my little brother, my little sister, my big brother on 25 thousand dollars a year under one roof,” Hobbs said. “I’ve had to deal with adversity. I’ve had four college position coaches at Illinois. None of that can stop me. God put me in this position for a reason. As long as I’m not dead, I’m still here. I’m going to keep going.”

Pressure on previous classes

The first-year struggles of last year’s draft class — Henry Ruggs III and Damon Arnette in particular — as well necessary improvement in other young players will have more to do with how the Raiders fare than the seven players they just selected.

“I think that’s a huge part of it,” Mayock said. “I’ve talked to some of our guys from the last two draft classes, especially last year. Our production has got to be better. We’ve got to get a bounce from that group last year on both sides of the ball. In the defensive backfield, I think John Abram is going to have a big year. He’s in here working his tail off. Same with Arnette.”

Quarterbacks? No thanks

When the draft rolls around next year and  you start reading about all these quarterbacks Gruden is making eyes at, don’t believe it.

Another year, no quarterbacks selected. He’s fine with starter Derek Carr, of course, but beyond that, training rookies just isn’t his thing. He pushed for Marques Tuiasosopo during his first go-round with the Raiders in the second round and other than that it was Chris Simms, Bruce Gradkowski and Josh Johnson in Tampa Bay. And that’s it.

When and if he replaces Carr, expect it to be with a veteran, although stepping into the Aaron Rodgers soap opera seems pretty unlikely.

What’s up with Uncle Sherm?

Various reports have the Raiders still in the mix for veteran cornerback Richard Sherman, with the 49ers and Seahawks also in play. Sherman of course, chopped it up with Gruden on Cris Collinsworth’s podcast which resulted in semi-paranoid accusations of tampering.

No doubt dropping Sherman into the meeting room with the secondary would benefit the group as a whole. The question is whether he can still play at a high enough level to make it worth bringing aboard all that leadership.

Asked about the Raiders level of interest, Mayock declined comment.

Where’s Gruden?

Gruden never appeared at any of the video conferences, nor did he make any television guest shots on either ESPN or the NFL Network.

So he couldn’t be asked about going through an entire draft without drafting any skill position players on offense.

“Does Jon want to talk about a quarterback or a wideout? Of course he does,” Mayock said. “I love that. That’s what it’s supposed to be about. Jon Gruden’s an offensive guy, but we did we do all weekend? We tried to help our defense get better. I give him a ton of credit for that. He was all-in.”

COVID concerns

Mayock did his best to hide his frustration over COVID-19 regulations and the offseason after catching enough glimpses of the festivities in Cleveland with fans everywhere.

“The biggest question right now is the uncertainties of the offseason training program,” Mayock said. “Everybody in the league feels great today. Everybody got a little better. There’s a lot of optimism. But we all want to get back to normal. We’re allowed 20 people in rookie minicamp. We still can’t meet in person. We can have hundreds of thousands of fans in Cleveland, but for some reason we can’t meet in person in these buildings.”