2019 NFL Mock Draft: Oakland Raiders select Devin White

The NFL Draft won’t be the same without Mike Mayock giving his pick-by-pick analysis on NFL Network, but the man will still play a big part in late April’s event. Now the Oakland Raiders general manager, Mayock holds the fourth overall pick in the draft, and that could be the lynchpin of how the rest of the board follows.

But for today, Mayock is not the general manager. That honor belongs to Pride of Detroit commenter jjones164. And with the fourth overall pick in the Pride of Detroit Community Mock DRaft, jjones164 has selected LSU linebacker Devin White.

Here’s the explanation straight from jjones164:

“With Josh Allen and Nick Bosa off the board at Pick 4, the Raiders options at DE don’t meet the value of the pick. With the depth at Edge in this draft, and the Raiders holding three first-round picks, they can afford to not reach for a risky edge rusher (Montez Sweat) this high in the draft. Quinnen Williams checks every box and meets the value of this pick, but DT is not as high of need as the rest of the front seven is lacking talented youth. The current starters at DT for Oakland are Maurice Hurst (turns 24 next month) and Johnathan Hankins (27).

Enter Devin White. Currently, the potential starters at LB look like Brandon Marshall, Marquel Lee, Vontaze Burfict (one-year deal) or a guy Lions fans know all too well, Tahir Whitehead. With Burfict on a one-year deal and Whitehead’s final year of his contract in 2020 being around a $7.6 million cap hit, but just above $1 million of it being dead cap space, both of them may want to hold off on buying any real estate in Nevada just yet.

White is the best inside linebacker in this draft. Maurice Hurst, selected in the fifth round in last year’s draft, free agent acquisition Johnathan Hankins, and Devin White will be the future of the middle of the Las Vegas Raiders’ defense. White is coming off his final year at LSU in which he produced 123 tackles, 12 tackles for a loss, three sacks, three forced fumbles and six pass breakups.