The Las Vegas Raiders selected University of Georgia tight end Brock Bowers with the 13th overall pick of the NFL Draft late last month, but how did they end up with him?
Was it really the result of a coin flip?
That’s what new Detroit Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold recently said on The Next Round podcast, stating he was told by Raiders coach Antonio Pierce that the team flipped a coin to decide between him and Bowers.
It sounds ridiculous, right? But at the same time, why would Arnold make that up?
Well, Las Vegas general manager Tom Telesco has found some humor in the situation, while also dismissing the “report” by Arnold.
“Typically, I use a magic 8-ball and not a coin,” Telesco said during an appearance on NFL Total Access, per Bobby Kownack of NFL.com. “But no, part of that draft process, and we do this really two weeks, we’ll go through all the different scenarios of what could happen in the first round and how we would react to is and discuss it. When you’re picking 13, there aren’t that many scenarios to go through. So obviously we had gone through the scenario of players being gone and Brock Bowers is there, and we discussed in a small group — if that happened like, hey, we’re gonna take Brock. So we had gone through the process.”
Many felt that the Raiders wanted to take a quarterback at No. 13 given that they currently have Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew in their quarterback room. However, six signal-callers were taken before Las Vegas selected, and there was not another one chosen until the fifth round.
With the Raiders not having the opportunity to potentially take a franchise quarterback, they rolled with Bowers, who many have dubbed a generational talent at his position.
“On draft day, certainly in the first round and a little bit in the second round, there’s not a whole lot of discussion when you’re on the clock because you’ve already gone through the scenario of what could play out and what you’re going to do,” added Telesco. “So that’s what happened with Brock.”
So I guess the image of Telesco and Pierce literally flipping a coin to make their decision is only something dancing around in Arnold’s imagination.
Or is it?
Again, as crazy as the visual sounds, it’s equally strange for Arnold to just invent this story. Also, none of the Raiders executives are going to confirm it if it’s true. Do you know how bad that would look for the front office?
Let’s just assume that Arnold was being facetious or something.
In the end, Las Vegas ended up with Brock Bowers. That’s all that really matters.
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