The Oakland Raiders ranked Colin Kaepernick as their No. 1 quarterback in the 2011 NFL Draft ahead of #1 overall pick Cam Newton, Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert,Christian Ponder and Andy Dalton and every other quarterback in the draft.
The Raiders had no first round pick in 2011 after losing it to the Patriots in a prior years trade. According to former Raiders head coach Hue Jackson, the Raiders were dead set on trading up in the second round to draft Kaepernick.
The Raiders were unable to move up and select Kaepernick, losing out to the 49ers for his services. The rest of course is Super Bowl history, and Jackson told Sports Illustrated’s Peter King that “it haunts him everyday.”
“Coach Jackson told me before the draft they were going to do everything they could to try to get me,” Kaepernick told King. “I thought there was a good chance they’d pick me. I never heard anything from the 49ers before the draft after I worked out for them (at Nevada). I just figured they weren’t interested.”
Rumor has it that Raiders owner Al Davis was so furious at losing out on Kaepernick that he reportedly threw a glass across the room.
“I don’t know that he threw anything,” Jackson said. “But he was upset. So was I. Scouting him, I fell in love with the kid. Leader, won a ton of games at Nevada, really impressive when you talked to him, strong, all the tools to win in the NFL. No doubt in my mind he was going to be good.”
The inability of Raiders brass to simply give up the pick that became Stefan Wisniewski tells you everything you need to know about the Oakland Raiders.
The Raiders because of not want to part with that pick, got Wisniewski, Demarcus Van Dyke, who’s no longer on the roster, and Terrelle Pryor.
Enough said.
