The Las Vegas Raiders have had a number of high-profile first-round pick draft busts in recent years but perhaps the worst one was cornerback Damon Arnette. The No. 19 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft was considered a huge reach at the time and did little to change that perception.
After a number of off-the-field controversies and very poor play on it, the Raiders decided to cut him before he even finished a second year with the team. He was able to stick in the NFL for a bit longer as he had stints on the practice squads for the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs but hasn’t been on a team in two seasons.
Despite the lack of NFL interest, Arnette is trying his hand at football again. The UFL announced on Monday that the cornerback has signed with the Houston Roughnecks. Arnette is already 28 so the chances he plays in the NFL again are very low.
However, he could carve out a multi-year run in the UFL. The league has been slowly gaining popularity since the USFL and XFL merged and they’ve been able to land some notable former NFL players. The only chance Arnette has of getting back to the NFL level is if he plays at a very high level for the Roughnecks.
Raiders Could Draft Another CB in the 1st Round
The Raiders have done a very poor job of drafting cornerbacks for over a decade now. The last four cornerbacks they used first-round picks on (Fabian Washington, D.J. Hayden, Gareon Conley and Arnette) never got second contracts with the team.
The Raiders may not have a history of evaluating cornerback talent well, but that may be the position they target in the 2025 NFL Draft. With their recent two-game winning streak, Las Vegas has dropped to No. 8 in the draft order, per Tankathon.
That likely puts them out of the range to draft a quarterback. However, they could get a good consolation prize. In a recent mock draft for CBS Sports, Josh Edwards has the Raiders landing Michigan cornerback Will Johnson with the No. 8 pick.
“Will Johnson may be the best player available when healthy and available,” Edwards wrote in a Dec. 30 mock draft. “He is a Patrick Surtain II-caliber cornerback prospect at his best. Las Vegas has struggled to find a boundary cornerback worth investing in for more than a decade.”
Johnson is the best pure cornerback prospect in the draft and many believe he’s the second-best overall player in the class. Though it would hurt not to get a quarterback, the Raiders could land a player who has the potential to be an All-Pro for a long time.
Raiders Can’t Afford More Bad Drafts
There are many reasons the Raiders haven’t won a playoff game since 2002 but the biggest reason is the fact that the team has been terrible at drafting. They’ve wasted so many first-round picks on players who never panned out.
Luckily, general manager Tom Telesco hit a home run with the Brock Bowers draft pick this year. Second-round pick Jackson Powers-Johnson and third-round pick D.J. Glaze also look like impact players. If Telesco can keep having draft success, the Raiders can turn things around quickly.
