2012 NFL Draft Projections: Teams Who Will Find Gems with Supplemental Picks

The National Football League dispensed 32 supplemental picks in the 2012 NFL Draft on Monday, and it's now up to the teams that received those picks in return for the loss of free agents to turn those extra bites at the apple into solid contributors for their squads.

For the Oakland Raiders, receiving an additional three picks was a gigantic boon, as the team had no picks in the first four rounds, so receiving third-round (95th overall) and fourth-round (129th overall) selections in addition to a fifth-round pick (168th overall) should afford new Oakland general manager Reggie McKenzie an opportunity to improve the team through the draft.

The Raiders are a team with numerous needs on both sides of the ball, most notably at the offensive skill positions and in the secondary, so it's vitally important that McKenzie and the Raiders make the most of the compensation they received for the loss of cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, tight end Zach Miller and offensive lineman Robert Gallery.



With running back Michael Bush now in Chicago, the Raiders definitely need to acquire a running back to complement the talented but oft-injured Darren McFadden, and the Raiders could replace one bruising runner with another by using their third-round choice on Temple running back Bernard Pierce, who punished opposing defenses to the tune of nearly 1,500 rushing yards and an eye-popping 27 touchdowns in 2011.

Oakland could then turn to the defensive backfield in the fourth round, as four games against Philip Rivers and Peyton Manning will sorely test a pass defense that allowed more touchdown passes than all but one team in the National Football League last year.

A cornerback such as Donnie Fletcher of Boston College should be available at the tail end of the fourth round. Fletcher struggled a bit at the Senior Bowl in January and somewhat surprisingly did not receive an invitation to the NFL Scouting Combine.

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