It's time for potential draft prospects to visit teams for private workouts.
Every year, teams are allowed to have 30 prospects visit their team facility for private workouts and interviews.
The reason these workouts are often overlooked is because what happens in team facilities is an unknown. Prospects may conduct interviews, run combine-like drills for coaches, or may even run routes and catch balls from the team's QB.
Furthermore, it's easy for the media to miss what prospects are scheduled to visit the facility. And that fourth round WR prospect out of Florida or that third round DE prospect out of Wisconsin can easily slip in and out of the Raiders facility without anyone as much as recognizing them—a local reporter may even walk right past them without giving them a look.
And every year, at least a few of those players end up on the rosters of the teams they visited.
By following what players visit your team, you can better predict who they will draft, or at least what direction they are planning on going in the draft.
Take the Raiders for example. In the last 10 years, out of their 11 first round draft picks, there is only one who didn't visit the Raiders for a private workout—Michael Huff.
By some accounts, Al Davis was against drafting Michael Huff and wanted Jay Cutler who went four picks later, but Art Shell was able to convince him otherwise.
Last year, two first round receiver prospects visited Oakland: Jeremey Maclin and Darius Hayward-Bey. That made it pretty clear that the Raiders were planning on picking a receiver in the first round, and Michael Crabtree wasn't even being considered. Tho...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Oakland Raiders
