Jermod McCoy's troubling but understandable draft slide ends with Raiders' fourth-round selection

He's got a major medical red flag that made picking him simply too risky for all 32 teams. And that's the way things went through the first, second and third rounds until the Raiders stepped out in the fourth round with the 101st pick to select McCoy.

And, let's be clear, this is a gamble by general manager John Spytek for a team that plays in a city built on gambling.

On the one hand, McCoy is supremely gifted. But...

The graft procedure is called an osteochondral graft.

The problem with this is if McCoy were ever to face a situation where he needs another surgery to address the issue, he would be facing a new graft procedure, an extensive recovery and possibly a career-threatening situation.

And here's the worst part: some clubs believed McCoy would indeed be requiring another surgery, per league sources, not to address the ACL but for the so-called plug that would definitely cost him a full year of rehabilitation and possibly worse.

That caused them to take McCoy off their draft board entirely while other teams dropped him significantly.

"Draft McCoy in the top 10 or the first half of the first round, you want to make sure he can play at least five years and that he's not going to start heading downhill," Chao said. "That's where the worry is on him."

The Raiders are betting their doctors know more than the doctors on other teams. Or they're comfortable that McCoy's grand potential outweighs his medical concerns.

They are judging ability versus durability and thinking there is more of the former than the latter with Jermod McCoy.