With the scouts out of the building, the Oakland Raiders are running new general manager Mike Mayock through several pre-draft rehearsals.
NFL Network's Michael Silver reported Tuesday that the team put Mayock through some practice drafts designed to prepare the new GM to make quick decisions under pressure in his first draft with the team.
Per Silver, on Monday the team placed Mayock and coach Jon Gruden in one room while coaches and the few remaining personnel people left in the building were in another room. Mayock and Gruden performed the role of the Raiders while those in the other room each acted as managers of different teams.
They then went through a mock draft, operating a standard clock used during the draft, with coaches/personnel people playing the roles of other GMs throwing proposed trade scenarios at Mayock over the phone and making picks and decisions for their respective teams while Mayock oversaw the Raiders' hypothetical operation.
It's not atypical for teams to run through mock drafts with their personnel staffs ahead of the draft to try to get a feel for what other teams might do and what players could fall to their position. It's slightly different if the main goal, as reported, is to ensure the GM is prepared for the pace of play on Thursday night and into the weekend.
The Raiders' preparation makes sense considering Mayock spent the past 15 years working with NFL Network, not in a draft room.
Oakland will run through the test-drive drafts a few more times over the next couple of days, per Silver.
As for Mayock's initial selections in this mock with three first-round selections and an early second-rounder:
