There were good reasons that former University of Washington wide receiver Jaydon Mickens wasn’t selected in the recent NFL draft.

Mickens is considered a talented but hardly polished football player. According to the scouting report on Mickens by Lance Zierlein on NFL.com, Mickens isn’t a great route runner, waits too often for the football to arrive rather than going after it and has questionable hands and the strength to survive in the much more physical pro-football world.

Also, at 5-foot-11 and only 170 pounds, Mickens is tiny by NFL receiver standards.

But in just a short amount of time since being signed by the Raiders as an undrafted free agent, Mikens reportedly has caught the attention of the Raiders coaching staff with his quickness, speed and big-play capability.

At the Raiders’ recent rookie minicamp, Mickens stood out, wrote Eddie Paskal of Raiders.com.

“Over the past three days he’s routinely flashed his quickness and he has also shown that he could have value as a kick returner,” Paskal noted.

At Washington, certainly, Mickens was a playmaker. He had 203 career catches for the Huskies over four seasons for 2,187 yards and 12 touchdowns. He wasn’t used often as a return specialist, but does have some experience. He returned 19 kickoffs for 408 yards as a freshman (21.5-yard average) and had four punt returns at Washington for 21 yards.

Zierlein’s scouting report on Mickens notes that he is “a better athlete than football player at this time.” But his same report says Mickens’ “instant quickness” will make you “sit up in your chair during (a) tape session.”

The Raiders currently have a strong cast of wide receivers with Amari Cooper, Michael Crabtree, Seth Roberts and Andre Holmes, along with Andre Debose and another undrafted free agent, Max McCaffrey. But with some coaching and improvement, Mickens could give Oakland a dangerous extra option and, perhaps, some explosiveness as a returner.

“Plays as fast as he can at all times,” noted Zierlein, who also wrote that he has “blazing acceleration” and the ability to simply jet past cornerbacks on deep routes. Mickens will present an interesting story in training camp, once he puts on a helmet and pads and goes against physical NFL defensive backs.