Oakland Raiders fans, when faced with defending their team over the Khalil Mack and Amari Cooper trades, always said the trades couldn’t be judged until we saw what the Raiders got in return.

We won’t fully know what the Raiders got from those trades until after next year’s draft, when the rest of the Mack trade haul is used. But we got a good look on Thursday night.

How you grade the Raiders’ first round of the draft probably depends on how closely you follow predraft rankings, and your thoughts on the positional value of running backs and in-the-box safeties. But without much question, coach Jon Gruden still doesn’t care about doing things in a conventional way. The guy who said he was going to “take the game back to 1998” was on brand Thursday.

The Raiders started the night with a haymaker, taking Clemson defensive end Clelin Ferrell at No. 4 overall. You won’t find many mock drafts that had Ferrell anywhere near No. 4. He was usually projected to go near the middle of the first round. Ferrell is a good player, a productive two-way end from a great Clemson team. But it seemed like a reach, and a pick looking at a safe, high floor rather than a large upside. Maybe the Raiders couldn’t find a partner to trade down, and had to take the player they liked best. Ferrell will certainly be compared going forward to other defenders like Ed Oliver and Josh Allen, who Oakland passed.

Then came the running back.

Drafting a running back in the first round is an old-school strategy, and Gruden has never shied away from being old school. Alabama running back Josh Jacobs was the first (and only) back taken in the first round, at No. 24. That’s a pick obtained in the Mack trade. The Raiders needed a back, with Marshawn Lynch reportedly retiring. Jacobs was clearly the best running back prospect in this class. He should be productive. But for a 4-12 team with a lot of needs, it seemed smarter to invest elsewhere.

The Raiders’ next pick, which came from the Cowboys for Cooper, was hard-hitting Mississippi safety Johnathan Abram. Most teams aren’t as high anymore on safeties like Abram, whose best work comes near the line of scrimmage. Another old-school pick. Abram is more than just a thumping safety; he can cover and has great athleticism. He seems like the type of football-first player Gruden and GM Mike Mayock would like. He should also be productive. But it’s a pick that probably would have seemed like more of a fit during Gruden’s first time as a head coach in the NFL years ago.

“I don’t care where people ranked him. Clelin Ferrell for us is a foundation player,” Mayock said on NFL Network after the first round. “He’s a building block. As is Jacobs. As is Abram. And their football character’s off the chart. And we also think that their football-playing ability’s off the charts.

“We’re trying to tell our locker room what Jon Gruden and I believe in. And it’s physicality and it’s toughness and it’s a passion for the game. It’s high football IQ. That’s what we want to be all about. Those three picks were really important to both Jon and I. I think we sent a message, and I think we’re really excited about the players we’re getting.”

This is what Gruden got from what will be an enormously important first round in his second Raiders tenure: a defensive end who he probably reached on; a running back in a league that rarely drafts running backs in the first round anymore; and a strong safety.

Does that draft haul make the Mack and Cooper trades worth it? Probably not. Though we’ll see what the Raiders do with the Bears’ first-round pick next year (Oakland also has a sixth-round pick from Chicago this year and the Bears’ 2020 third-round pick, too). But if Gruden is going to turn things around in Oakland, that trio he drafted Thursday night has to be a big part of the rebuild. And we were reminded on Thursday that Gruden is going to do things his way. That means his old-school methods will be put to the test.

Jon Gruden's turnaround of the Oakland Raiders has to start with his 2019 draft class. (AP) More

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