By most accounts, the Oakland Raiders had a fantastic draft. Many respected media personnel gave the Raiders’ 2019 draft class excellent grades as they came away with multiple high-character players who project as Day 1 starters.

However, not everyone was impressed with the job done by first-year general manager Mike Mayock. Thor Nystrom of Rotoworld.com gave the Raiders a draft grade of “F” and ranked it last in the NFL.

While he loved the picks on Day 3, it wasn’t enough to make up for their failures on the first day of the draft. Take a look at Nystrom’s issues with the Raiders’ draft class:

I actually loved what the Raiders did on Day 3, but I refuse to bump them up to a D- for the small-potatoes stuff. Thursday night, Mike Mayock’s first day in charge of the draft, was one of the most breathtaking squanderings of draft capital that we’ve even seen on Day 1 of the draft. Mayock took a mid-first rounder at 1.4, a second-round passing-down back with 18th-percentile athleticism at 1.24*, and an athletically-limited one-trick-pony enforcer SS with 36th-percentile athleticism at 1.27 who I predict will be outperformed by more than one safety who went on Day 3.

Outside of just the selections, Nystrom had problems with the overall plan by the Raiders. He didn’t believe they took enough gambles and settled for low-risk players with low-floors, especially in the first round:

These weren’t even Las Vegas-esque high-upside gambles. Where’s the upside here? Can you envision Ferrell becoming one of the class’ top-three players 20 years down the line? Can you envision Jacobs and Abram becoming top-25 players in this class? How? At their respective positions with their respective games in the modern NFL, each would have to become superstars to qualify.

While Nystrom may be a little harsh in his grading, he does raise valid concerns. Oakland decided to gamble on three players in the first round with sub-par athleticism. That, in itself, is concerning. Typically, the best players in the NFL are the best athletes. It’s tough to envision a scenario in which any of their first-round picks become top players at their position down the road.

Luckily for Oakland, the 2019 season isn’t decided by draft grades. The picks that Mayock made will get a chance to prove him right or wrong, and in a few years, we can evaluate how he did in his first year on the job.