If you haven’t made your peace with the Raiders drafting Damon Arnette in the first round, follow along for a few minutes. You might change your mind.

By now you’ve probably heard the knocks on Arnette. Fantasy footballer and prospect analyst Evan Silva summed them up well in his column on Sunday.

“Arnette is old for a rookie (24 in September), slow for a cornerback (4.56), and was removed from several teams’ boards due to off-field concerns. My guess is the Raiders panicked after the Falcons reached for A.J. Terrell three picks before,” Evan Silva (EstablishTheRun) wrote this week.

Who knows why teams would take Arnette off the board for off-field issues because he has no known legal matters following him to the NFL. He has never been arrested. And his coaches at Ohio State have been glowing about the way he matured after his junior year.

Hard-nosed and tough? Yeah, Arnette is both of those, but he’s also a team player and hardly a menace to society.

As for the speed issue that keeps coming up, don’t be surprised if the Raiders pounced on a player they knew was much faster than his combine time. According to former NFL wide receiver Cris Carter, Arnette was dealing with a hamstring issue leading up to the combine – which would explain his modest 4.56 forty time.

“He’s got better game speed than he showed at the combine,” Carter said of Arnette. “He was dealing with a couple things. He had a hamstring and a back issue that I believe he runs a lot faster than that combine time.”

Pro Football Hall of Fame on Twitter HOF WR @criscarter80 shares his insight on #19 overall pick and fellow Buckeye, CB @damon_arnette. #NFLDraft | @OhioStateFB https://t.co/UHmntxD3hw

If that’s not enough, how about this. At Ohio State, Arnette actually posted a better top speed than Terry McLaurin as a redshirt sophomore. McLaurin would go on to post a 4.35 forty-time at the 2019 combine.

So Arnette isn’t slow.

If anything, the lack of a pro day likely ended up hurting Arnette’s stock (with most teams) because he never had a chance to post a better 40 time. Good for him that the Raiders didn’t hold that against him.

All that being said… maybe Arnette was more of a first-round prospect than he’s being given credit. For weeks we’ve been talking about the better scouting departments gaining an advantage from this year’s minimized scouting process. Maybe the Raiders just happened to be one of those teams.

twitter: @raidersbeat