Chaz Schilens wasn’t the first wide receiver the Oakland Raiders drafted this year. But he is the first to sign with the team.
The former San Diego State wideout never had more than 35 catches in his Aztec career, but he has measurables that would make any scouting department drool. And we’re talking about the Raiders, for whom a 40-yard dash time is just as important as any season’s stat line.
The 6-foot-4, 225-pounder is the tallest of any wideout on Oakland’s roster, signed or unsigned, and the second heaviest, losing out only to undrafted free agent Marcel Reece (240 pounds) -- who is a longshot to make the final roster. At his on-campus workout, Schilens ran the 40 in 4.38 seconds and recorded a 43-inch vertical.
Naturally, then, Oakland opted to make the 22-year-old its third draft pick signed, ahead of fellow wide receiver draftee Arman Shields -- who was taken three rounds and 101 picks before Schilens.
No terms of the deal were announced.
Oakland’s negotiations with the athletic wideout, though, aren’t a great sign for the 6-1, 195-pound Shields. The Raiders open up their training camp in Napa on Wednesday, and Shields is now just one of two drafted rookies to not have a contract. The other is former Buffalo defensive end Trevor Scott, a sixth-rounder.
Ignoring draft position is no new thing for the Raiders’ front office, which opted to cut third-round defensive end Quentin Moses last offseason in favor of fifth-round DE Jay Richardson.
Schilens will now immediately be thrust into action competing for a wideout spot deep on Oakland’s depth chart, likely looking to upset second-year player Johnnie Lee Higgins as the team’s fourth or fifth receiver.
Coming out of college, Schilens was pegged as a very raw prospect. Though he possesses great size and speed, the Lancaster, Calif., native has struggled in his route running and blocking abilities, and also been exposed as a less-than-stellar pass catcher down the middle of the field.
He does, however, possess the ability to go up and get the jump ball, which is something the Raiders looked for last season when they traded for ex-Detroit Lions first-rounder Mike Williams. That experiment, to say the very least, didn’t work out.
In his last three years with San Diego State, Schilens caught 103 balls for 1,603 yards and seven TDs.
“As far as number wise, they weren’t the greatest,”
Schilens said of his college numbers after being drafted. “But I consistently took steps forward to make myself better. You just have to keep working. You’ve got to work through some stuff. Everyone goes through it -- injuries and whatnot.”
With a contract already written up and signed, the hopeful wideout can now worry a little less about the past and more on the future. Though, he was always confident that his future would somehow involve a career with the silver and black.
“I had written down the top teams I was interested in, and the Raiders were at the top of the list,”
Schilens said.
“I’m glad they picked me and it ended up this way. I think I would have been coming here either way to be honest with you.”
