Ben

Heeney

He’ll be replacing Curtis Lofton, and should be a big upgrade if Heeney carries over his work as a productive situational player into a full-time role. Heeney stood out on tape as a fifth-round rookie. “He’s smart, he’s fast and he’s relentless,’' DC Ken Norton, Jr. said. “He has a nose for the ball, very instinctive. He’s always getting better. You can’t get him out of the film room.” Heeney will wear the green dot as Oakland’s signal caller this year.

Heeney should spend 2015 developing behind MLB Curtis Lofton. He has the athleticism to back up at the WILL spot in Jack Del Rio’s scheme, running 4.59 with a 10-foot broad jump at the Combine. Heeney will get the majority of his snaps on special teams as a rookie.

Heeney (6'0/231) was a consensus first-team All-Big 12 selection in 2014, finishing his career with 35.5 tackles for loss and four INTs. He showed terrific athleticism at the Combine, running 4.59 with a 10-foot broad jump and recording top times in the shuttle and cone drills. Heeney is undersized and gambled too often in college, but shows the requisite movement skills to hold up in pass coverage and is willing to get physical. He projects best as a rangy “run-and-hit” outside ‘backer in a 4-3.

A 2015 fifth-rounder of the Raiders, Heeney has bounced around three teams in the last couple years. He played eight snaps for Houston last year.

Heeney started two of the Raiders’ first four games at middle linebacker, though he was benched for Week 3. He played just nine defensive snaps over the past two weeks. Heeney’s loss thins the Raiders’ depth, but won’t have an immediate impact on Sundays.

Heeney was a 2015 fifth-rounder of the Raiders who made five starts for Oakland before being let go at final cuts this year in the team’s linebackers overhaul.