The Raiders took their left tackle of the future, Kolton Miller, with the 15th overall pick in this year’s draft. Their left tackle of the present wasn’t pleased.
Donald Penn, the 35-year-old who has manned the left tackle spot in Oakland the last four years, called coach Jon Gruden and demanded to know why they would use their first-round pick on a player whose likely role will be to replace Penn some day.
“I’m not going to lie, as soon as I saw the draft pick, I called Gruden immediately. Like ‘man, what the f--k?’,” Penn said on Michael Rapoport’s podcast. “He didn’t answer, but when I saw him the next Monday, he was joking with me saying, ‘You were ready to kick my ass, huh, Donald?! You were mad as a motherf--ker!’”
The Raiders would then draft another offensive tackle, Brandon Parker, in the third round. So it’s clear that they want to get younger at the position. But Gruden appears to have placated Penn by persuading him that the Raiders’ draft picks were about keeping a good offensive line in front of Derek Carr for many years to come, not about any sign that they’re losing confidence in Penn this year. Penn now says he’s working on taking the young tackles under his wing and hoping that some day, they’ll protect Carr as well as he does. Just not quite yet.
