The Las Vegas Raiders were rumored to have tossed a coin to decide who would be their first pick of the 2024 NFL Draft. The team ended up selecting Brock Bowers, the top tight end prospect, but it was rumored that they did that off a coin toss.
The pick was supposedly going to be either Brock Bowers or Terrion Arnold. Brock was taken and Arnold ended up getting drafted to the Detroit Lions. Arnold later revealed that the Raiders called him and told him that it was a coin flip between him and Bowers.
How did the Raiders decide between drafting Terrion Arnold and Brock Bowers?
A coin flip. pic.twitter.com/oHAcFeeyIx
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) May 7, 2024
Las Vegas Raiders’ Antonio Pierce Denies Coin Flip Pick
After the story of the coin flip went viral, head coach Antonio Pierce denied it, saying that the pick was always going to be Brock.
Pierce, while talking to ESPN’s Ryan Clark, said that this was not true and that they knew they wanted Bowers the moment that all the quarterbacks went off the board. After Michael Penix Jr. and J.J. McCarthy got taken Pierce knew they were bringing in Bowers:
“As soon as the last two quarterbacks went off the board, we said Bowers all the way,” Pierce told Clark.
Peirce said that the Raiders had Bowers all the way and that they knew he was the pick before the team was on the clock. He is also not the only one to refute Arnold’s story that they made a coin flip.
Raiders assistant general manager Champ Kelly told reporters Wednesday that he “can’t confirm” the coin flip story. He was “excited” to draft Bowers.
It may just be that a Raiders representative wanted to make Arnold feel better, and he was speaking metaphorically to Arnold that it was a coin toss between the two players. Arnold may have taken that literally and thought the Raiders front office actually tossed a coin to decide their first overall draft pick, highly unlikely.
Either way, the Raiders seemed to have really wanted a quarterback in the draft. The team can really use one to compete in their juggernaut of a division that features that back to back champions. The team released their long time starter Derek Carr last year and followed that up with moving on from Jimmy Garoppolo.
They did not draft any quarterbacks in this years draft, so they sit with Gardner Minshew or Aidan O’Connell to start for the team in this season. They passed on Arnold but they did pick cornerbacks later on in the draft in Decamerion Richardson and MJ Devonshire in the fourth and seventh rounds, respectively.
The Lions ended traded up for Arnold in the first round at pick No. 23.