The NFL Draft isn’t just about picking the most talented player. If it were, Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy would have been selected on Thursday. Instead, his massive slide out of the first round didn’t end until the Las Vegas Raiders picked him in the fourth round on Saturday.
So why is it that a player with an elite draft profile that includes big plays on tape, size, speed and ball skills didn't get a whiff of attention during the draft's first two days?
He's got a major medical red flag that made picking him simply too risky for all 32 teams. And that's the way things went through the first, second and third rounds until the Raiders stepped out in the fourth round with the 101st pick to select McCoy.
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And, let's be clear, this is a gamble by general manager John Spytek for a team that plays in a city built on gambling.
On the one hand, McCoy is supremely gifted. But...
He suffered a torn ACL at the end of the 2024 college football season, had surgery in January 2025 and then missed the entire 2025 season. That wasn't the worst part.
General manager John Spytek of the Las Vegas Raiders looks on before a game against the Cleveland Browns at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Nov. 23, 2025. (Chris Unger/Getty Images)
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McCoy suffered from what former San Diego Chargers (back then) team doctor David Chao told OutKick is "full thickness cartilage damage." That previously required a "plug" that is grafted into the bone and cartilage of the same knee that also had the ACL damage.
The graft procedure is called an osteochondral graft.
The problem with this is if McCoy were ever to face a situation where he needs another surgery to address the issue, he would be facing a new graft procedure, an extensive recovery and possibly a career-threatening situation.
And here's the worst part: some clubs believed McCoy would indeed be requiring another surgery, per league sources, not to address the ACL but for the so-called plug that would definitely cost him a full year of rehabilitation and possibly worse.
The Las Vegas Raiders' first overall pick card is displayed during Round One of the 2026 NFL Draft at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 23, 2026. (Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
That caused them to take McCoy off their draft board entirely while other teams dropped him significantly.
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"Draft McCoy in the top 10 or the first half of the first round, you want to make sure he can play at least five years and that he's not going to start heading downhill," Chao said. "That's where the worry is on him."
The Raiders were obviously comfortable enough with whatever medical information they have on McCoy to pick him. They actually exchanged spots with the Buffalo Bills and gave up a 2027 seventh-round pick to boot in order to select McCoy.
The Raiders are betting their doctors know more than the doctors on other teams. Or they're comfortable that McCoy's grand potential outweighs his medical concerns.
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They are judging ability versus durability and thinking there is more of the former than the latter with Jermod McCoy.
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Armando Salguero is OutKick's Senior NFL Writer.
