THE NFL DRAFT : Rams, Raiders Try to Hurry Up Offenses : Another Heisman Winner to Wear Silver and Black

Al Davis receiveth and Al Davis taketh away, too. Five competitors choosing above him donated another Heisman winner to his collection Sunday, after which he finished maneuvering himself into two more No. 1 picks, even if the draftniks declared one a reach and the other a puzzlement.

For better of worse, they’re all rookie Raiders now. Say hello to the top of their class of ‘88:

1A--Wide receiver Tim Brown, the Heisman Trophy winner from Notre Dame.

1B--Cornerback Terry McDaniel, the hot prospect/reach from Tennessee.

1C--Defensive end Scott Davis, the physical prodigy/underachiever from Illinois.

Dispatched into ex-Raiderdom in this whirlwind of activity was local favorite Dokie Williams, sent to the 49ers as part of a package for the Scott Davis pick. He joins Sean Jones who was traded to Houston last week in a package for the McDaniel pick.

Jones had been player-rep during the strike and had provided the Raiders with a list of teams he could be traded to. Williams asked to be traded last season, whereupon Davis gave him a list of cities near the Arctic Circle. If there is an underlying message at this tender time in Raider history, it seems to be: Silver and black--love it or leave it.

Here’s how the Raider first round went:

1A--Brown, generally rated the top athlete in the draft, lasted until the sixth pick, mostly because the teams choosing before the Raiders selected on need. Atlanta considered Brown but took Aundray Bruce. Kansas City went down to Brown and Neil Smith; Detroit to Brown and Bennie Blades; Cincinnati to Brown and Rickey Dixon.

Brown thus becomes the Raiders’ fourth Heisman Trophy winner, although after Marcus Allen, you need a couple of asterisks: Bo Jackson won’t arrive until mid-season and Jim Plunkett is expected to be asked to retire.

“I was very happy, to say the least,” said Brown from his home in Dallas.

“The word was, they (Raiders) just couldn’t believe I’d be around for the sixth pick. Marv (Demof, his agent) talked to Al Davis and he told Marv he couldn’t believe I’d be around.”

He was around. After he dropped several passes in a televised game against Miami, and won the Heisman with only 39 receptions, the experts started finding things wrong with him. The Raiders wrote it off to paralysis-by-analysis and made the pick, laughing.

“People have been trying to find bad things about me all along,” Brown said. “But when it came down to it, they still had me rated the No. 1 player. I thought they were just trying to bring my market value down.”

And how does he feel his value is now?

“I think it’s OK,” he said, laughing.

1B--McDaniel, ninth pick overall and the real pivot of this draft for the Raiders.

He cost them Sean Jones and a No. 2 pick and wasn’t generally expected to go until late in the first round. But if it was a reach, the fact remains the Raiders needed a cornerback and they had McDaniel rated No. 2 to Dixon.

McDaniel’s listed 40-yard dash times--4.35 in one report, 4.4 in another--makes him as fast as any corner in the draft. Scouts marked him down after he had shoulder surgery in January, but the Raiders flew him here, checked him out and decided he’d be fine.

“We feel like he has the same type of explosion, the same type of quickness, he’s able to play man-to-man coverage like Darrell Green of Washington,” Raider Coach Mike Shanahan said.

And what did McDaniel think about all those ESPN commentators calling him a reach?

“My girlfriend was here and we were just happy at that moment,” McDaniel said, laughing. “I didn’t hear half of what was said.

“I welcome the pressure (of playing Raider cornerback). Man-to-man coverage is my specialty. I like to play man and the Raiders have been known to play man. I feel like I fit the shoe pretty good.”

1C--Davis, the 25th pick overall, a choice acquired from the 49ers for a large package: Dokie Williams and second- and fourth-round choices.

“Anybody surprised?” asked Shanahan after this pick.

Everybody, actually.

Of course, the Raiders had a logjam at wide receiver, where Brown joined James Lofton, Mervyn Fernandez, Jessie Hester and Williams. But the 49er pick they traded for was only eight picks away from the top Raider pick in the second round, which suggests that Al Davis wanted Scott Davis badly indeed.

“We weren’t sure (if Davis would have been there on their second-round pick),” Shanahan said. “We didn’t want to take a chance.”

But this particular end has been up and down through his career, even quitting school once.

Also, he was arrested over the weekend in Champaign, Ill., and charged with misdemeanor battery in an incident involving a woman.

“That was just a big misunderstanding,” said Davis from Champaign. “We’re going to get it cleared up.”

And all the bad things they were saying about him on ESPN, like draftnik Mel Kiper who called him “vastly overrated?”

Said Scott Davis: “All that means I’m just going to have to prove ‘em wrong, right?”

Said Shanahan: “He was a tight end coming in to the University of Illinois and very highly recruited. He could really run. He was in basketball and track and you could see the kind of speed that he possesses, even though he does weigh 270 pounds. Our job, obviously, is to get him to play consistent and that comes back to coaching.”

When the dealing was done, the Raiders had three No. 1s. Jones and Williams were gone, along with three choices in the second and third rounds. For good measure, the Raiders then traded another third-round pick to the Jets for picks in the fourth and fifth rounds. By this time, everyone was dizzy and it was time to go home.

Raider Notes

The Raiders took another defensive end, 6-6, 270-pound Tim Rother of Nebraska, with the fourth-round pick they got from the Jets. In the fifth round, they took UCLA cornerback Dennis Price. The draft of two defensive ends, plus the try to get Neil Smith suggest that Al Davis wants to reinvigorate his pass rush. That would, of course, help take some heat off his cornerbacks. . . . Mike Shanahan on Rother: “The main thing we look at in defensive linemen is quickness, and he has quickness. . . . You get a couple of people 6-6 who have some ability to run, if they come through for you, you’ve got a force on your team.”

RAIDER DRAFT CHOICES

Round Name,School Pos. 1 Tim Brown, Notre Dame WR 1 Terry McDaniel, Tennessee DB 1 Scott Davis, Illinois DE 4 Tim Rother, Nebraska DT 5 Dennis Price, UCLA DB