Raiders Go Fishing Again . . . for Herring : NFL draft: After picking Morton, Dyson and Kysar, they take a flyer on 340-pound BYU tackle who has said he won’t play pro football.

You’re down to your final pick in the NFL draft. One hundred and eighty-nine players have already been taken. Your chances of getting a quality player are minimal at best.

If you’re the Raiders, what do you do? What the Raiders always do--the unorthodox.

So, after selecting North Carolina linebacker Mike Morton in the fourth round, and Michigan linebacker/defensive end Matt Dyson and Arizona State offensive tackle Jeff Kysar in the fifth, the Raiders used their final pick, a sixth-rounder, to select Eli Herring, a 6-foot-6, 340-pound offensive tackle from BYU.

Mature at 25, with strength, intelligence and a background in a solid collegiate program, Herring was considered to be in the second echelon of offensive linemen available in this year’s draft, not equal to a Tony Boselli or a Reuben Brown, but not far behind, either. Every NFL team had contacted Herring about the possibility of playing for them.

So why was he still available in the sixth round? A devout Mormon, Herring sent a letter to every team informing them that he had no intention of playing professional football, preferring instead to become a high school teacher. Herring refused even to take part in the scouting combine where final opinions are formed before the draft.

“He thinks his football career is over,” Raider Coach Mike White said of Herring. “And it probably is. . . . If things in his life change, the opportunity to be a professional football player is here with the Los Angeles Raiders. We don’t expect to see him and don’t expect to even talk to him about the prospect of playing professional football until the subject possibly comes up from his standpoint.

“And when that would be or where that would be or how that would be, I have no idea.”

White stressed that the Raiders would not pressure Herring as they might another reluctant draft choice.

“This is different,” he said, “because of the religious aspect of it. . . . I thinkwe owe him the respect of just letting time pass.”

The Raiders figure their chances of getting another quality player with that final pick weren’t very good anyway.

“In round six,” White said, “your odds are that players in that round aren’t going to make it anyway.”

The Raiders aren’t deviating much from the strategy they’ve taken in the past.

They drafted Bo Jackson in the seventh round even though he insisted he was going to stick to professional baseball. They drafted Rocket Ismail in the fourth round even though he was headed for the Canadian Football League. And both, of course, wound up Raiders.

“We took this guy higher than we took Bo Jackson,” owner Al Davis told White.

Of the other Raider selections Sunday, White had the following opinions:

--Morton, 6-4, 230 pounds, 23: “We feel he can play outside linebacker. With the departure of Winston Moss, it’s an area we feel someone can come in and make a contribution. . . . He’s got some size, but also speed and movement. And he’s big enough so that he can also play inside linebacker. And he’s a real good special-teams player.”

--Dyson, 6-3, 275, 22. The Raiders exchanged fifth-round picks with the Washington Redskins and gave the Redskins their seventh-round selection to move up 14 spots in the fifth round to land Dyson: “The same thing (as Morton) except bigger. This guy is really unique. We’re going to start him as an inside linebacker. He’s a gifted athlete. Dyson ran the high hurdles in high school and had some basketball scholarship offers. He’s played linebacker and also gotten down on all fours and been a lineman. We think he’d be an excellent special-teams guy.”

--Kysar, 6-7, 320, 22: “He brings another set of physical qualities that you can use. He pulls and he runs well for a big man, so we’re going to put him on the right side at guard. He played left tackle for Arizona State, and that’s pretty good in that league.”

During the two-day draft, the Raiders wound up with seven players, five on offense.

They selected two running backs with blazing speed, Napoleon Kaufman and Joe Aska; three offensive linemen, including Barret Robbins in the second round, to bolster an area in which they lack depth, and two linebackers in an area in which they lost Moss, a starter.

And most of their picks can play on special teams.

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Raider Draft Picks

Rd. (Ovl) Player Pos. School 1. (18) Napoleon Kaufman RB Washington 2. (49) Barret Robbins C Texas Christian 3. (86) Joe Aska RB Central State (Okla.) 4. (118) Mike Morton LB North Carolina 5. (138) Matt Dyson LB Michigan 5. (154) Jeff Kysar OT Arizona State 6. (190) Eli Herring OT Brigham Young