NFL Draft 2009 Review: WR Darrius Heyward-Bey

For a little college football flashback, here are the Wide Receivers named to the All-Conference Team for the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) this year:

First Team: Hakeem Nicks, North Carolina  ---  DJ Boldin, Wake Forest.
     
Second Team: Eron Riley, Duke  ---  Aaron Kelly, Clemson  

Honorable Mention: Darrius Heyward-Bey, Maryland  ---  Kevin Ogletree, Virginia

Now which of the guys listed above was the first WR taken in the NFL Draft?

Very surprisingly it was Darrius Heyward-Bey, a WR that wasn't good enough to make even the second-team in his college conference (he was ranked lower than a guy from Duke for cripes sake!). Still, he was still drafted seventh overall. 

It becomes less surprising when I tell you it was the Raiders that drafted him seventh, since the Raiders make goofy picks like this all the time.  And since it's the Raiders, you have to seriously consider whether or not Heyward-Bey should be part of your fantasy team.

Unless you just crawled out from under a rock, you know the Raiders are not a good passing team.  QB JaMarcus Russell has been slow to develop and the Raiders' wide receiver corps consists of guys named Johnnie Lee and Chaz.  No, really, those are their names. 

With Justin Fargas and (hopefully) Darren McFadden getting the ball this year, the Raiders will be built to run.  There is a chance that Heyward-Bey could be that one great receiver on a bad team -- but I think the odds of that are less than 30%.  Heyward-Bey is fast, but he just doesn't seem to have the skills to excel during this season with this quarterback.  He's worth a late round flier, but somebody in your draft will probably take him much earlier than that.