Raiders' Champ Kelly shuts down false narrative about a draft decision made on a coin flip

The Detroit Lions did indeed draft Arnold in the back of the first round. However, while many Raiders fans may have hoped for their team to secure the best cornerback in this draft, Terrion Arnold, the outcome was different. It's important to note that I cannot confirm or deny the veracity of his statement, as I simply do not have that information.

But I know that Champ Kelly was asked about that, and his answer would say it did not happen.

"Yeah, I can't confirm that at all," Champ Kelly said on Wednesday before the Raiders open rookie minicamp. Terrion [Arnold] is a good player. I'm excited to watch his career and play. But we drafted Brock [Bowers] and are excited to get him here. And I don't think anyone else in our whole draft room felt any other way."

Now, we don't know if this happened or didn't happen or anything, really. But, we do know that GMs, or assistant GMs in this case, do this from time to time, where they will stand on their decision to draft the player they did and deny every rumor that they were interested in another player. The moment they acknowledge that they want the other player instead, it could mess with the player they drafted confidence.

So, either way, Kelly's approach is smart. And even if Arnold is telling the truth, I'm sure it wasn't a literal coin flip but rather a phrase people use that also means a split decision. Either way, this was a weird thing that happened, and now that Kelly cleared things up, the Raiders can move on to rookie minicamp.