Raiders hedge bets in late rounds (w/video)

To wit:

Fourth-round pick Keith McGill, a cornerback from Utah, was charged with — among other offenses — driving under the influence, speeding and possession of stolen property in a 2012 arrest. He also happens to be 25 years old, which makes him older than 28 players already on the Oakland roster.

Seventh-rounder Shelby Harris, a defensive end from Illinois State, was suspended at Wisconsin for a violation of team rules and, after transferring, was dismissed from Illinois State for conduct detrimental to the team. He did not play as a senior. Instead, he worked at an Italian restaurant and worked out at a local community college.

Safety Jonathan Dowling, another seventh-rounder, was dismissed from the Florida program for missing practice after he butted heads with position coach Chuck Heater, and wound up at Western Kentucky.

"It's always a chance to redeem himself," McKenzie explained. "When we get a situation where you give a player an opportunity, a second chance, especially when, as of late, the issues have not been like it was in the past for them. If they learn from it, or sometimes a player really feels remorse when he did make a mistake. The key is, how do you feel after you conversate with the kid."

This being Day 3, even the good eggs came with flaws. The Raiders' first pick of the day, defensive tackle Justin "Jelly Bean" Ellis, weighed as much as 390 pounds at Louisiana Tech, and tends to fluctuate rapidly.

Asked how the Raiders would manage Ellis' weight, McKenzie said: "Keep him away from home. He's home with mama, the family. He's young, 22 years, he's not going to go around eating salad all day."

And cornerback T.J. Carrie, a seventh-round pick who grew up in Antioch and played at De La Salle High School, sat out two entire seasons at Ohio University with major injuries — the first to his hip, the second to his shoulder — and missed the scouting combine because of a knee injury.

And yet McKenzie and his scouting department found a lot to like.

Ellis is an immovable nose tackle type with surprisingly quick feet and an ability to fire into the opponent's backfield. McGill is a big corner — he's 6-foot-3 and 211 pounds — who was frequently matched up against the elite receivers of the Pac-12; he led the conference with 12 passes broken up as a senior. Carrie led the Mid-American Conference in punt returns (12.7-yard average) in addition to his coverage duties.

Carrie is happy to be teamed with running back Maurice Jones-Drew, who preceded him at mighty De La Salle, and with defensive back Taiwan Jones, who he knows from Antioch. Carrie ran track against Jones in high school, a memory he might rather forget.

"He actually kind of — he's fast, let's put it like that," Carrie said. "I won't embarrass myself too much, but he's very fast."

Dowling impressed scouts with his long arms and scrappy attitude, and Harris had seven sacks as a junior before falling off the map.

"He's a football player," Mc-Kenzie said of Harris, acknowledging it was harder to evaluate an athlete with no senior game film. "He's one of those guys who knows how to use his hands, and he finds the football. There's some guys that have it, the instincts to locate the ball and get there."

All five picks hope to add to Oakland's defensive depth and make an impact on special teams.

Add the haul from the first two days — elite pass rusher Kahlil Mack, prolific quarterback Derek Carr and big guard Gabe Jackson — and McKenzie walked away feeling pretty good about the 2014 draft.

"From top to bottom, we felt like we got true Raiders," he said. "Guys who love football, guys who really want to be physical. We feel like we got some great size, guys who can play with power, and we got some guys that can run. ... We wanted to get bigger. We wanted to be more physical, because we feel that's the Raider Way, and we feel that we did that this weekend."

McKenzie hopes his intuition is confirmed next weekend, when the rookies arrive for a minicamp.