Former Raiders first-round pick Damon Arnette was arrested on drug and firearm charges in early January, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. The arrest occurred in Texas in the early hours of the morning, per the report.
A cautionary tale: Ex-#Raiders first-round pick CB Damon Arnette was arrested on Jan. 6 at 3:30 am and charged with possession of less than a gram of meth and unlawful carrying of a firearm, per me and @HollowayNFLN. The previously unreported arrest was in Richardson, TX.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 26, 2024
Arnette was drafted No. 19 overall in the 2020 NFL Draft by the Raiders regime led by coach Jon Gruden and general manager Mike Mayock. He fell out of favor in Las Vegas after playing in just 13 games, starting many of them. But Arnette had multiple run-ins with the law, leading to his eventual departure from Las Vegas.
Gruden and Mayock had enough of Arnette after he flashed multiple firearms and made threatening comments in an Instagram video.
Mayock acknowledged there were some character red flags with Arnette, but the Raiders drafted him anyway after going the extra mile to deem the risk acceptable.
Former #Raiders GM Mike Mayock when he released Arnette in 2021: “We found the risk acceptable after doing more homework on Arnette than anybody we’ve done in the years I’ve been here, and obviously we missed. That is 100 percent on me.” https://t.co/U4UAiDPcmZ
— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) February 26, 2024
Mayock was fired from his post with the Raiders a couple of months following Arnette’s release. Overall, Mayock’s rosters posted a 25-24 record and earned an NFL Playoff birth in 2021, just before Mayock was fired in January 2022.
But Mayock’s tenure with the Raiders will always be remembered for the Arnette selection. At this point, the most important thing is for Arnette to get his life together and stop appearing in the news for all the wrong reasons.