Michael Jordan’s 23. Jerry Rice’s 80. Jersey numbers are sacred and can help define a player’s legacy.
Of course, numbers change, Randy Moss switched from his famous 84 to 18 when he played for the Oakland Raiders. Now, a new crop of Raiders have received their first numbers in the Silver and Black.
The 2019 Raiders rookies met with the team Thursday to prepare for the upcoming rookie mini-camp. The camp started on Friday and ran through the weekend. Part of the initial meeting was handing out jersey numbers for each of the Raiders nine 2019 draft picks as follows via Raiders.com:
DE Clelin Ferrell (4th pick) – 96
RB Josh Jacobs (24th pick) – 28
S Jonathan Abram (27th pick) – 24
CB Trayvon Mullen (40th pick) – 27
DE Maxx Crosby (106th pick) – 98
CB Isaiah Johnson (129th pick) – 31
TE Foster Moreau (137th pick) – 87
WR Hunter Renfrow (149th pick) – 13
DE Quinton Bell (230th pick) – 95
Clelin Ferrell, who was one of the Raiders’ three picks out of Clemson, wore No. 99 in college so he will be sporting a new number this season.
Another number of note is Jonathan Abram’s No. 24. That number was, of course, worn by Charles Woodsen while he was on the Raiders and more recently worn by Marshawn Lynch. Abram is hoping to be the next great Raiders defense back with 24 on his chest.
Although numbers are generally assigned from a pool of numbers based on position, it is certainly exciting to see these players get their first numbers. Who is to say what might change before the start of the season, but we could be looking at a career-defining number.
