The Oakland Raiders may have landed a first-round talent in the fifth round of the NFL Draft, but Maurice Hurst’s health is something the team is going to have to monitor very closely.
Hurst, a former Michigan defensive tackle whom Oakland picked at No. 150 overall, slid way down the draft board after a heart condition forced him to leave the NFL Scouting Combine early. Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie said Hurst will undergo an annual heart evaluation.
“It’s something he has to go through, however you want to term it,” McKenzie said, per Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Now that they’ve found out whatever this condition is — I’m not going to get into all the medical terms, all the what-ifs. He’s just going to have to follow a certain deal where he gets checked just so everyone is on the same page and we all know everything.”
Hurst said he “(doesn’t) see it being a problem at all” when discussing his heart condition after he was drafted. The 2017 consensus All-American was nearly a lock to be taken in the first round prior to leaving the Combine, but he says he has known about his issue for quite some time. If the heart condition is as little of a factor as Hurst insists it is, he could be the steal of the draft.
