On Friday Charles Woodson Jersey , the Raiders took the highly unusual step of clearing the building of most scouts, telling them to stay home until after the draft. On Monday, the Raiders floated an excuse for sending employees home with pay.According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, the Raiders may be planning a”surprise” pick with the fourth overall selection, necessitating complete and total secrecy.That’s fine (actually, it’s won’t be fine if they opt for a “surprise” who becomes a bust), but a normally functioning football operation can achieve and maintain the necessary level of secrecy without sending people home. Most NFL front offices operate on a strictly need-to-know basis, with scouts who aren’t involved in setting the draft board knowing nothing about its contents. It’s a simple and easy application of the Patriots’ “do your job” mantra, where if it’s not critical to an employee’s job to know what the organization will do during the draft, the employee never knows that information.In New England, the area scouts who have no need to know the manner in which coach Bill Belichick ranks the players are (wait for it) instead working on other things that are central to their jobs, whether it’s gathering information about next year’s prospects or being available to answer specific questions or to handle specific projects relating to the work they’ve done for the current draft. The Raiders have consciously surrendered the benefit of these employees’ efforts, due to a vague and perhaps irrational fear that one of them will spill the beans about something that they shouldn’t even know in the first place.And here’s a fair question, given the manner in which a football operation should normally operate: Are the Raiders protecting coach Jon Gruden from himself? Specifically, is Gruden so impulsive and insecure that he can’t be trusted to refrain from bouncing his ideas about potential first-round picks off of scouts who in turn can’t be trusted to keep their own mouths shut?Trust. It’s amazing to think that the Raiders suddenly can’t trust scouts that they necessarily have trusted for months. Trusted to do good work. Trusted to be discreet regarding anything they hear regarding the team’s plans. Trusted to show full loyalty to the entity who pays their salaries.Either the Raiders suddenly decided that they can’t trust the scouts or they never trusted them in the first place, but did nothing about it until now. Neither explanation is satisfactory, and both make the Raiders look bad.Indeed, the Raiders are hardly the first football operation to have a secret that they didn’t want to be compromised. But they are the first (at least in recent years) to pay people to not show up for work due to fears that someone who doesn’t need to know the secret may find out about it, and may blab.It’s up to the leaders of the organization to ensure that people who aren’t trustworthy not be trusted with sensitive information. Which brings me back to the notion that the Raiders are essentially protecting Gruden from himself, by ensuring that Gruden doesn’t disclose the plans that Gruden and G.M. Mike Mayock are putting together for their three first-round picks, in an effort to feel more confident as Gruden embarks on a draft that will be critical to the manner in which his second stint with the Raiders ultimately goes. Raiders cornerback Nevin Lawson announced on social media that he tested positive for a performance enhancing drug and will miss the first four games.The NFL suspended Lawson Willie Brown Jersey , who said he unknowingly took ostarine.According to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), “ostarine is not approved for human use or consumption in the U.S., or in any other country, [and] there are no legal medications that contain ostarine.” USADA lists 72 products on the high-risk list that contain ostarine, and 19 products contain ostarine but do not declare it on the label.Lawson posted his statement Monday night:“I love my teammates, cherish the privilege of playing professional football for the Oakland Raiders organization and look forward to starting my sixth NFL season with passion and hunger. That is why it is so difficult for me to stomach what I recently learned, which will lead to me being suspended for the first four games of the 2019 NFL season.“Despite being very cautious about what I put into my body, I discovered that a test determined that I ingested something that is on the NFL’s banned substance list. Specifically, that substance is Ostarine, which I have never knowingly taken.“Unfortunately, it does not matter, as I am responsible for knowing every single ingredient that goes into my body, and I apparently failed in this regard. This disappointing and temporary setback says nothing about my constant drive and daily commitment to be a better player and human being, a priority of mine which will continue for the rest of my life.“I want to apologize to my family, my teammates, my fans and the entire Raiders organization that trusted I would be on the field Week One and for the entire 2019 NFL season. I can only promise to give my all when I am permitted to return to the field and will take even extra care in ensuring that no impermissible substances are consumed in the future.”Lawson, who signed a one-year deal worth up to $3.05 million in the offseason, has 54 career starts. The Raiders’ depth chart has him on the third team, though the team might have listed Lawson there knowing he would miss four games.Gareon Conley and Daryl Worley are expected to start, with Lamarcus Joyner covering the slot. Trayvon Mullen and Nick Nelson are the top backups.