NFL DRAFT : RAIDERS

America blinked the sleep from its eyes and gathered around the TV early Tuesday to see Al Davis trade up to draft a quarterback, or take a young behemoth to relieve his aging offensive tackles, or one of the herd of promising runners to back up Marcus Allen.

Instead, the Raiders hauled back and took . . .

A defensive lineman?

In true Raider fashion, they used their first-round pick for a man whose name, not to mention position, had never occurred to anyone in the El Segundo press room. Not only was he a defensive lineman, but one as unknown as modern-day circumstances allow, and one who was rated down by the various scouting books.

His name is Bob Buczkowski (pronounced Buck-OW-ski), a 6-foot 5-inch, 273-pounder from Pitt. He was rated 23rd among defensive ends by Joel Buchsbaum’s Scout’s Notebook and 16th in Mel Kiper’s Draft Report.

Kiper also noted: “Only shot is as a backup.”

In subsequent picks, the Raiders drafted a defensive back, Brad Cochran of Michigan; another defensive lineman, Mike Wise of UC Davis; a halfback from Occidental, Vance Mueller, and, finally, the long-awaited big-name runner.

His name is Napoleon McCallum, and he’s a top-flight prospect, all right. He does have those five years to serve in the Navy, but if Marcus Allen can hold out that long, help is on the way.

“This is an investment in the future, there’s no question about that,” Coach Tom Flores said. “Obviously, we feel it’s worth the wait.”

The only change in the quarterback situation returned the Raiders to the status quo. They had discussed trading Marc Wilson to the Eagles for a draft choice, even offering to pay $600,000 of Wilson’s contract. But the Eagles Tuesday acquired the 49ers’ Matt Cavanaugh, presumably ending those talks.

“I would think it probably would,” Flores said.

The Raiders, choosing 24th in the first round, did eye several top offensive linemen, all of whom were gone before their turn, as expected.

They seemed to have some use for the Rams’ new Canadian, Mike Schad. “He’s a good ballplayer. . . . We think he’s our type of ballplayer,” Flores said. But he went to the Rams, drafting one pick earlier.

They may have liked Florida’s 220-pound fullback, John L. Williams, but he went to Seattle as the 15th pick. “Seattle really kicked us in the butt,” a Raider official said.

They seem to have admired UCLA’s Mike Sherrard, who had a terrific workout for them at El Segundo. So, reportedly, did the Giants, who were drafting 19th, and the Cowboys, who worked a last-minute deal with the 49ers, traded up to the 18th spot and took Sherrard.

So the Raiders took Buczkowski.

“He’s not a household name right now,” Flores said. “We’ll see if we can make him one.”

Davis has a long line of big successes with little-known defensive linemen: Howie Long from Villanova, Bill Pickel from Rutgers and Sean Jones from Northeastern. Of course, Long, Pickel, Jones and Greg Townsend, the forward wall of a unit that led the AFC with 65 sacks, are all still available, even if Lyle Alzado’s retirement did create a numbers problem.

“Everybody looks at the age of our offensive tackles, that’s why they come to that (speculation that the Raiders would draft there),” Flores said. Henry Lawrence and Shelby Jordan are 34, and Bruce Davis will be 30.

“I have a fondness for offensive linemen,” Flores added. “If I could draft five of them, I probably would, just to keep some young ones around. But we are still not going to go in any direction unless we feel that the player has quality. That’s one reason we went with Buczkowski.”

Said Earl Leggett, defensive line coach, who worked Buczkowski out:

“The thing that really impresses you is his quickness off the ball. . . . I don’t know if they expect him to start. I don’t think Mr. Davis plans for him to start. But he has what Mr. Davis feels fits our mold. We like to do it the Raider way. We like to have time to develop ‘em. We feel he has everything ahead of him.”

Pitt line coach Sal Sunseri said: “I’ll put it this way. We’ve had a lot of great linemen come out of here in the past couple of years--Bill Maas, Greg Meissner--and I think Bill has a little more athletic ability than any of them. He’s 6-5, 6-6, 270, he can dunk a basketball, run 4.8.

“Maybe he was rated lower because his sophomore and junior years, he wasn’t as productive as his senior year. But going into a draft, I don’t think you go only on what a player has done. You draft for potential and I think he has unlimited potential.”

Buczkowski said: “I was told I’d go anywhere from the second to the fifth round. The Raiders called me and said, ‘We’re thinking of drafting you.’ They keep you on hold for the 15 minutes they have to draft. When five minutes were up, they came back and said, ‘It looks pretty good.’ With one minute left, they said, ‘It looks like we’re going to draft you.’ That was a pretty nerve-wracking minute.”

The Raiders had no choice in the second round. Their choices after that:

3. Cochran, 6-2 1/2, 199, defensive back, Michigan. Flores said: “We hope he can play cornerback. That height is something you look for. You don’t see many corners that height. Mike Haynes is one.

4A. (acquired from the Falcons in a trade for rights to Bret Clark): Wise, 6-6, 260, defensive tackle, Cal Davis. Raiders say he’s another case of size and quickness off the ball.

4B. Mueller, 6-0, 190, running back, Occidental. “He has tremendous speed,” Flores said. “He comes from a small school and we studied him very carefully. You could say he’s a bit of a gamble. Then again, you look at the physical qualities and you have to go by that.”

4C. McCallum, 6-1, 208, running back, Navy; 6. Doug Marrone, 6-4, 280, offensive tackle, Syracuse; 7. Bill Lewis, 6-6, 275, center, Nebraska; 8. Joe Mauntel, linebacker, Eastern Kentucky; 9. Zeph Lee, running back, USC; 10. Jeff Reinke, offensive tackle, Mankato State; 11. Randell Webster, linebacker, Southwest Oklahoma; 12. Larry Shepherd, wide receiver, Houston.