Ideally, Raiders first-round cornerback Gareon Conley would know whether he’ll be charged with sexual assault before he signs a contract with the team. The ideal scenario may not be happening.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the Raiders and Conley are talking. According to another source, Conley has still not learned whether he’ll face formal charges arising from an incident occurring in April.
The Raiders drafted Conley with full knowledge of the existence of the allegation. And the Raiders presumably assumed (or at least hoped) that the case would be closed (or that charges would be filed) before the opening of training camp. With eight days to go, that hasn’t happened.
So the question remains: Will the Raiders sign Conley before the case is resolved and, if so, what protections will they seek for a situation that they knew about when they made Conley the pick? The player has every right to hold firm with the position that he should get exactly what any other player would have gotten as the 24th pick in the draft. But the Raiders have every right to refuse to do that, and to move forward without him -- until the team knows that he won’t be facing indictment, trial, and possibly conviction and incarceration.