ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Surprised? No, Damon Arnette was not surprised at being a first-round pick by the Las Vegas Raiders in last month's NFL draft.

Not even after being rarely mentioned in the same breath as fellow cornerback and Ohio State teammate Jeff Okudah, who went third overall to the Detroit Lions. And not with Arnette being given a third-round grade by many draft observers, being given a No. 58 overall ranking by Scouts Inc. and ESPN's NFL Draft Predictor giving Arnette a 0.1% chance to be selected in the first 20 picks.

Shocked, then? Nah. The extremely self-confident Arnette was, well, let him describe his feelings when he got the call at No. 19 overall.

"I mean, I consider myself one of the best players in the draft," Arnette said in a conference call that night. "So, I feel like the best players go in the first round, so I wouldn't say I'm surprised. But I'm definitely thankful for it and grateful for the opportunity."

And not just because of his draft slot. Arnette's road to the first round was as unlikely as any seen in recent memory, as he had to be convinced to return to the Buckeyes last January.

Arnette decided he was done with college after Ohio State's Rose Bowl victory over Washington on New Year's Day 2019. He returned to Columbus only to pack up his clothes, pick up his dog and say goodbye. He was off to train for the NFL combine.

But conversations with three people -- his father, Damon Arnette Sr., Hall of Fame receiver and Ohio State product Cris Carter and incoming Buckeyes secondary coach Jeff Hafley -- changed his mind. Sure, he had already been on campus for four years after having redshirted, but he was not ready -- mentally or physically -- for the rigors of the NFL.

"I chose to go back to school to rewrite my legacy at Ohio State," Damon Arnette said. "I felt like I wasn't the best player I could be on or off the field, so I decided to come back to regather myself and start over."

So he played bad cop to Okudah's good cop, the yang to Okudah's yin, and silently transformed himself into the first "whoa" moment of the NFL draft.

"If you love a redemption story, you respect Damon Arnette a lot, someone that had a lot of doubters his first four years at Ohio State," Okudah said at the combine in February. "A lot of guys like to cower, blame a lot of people, but he just put his head down and kept working. Through a broken wrist, he put his head down and kept working. I think he's really trying to reap the benefits of resiliency."

Indeed, Arnette played the entire season with a broken right wrist suffered in training camp, when he tried to knock the ball out of running back J.K. Dobbins' grasp.

Despite the cast -- he underwent surgery in October to place a screw in his hand -- Arnette maintained his physical presence. He allowed 38 yards per attempt in man-to-man coverage, which led FBS, and allowed a 37.9% completion rate as the primary defender, the lowest such rate in the Big Ten (minimum 40 pass attempts against). His eight pass breakups as the primary defender in man coverage was second in the conference.

But the highlight play of his senior season was his 96-yard pick-six against Indiana, the fourth-longest interception return in Ohio State history. Yes, while wearing that cast.

"What improved is my mentality on how I approach certain situations on the field, off the field, everything," said Arnette, who said his son, Tyson, being born in January also gave him perspective.

"So, once I got my mind right, everything else just fell in line. I've been the same player. I'm not faster than I was a year ago or things like that. I'm the same person, I just had to get some things right and everything else just fell in line."

As Pro Football Focus saw it, Arnette started 38 games in his career at Ohio State and allowed just three touchdowns -- total -- never giving up more than one in any single season.

So when you combine his stats with how leaky the Raiders' pass defense is -- the 10.4 yards per attempt to perimeter receivers last season was the worst such mark in the NFL, as were the 37 receptions of at least 20 yards surrendered to perimeter receivers and the 23 TD passes on throws outside the numbers -- maybe surprise shouldn't have been the emotion when Las Vegas pulled Arnette's card.

Even as Raiders general manager Mike Mayock said a week earlier that teams make mistakes in the draft by "reaching for need" to address holes.

"The reason he's not a reach is because of his grade in our system," Mayock said. "Did I think we could have moved down maybe and still got him? Maybe, but we didn't want to lose him.

"What distinguishes him is No. 1, he can run. No. 2, he's tough as nails and when you talk about competitors, he played most of the season with a cast on his arm. He can play inside, he can play outside, he can play left, he can play right. We feel like this is one of the most competitive football players in the entire draft. So, to answer your question, we don't feel at all like it was a reach."

After picking Arnette at No. 19, the Raiders didn't pick again until No. 80.

As such, the 6-foot, 195-pound Arnette, who was taken with the final first-round pick acquired in the Khalil Mack trade, is expected to compete for a starting gig opposite Trayvon Mullen, a second-rounder in 2019.

Raiders coach Jon Gruden said he liked Arnette as much as he did Okudah, saying Arnette actually had more production than his ballyhooed former college teammate.

"I think he's an old-school, bump-and-run Raider cornerback that's physical and nasty," Gruden said of Arnette, per Raiders.com. "He reminds me a lot of, I'm not going to guarantee this, but he reminds me a lot of Aqib Talib, a guy that we drafted in Tampa several years ago. He's a guy that has great confidence in himself. He comes from a big arena at Ohio State, and the bigger the game the better he played.

"He's matured, he's grown up, and this guy has learned some difficult lessons and I think he's responded."

Arnette addressed a specific need, and he fit the Raiders' profile for a rugged cornerback.

"I'd say I'm a physical corner, competitive corner, dog, all the above," Arnette said. "And I feel like the Raiders, we're going to do the same thing. We are going to go out there, run fast, hit hard, execute, and that's the type of football player I am. Bring some juice, you know what I'm saying? Celebrate your teammates and all that stuff."

Still surprised?