Raiders head coach Jon Gruden and general manager Mike Mayock were flush with wads of cash to throw at free agents the past two offseasons. It’s going to take some creativity to get to that position next offseason. The good news for Gruden and Mayock is, they can get to where they want to be
Raiders’ path to salary-cap solvency achieved with handful of pain-free moves
The potential cuts of Joyner, Williams and potentially Trent Brown is an indictment of the Raiders ability to evaluate talent and/or use that talent. These players were supposed to be upgrades. One could argue that Brown was dominant when healthy. Yet the value of his services were well under what they were paying him.
Other players that could be cut: Nevin Lawson, Eric Harris and Takk McKinney. Jason Witten should definitely be released.
Raiders need to take a long and hard look at how they are evaluating talent within their team, the league and via the draft. Within that framework, they need to determine if the talent they are bringing in meshes with their system.
Consider this scenario.
Gabe Jackson was awful this season as a run blocker, both with and without Brown next to him, and his pass protection also left a lot to be desired. So, if you want to get cap space, it’s a no-brainer that he’s the one to be cut rather than healthy Incognito, whose absence was the main reason of poor run-blocking that prevented Jacobs from producing. Good can ably replace Jackson, and Simpson has a long way to grow before he becomes a viable starter.
Brown question is the one of simple economics – at $14 mm, he’s consuming just too much cap-space to justify keeping him. We can find far cheaper alternatives in free agency (like Good) that would not result in a significant drop in performance, particularly considering his propensity to loose too many games due to an assortment of injuries. Parker, who had 1 good game filling in at LT is not a solution to replace him and should be cut freeing up . Sharp was a far better backup and getting rid of him is just one of many mistakes Gruden/Mayock made this year.
Joyner acquisition was a major expensive mistake, so it’s another no-brainer he’s not worth missing on that $8.7 mm cap saving. Similarly, we don’t need Williams at $11.6 mm. Additional cap savings totaling $7.3 mm should be achieved by cutting Heath, Key, Nixon, Eligwe, Valoaga and Killings.
As a result, a total of $52.2 mm of cap space would be freed up, net $43.4 mm under the low cap estimate, leaving 28 players on the roster. Some of that, around $5 mm will have to be spent on draftees; between $8 and $10 mm, will have to be spent on resigning solid free agents such as Good, Booker, long-snapper Sieg, and kicker Carlson, with around $15 mm additionally to provide the roster depth. That totals $30 mm.
That would leave only $12.4 mm to be spent on major free agency improvements – it might be enough to sign a top free safety and one solid backup at another defensive position. Which brings us to the most important decision Gruden and Mayock have to make at QB.
In his prior stint with the Raiders, we’ve seen how effective Gruden was using Gannon, a mobile, game manager type of QB with no arm. I’d argue that Mariota can provide at least as much, while adding an entirely new dimension to the offense, his exceptional run ability, that’s not there at the moment. Given how much improvement is needed on defense, the best use of Carr’s current high-flying stock would be to trade him for a first rounder plus another pick or two, while freeing up another $19.6 mm that could be spent to strengthen the D-line in free agency.
So, net result of this scenario would net an extra first rounder, plus another later round pick or two, and around $41 mm to be spent in free agency to get top help at D-line and free safety position.
Got to believe that a team like New England would jump at the chance to get DC as their starting QB – I like the call to make the trade and promote Mariota with a draftee coming in to be developed behind him (or maybe even a recent highly drafted passer like Sam Darnold if he is cut by the Jets?).
I think a large chunk of money will head Agholor’s way based on his performance this year – whether with us or another team. We’ll need to find cap space to be in with a chance!
Time for some expensive players to restructure their deals or head for pastures new – Gabe, Brown, Joyner, Witten and Tyrell Williams readily spring to mind as outstanding cut or trade candidates.
Why wouldn’t Carr restructure his contract? He says he wants to go to the playoffs, can’t do that if there isn’t enough talent on all sides of the ball. Can’t get talent if you don’t have cash. I’d like to see the team try to keep Mariota, if for no other reason than to have some stability at backup QB. Let him continue to push Carr and learn Gruden’s playbook, so that he is ready to play if Carr gets hurt. For purely sentimental reasons, I’d like to see the team keep Jalen Richard.
I’m with you regarding DC. It won’t hurt to ask DC if he’s willing to restructure but the team has to be willing to give something up. Everything about him suggests he is a team player. Besides restructuring is not a one-way, team friendly only street. Mariota is a notorious poor practice player, so you really don’t know where he’s at in terms of evaluation. I would keep him around for having a quality backup. It would make sense to restructure his contract while you at it. Further, there is no guarantee trading DC will return high draft choices. One of the off-season stories was that multiple teams were inquiring about a trade for DC on Raider terms. Mayock paused to ask, “what are the other teams seeing that we are not.” I wouldn’t be surprised if one of those teams was NE. Imagine DC in the NE system, they might be considered SB favorites and the Raiders would be standing around asking what happened? But, then again, the story could have been a Gruden-Mayock smokescreen.
Jalen Richard, keep him. He’s a solid player.
Carr could restructure his contract with ease. The problem is, doing so to free up cap space for 2021 places further burden on 2022, if not beyond, and, in effect, ties Carr to the Raiders for longer. That’s not an issue if Gruden is all-in on Carr for the foreseeable future. If he’s not fully sold long-term, then that’s the potential downside to redoing Carr’s contract.
IF Gruden is all-in on Carr? Three years and 6 first round draft picks later, that question rings hollow.
Carr is a top ten qb if he is traded the Raiders would be starting over again.
No he isn’t. He is a top 2 loser all time though, second only to his brother.
On what basis is he a ‘top 10 qb’? His efficiency in the red zone? His consistent failure to throw downfield to wide open guys?
Raiders would not be starting from scratch – Mariota picked it up in stride, added a whole new dimension to the offense, perhaps while being somewhat inferior passer (debatable in Gruden’s system). Gruden was quite successful with Gannon, another QB with similar profile, who’s inferior to Mariota both as a runner and as a passer. It’s quite questionable wether the Raiders would lose anything offensively with him as a starter. On the other hand, trading Carr would net an extra first round pick, plus another in a later round, and free up an additional $19.6 mm of cap space, all of which could be used to address several of the issues on defense.
Without major improvements on defense, Raiders aren’t going anywhere. Trading Carr is a highly profitable tradeoff in that regard – potential loss on offense would be far less than the potential gain on defense – that’s the bottom line.
Based on Gruden’s presser today it doesn’t sound to me like the team will be getting rid of Trent Brown. I think he is a lousy teammate and is about as durable as wet paper towels, but he is a great tackle.
And let’s get real Carr isn’t going anywhere either. He had a good season and he wasn’t the reason the Raiders fell short. Could he be better? Of course…I don’t think he is elite and is middle of the road but he is no Cam Newton. Lol
In the end, this team will get better or worse depended on how they draft. And based on results so far…after frittering away most of the pics they had the past few years…I have zero confidence in this regime to be competent in that regard.