Oakland Raiders: Free Agents The Team Should Make A Run At This Offseason
By Kevin Saito
The Oakland Raiders are in a good position to upgrade the team via free agency – here are some players the team should consider pursuing.
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Oakland Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie is in a really good position with the start of free agency looming. He’s got a boatload of cash to throw at free agents, which is likely the most important thing for most. But more than that, he can sell them on the fact that the Raiders are a team on the rise. Why not be part of a team that with a few key additions can be a contender?
Obviously, not every free agent that hits the market is going to be a good fit for this team – no matter how hard some people try to jam those square pegs into round holes. In fact, at least in the early going, there seem to be more than don’t fit than do.
But the ones who do fit, who do make sense for the team to pursue, could help elevate this team to a level they’ve not seen in a very long time if McKenzie were able to land some of them.
The Raiders are right behind the Jaguars in regard to money available to spend in free agency. Some has already been spent locking up a few players here and there, but McKenzie is going into the free agency fight with a pretty large warchest. And given that they must reach the salary cap floor, he’s going to have to spend at least a little more than $41 million of their available cap space – which is a little more than half of what’s available.
While it’s not likely that McKenzie is going to go hog wild and start throwing cash at anybody who looks at him cross eyed, he will be spending some money this offseason. And though it seems like they have all the money in the world, the Raiders do still need to be smart about how they spend their available cap space – remember, they are going to need to have money available when cornerstone pieces like Derek Carr, Khalil Mack, Justin Ellis, Gabe Jackson, and Amari Cooper come up for a new contract.
So while McKenzie likely isn’t going to be spending like a sailor on shore leave, he’s going to have the money – and the mandated need to spend the money – upgrading the team. And here are several players the McKenzie and the Raiders should pull out all the stops in pursuing.
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