Prioritizing The Oakland Raiders’ Free Agency Wish List By Need

The Oakland Raiders are a team on the rise, but a team that still has some areas of need – let’s prioritize their free agency wish list by those areas of need.

With a few days left yet before the free agency window officially opens, the Oakland Raiders still have a bit of time to figure out how they’ll attack it. Though they’re a better, more complete team than they’ve been in quite some time, the Raiders do still have a number of areas that need to be addressed and strengthened.

The Raiders currently have roughly $44 million in cap space – a number that could go up, depending on any cuts to the current roster. But with large contracts for Derek Carr and Khalil Mack – not to mention a couple of others like Gabe Jackson – looming, the amount of cash they’ll have on hand to spend is going to be significantly less than the past few seasons.

Which means, they’ll need to spend wisely. Very wisely.

Free agency is one of the big reasons the Raiders are on an upward trajectory. Additions like Rodney Hudson, Kelechi Osemele, David Amerson, Michael Crabtree, and others, have made tremendous contributions and have laid a solid foundation for this team.

And adding another impact player – or maybe even two – from this year’s free agent class could be what helps put this team over the top.

But with limited resources and some big names on the market expecting big dollar deals, it might be tough to swing it. But GM Reggie McKenzie has done such a masterful job of managing Oakland’s salary cap situation, never say never.

With that in mind then, let’s take a look at a few names that are – or maybe should be – on Oakland’s free agency wish list. We’ll rank them by order of importance – or rather, how big an area of need they are.