Oakland Raiders: Sometimes, the best move is making no move at all

The Oakland Raiders are moving very slowly and methodically this offseason, to the chagrin of many fans – but sometimes, the best move is no move at all.

The Oakland Raiders, with the free agency window set to officially open tomorrow, have been quieter than the proverbial church mouse. With the legal tampering period in full swing, teams are firing bundles of cash at players out of a JUGS machine.

Some of the Oakland faithful are watching the free agency feeding frenzy clutching their pearls and with gritted teeth, as impact player after impact player comes off the board, leaving the Raiders with fewer options to retool a roster in desperate need of it.

But, as we watch teams throwing money like Adam Jones at a strip club, it’s important to remember that sometimes, the best move is to not make a move at all.

Of course, given the fact that the Raiders don’t have a ton of space under the cap helps to employ that philosophy, but it also means that they’re going to be more methodical and hopefully, more judicious in where they spend those dollars.

Take for example, the case of Trumaine Johnson, the consensus best cornerback on the free agent market. He’s been linked with the Raiders since about four seconds after the Rams traded for Marcus Peters. And the chorus of Johnson to the Raiders only grew louder when the Rams acquired Aqib Talib and Sam Shields.

When the story broke that Seahawks castoff Richard Sherman had asked GM Reggie McKenzie about playing in Oakland and was told there wasn’t enough cap space for him, some instantly assumed it was because the Raiders were holding on to the money to make a run at Johnson.

And maybe that was the plan. Possibly.

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But, with Sherman then signing a deal that could net him up to $13 million a year and Malcolm Butler agreeing to a deal with Tennessee that will pay him about $12 million a year, it seemed like the asking price for the twice-franchise-tagged Johnson was quickly getting way too rich.

And sure enough, we now get word that Johnson has agreed to a deal with the New York Jets that’s reportedly going to pay him $15 million a season.

Suffice it to say, that kind of a deal for Johnson would have decimated whatever cap room the Raiders had left. Not to mention the fact that it’s a pretty outrageous sum for a guy far less accomplished than both Butler and Sherman.

But – the market decides what the player is worth. And it decided Johnson was worth $15 million a year.

Now, McKenzie very well could have massaged things to make Johnson’s salary fit. Somehow. Someway. If the Raiders were that all in on Johnson, they would have made it work.

However, it also very likely would have hamstrung this team financially. Not just this year, but potentially for future seasons as well. Throwing that kind of money at Johnson is straight out of the late-stage Al Davis playbook – and we all saw how badly that worked out, didn’t we?

Handing out bloated contracts isn’t typically McKenzie’s MO. Even the spending spree last offseason that netted the Raiders Jared Cook, Cordarrelle Patterson, and Marshawn Lynch – though totally superfluous – was pretty fiscally responsible.

Their deals were reasonable enough – even if their production didn’t quite justify the salary in the first place.

Let’s also not forget that McKenzie’s track record when signing high profile cornerbacks to lucrative deals is about as good as his track record when signing free agent quarterbacks – did somebody say Matt Flynn and Matt Schaub?

Suffice it to say, McKenzie’s return on investment in free agent cornerbacks over his tenure hasn’t been exceptionally stellar. Tarell Brown, Carlos Rogers, David Amerson, Sean Smith… Need we go on?