Raiders: Top 3 players who could be cap casualties this offseason

2. Tahir Whitehead, LB

The Raiders have struggled immensely at the linebacker position for a number of years now. It seems like an annual tradition that fans beg and plead for their team to address the position in the draft yet come away unimpressed and disappointed each year.

And 2019 was no different story.

Instead of trying to reshape their linebacker core for the future by adding a couple of young faces in the draft, the Raiders instead decided to opt for the quick-fix route. Veterans Vontaze Burfict and Brandon Marshall were brought in to hopefully add some stability to the linebacker group.

Here we sit in December though and neither is anywhere to be found.

Marshall was released as a part of final roster cuts (and later brought back for six days without playing a game) while Burfict was hit with a season-long suspension after just four games.

That’s left the team with a starting duo of Tahir Whitehead and Nicholas Morrow which safe to say hasn’t sufficed. Morrow continues to struggle in run defense while Whitehead just isn’t the player the Raiders want him to be.

And hopefully, when given a chance at redemption, the Raiders will do what’s right and remake the linebacker core this offseason the right way — in the draft.

That could make a player like Whitehead — who will be on the last year of his deal — expendable. The Raiders could cut the soon-to-be 30-year-old with just a tad over $1 million in dead cap with a savings of around $6.25 million.

And given his play and the team’s need to upgrade at the position, that’s likely a move they’ll be willing to make.

Whitehead has served the Raiders well over the last two years, but it’s time for the team to get younger and more productive at the position.