Raiders free agency – Syndication Server

Raiders 2025 free agents includes most of team’s defensive starters

The Raiders have some work to do between now and March if they hope to not see their defense gutted in free agency.

Last offseason, the talk was about how many of their defensive starters were coming back because they were still under contract. Well, those chickens have come home to roost, and now they are facing an offseason in which the vast majority of their defensive starters’ contracts are coming up in March.

In total, there are nine Raiders players headed for free agency who were either starters headed into last season or ended up starting the majority of the games this season:

DT Adam Butler (16 starts)
DT John Jenkins (17 starts)
DE Malcolm Koonce (Projected starter, IR)
DE K’Lavon Chaisson (4 starts)
LB Robert Spillane (17 starts)
LB Divine Deablo (14 starts)
CB Nate Hobbs (7 starts)
CB Darnay Holmes (1 start)
S Tre’von Moehrig (17 starts)
S Marcus Epps (3 starts, IR)
S Isaiah Pola-Mao (RFA, 14 starts)

There are far fewer on the offensive side of the ball:

RB Alexander Mattison
RB Ameer Abdullah
WR Terrace Marshall
TE Harrison Bryant
T Andrus Peat
G Cody Whitehair

The Raiders are projected to have the second most cap space in the league this offseason behind only the Patriots. And they will need to use a good portion of that to make sure their defense doesn’t get gutted in free agency.

Raiders sign 12 players to reserve/future deals

The Raiders added a dozen players to the offseason roster on Monday including a couple former mid-round drafted players.

The first order of business for the Raiders at the close of the 2024 NFL season was to sign those players who they wish to have on the offseason roster. Known as reserve/future deals. They started with these 12 players:

Several of these players spent last offseason with the team. Many come from the team’s practice squad.

Notable names include 2024 seventh round pick CB MJ Devonshire, former CFL star return specialist Tyreik McAllister, former round four LB Brandon Smith, former round four RB Isaiah Spiller, and WR Kristian Wilkerson who enters his third offseason with the team.

Along with the other players under contract, the Raiders have a base of players to begin their offseason roster.

Raiders get help at wide receiver, signing former Panthers 2nd rounder

Some help has arrived with the Raiders signing former Panthers second rounder receiver Terrace Marshall to the practice squad.

This week, the Raiders are taking some drastic action at several position in their attempts to find some production on the offensive side of the ball.

Tuesday along with adding former Falcons starting QB Desmond Ridder off the Cardinals practice squad, they signed wide receiver Terrace Marshall to the practice squad.

Marshall was a round two pick by the Panthers in the 2021 draft out of LSU. He played three seasons in Carolina, appearing in 36 games with 16 starts.

The 6-2, 200-pounder has 64 career catches for 767 yards and one touchdown. His best season was in 2022 when he caught 28 passes for 490 yards (17.5 yards per catch) and a touchdown.

But after a down year, he was released in the final roster cuts last August. He caught on with the 49ers on their practice squad but was released again last week.

It wouldn’t take much for him to be worthy of a shot with the Raiders who have been struggling to field an even serviceable wide receiver corps since Davante Adams’ trade request and Jakobi Meyers’ ankle injury.

Salary cap impact for Raiders from Davante Adams trade

What kind of money is freed up for the Raiders this season and beyond after the trade that sent Davante Adams to the Jets.

Davante Adams is gone. And with him goes his salary for the remainder of this season and beyond. Just how does Adams’s departure affect the Raiders money against the cap? Glad you asked.

First let’s look at this season’s cap.

For the final 11 games this season, the Raiders save $11.6 million.

Had Adams been traded away the week he requested it, the number would have been closer to $13.8 million, but they paid him around $1.1 million for the last two weeks, bringing it down to the number it sits now.

They are currently sixth in the league in available cap space with $21.8 million according to Overthecap.com.

What about next year?

Not that Adams was ever going to be playing additional seasons on his current contract with its bloated numbers, but now it’s the Jets’ problem. The Raiders take $28.4 million off the 2025 books, bringing their salary cap room to a projected $104 million for next season. Only the Patriots are expected to have more cap room next year.

This could change before free agency opens in March, and probably should. With Nate Hobbs looking for an extension and contracts for Maxx Crosby and Kolton Miller entering non-guaranteed years, the Raiders figure to use some of that money to restructure and likely extend their deals.

Raiders make 4 roster moves ahead of Week 5 vs Broncos

Among several roster moves for the Raiders, they signed former first round pick K’Lavon Chaisson to the active roster from the practice squad.

It didn’t take long for K’Lavon Chaisson to get the call up from the practice squad to the active roster. Two weeks ago the team signed the former first round pick to the practice squad due to the injury to Tyree Wilson. Then last week against the Browns, he was activated due in part to the ankle injury to Maxx Crosby that caused Crosby to miss the game. Now they’ve made it official.

With the team sending LB Luke Masterson to the injured reserve, the Raiders have signed Chaisson to the active roster just ahead of facing the rival Broncos in Denver.

Crosby is Questionable for the game, so Chaisson’s addition could be to once again add much needed depth at the position.

Chaissaon played 41 snaps (69%) last week in his debut with the Raiders, collecting four combined tackles in that time.

In addition, the Raiders elevated RB Sincer McCormick and WR Alex Bachman from the practice squad.

Raiders re-sign rookie camp standout WR to practice squad

Raiders re-sign rookie camp standout to practice squad

Come the 53-man roster cutdown last month, Ramel Keyton was inside the bubble. A standout training camp and preseason earned the undrafted rookie a roster spot. But as often happens, other moves had to be made and Keyton ultimately lost a numbers game.

Keyton was waived Saturday before the Raiders Week 4 matchup with the Browns. He cleared waivers and today they re-signed him to the practice squad.

The former Tennessee wide receiver was opening some eyes in camp for the Raiders. And he made his first headlines with his standout performance in the team’s camp scrimmage.

Come their final preseason game, Keyton put his skills on display for the rest of the league, when he led the team with four catches for 76 yards. With the rest of the NFL taking notice, they felt they needed to hold onto him rather than risk another team scooping him up.

Bringing him back Monday allows them to continue to try and develop him.

Raiders make several roster moves ahead of Week 4 matchup with Browns

Raiders did some work to add depth to the roster when they face the Browns Sunday.

Due to a string of injuries at various positions for the Raiders, they shuffled around some players ahead of their game against the Browns on Sunday.

First, they signed John Samuel Shenker from the practice squad. Shenker spent the past two offseasons with the Raiders. His addition was to add depth with Michael Mayer not playing due to personal reasons.

In a corresponding move, the Raiders waived wide receiver Ramel Keyton who impressed in camp and preseason as an undrafted rookie out of Tennessee.

Since they still need depth at receiver due to Davante Adams not playing, they activated Alex Bachman from the practice squad. Bachman had been added to the offseason roster late in training camp.

Also getting a call up from the practice squad was DE K’Lavon Chaisson. He was signed to the practice squad a couple weeks ago in light of the season-ending injury to Malcolm Koonce. Now with Maxx Crosby expected to miss Sunday’s game with an ankle injury, the former first rounder gets the call up.

Former Raiders CB Tyler Hall signs with Seahawks

The last time Tyler Hall took the field as an NFL player he was wearing Silver & Black. That was Week 16 of last season. Now heading into Week four of this season, Hall has found a new home. He is signing with the Seahawks according to his agent ISA Management.

Hall spent his first two NFL seasons with the Falcons and Rams, getting a Super Bowl ring in his second NFL season.

He joined the Raiders the following offseason and spent two seasons in Las Vegas, appearing in 18 games and starting six. In that time he put up four pass breakups and 40 tackles and a sack.

He wasn’t brought back this offseason and signed with the Philadelphia Eagles only to get injured in camp and was waived.

Now healthy again, the fifth year pro has joined the Seahawks hoping to revive and continue his NFL career. Hall will turn 26 on Halloween.

Raiders activate former 1st round pick days after signing him to practice squad

K’Lavon Chaisson gets the call up days after signing him to practice squad

You can’t have too many pass rushers. But you can have too few. And at present the Raiders are lacking in that department.

They lost Malcolm Koonce to a knee injury just before the season opener, prompting them to sign Charles Snowden off the practice squad to the active roster. Then six snaps into that game, they lost Tyree Wilson to a knee injury.

Koonce’s injury had him placed on injured reserve. The Wilson knee injury is a sprain, which will have him out an unknown amount of time. To prepare for his absence, and to replace Snowden’s spot on the practice squad, they added K’Lavon Chaisson to the practice squad.

The former first round pick is still just 25 and therefore still carries that hope that he will live up to his potential. And with Wilson officially OUT this week, the Raiders are apparently ready to give him a shot already.

C/haisson has been activated from the practice squad for Sunday’s game in Baltimore along with CB Sam Webb who had been elevated for the season opener as well.

With Chaisson in the mix, the Raiders will go into the game with four edge rushers on the roster along with Maxx Crosby, Janarius Robinson, and Snowden.

Webb offers needed depth as well, giving them five active cornerbacks along with Nate Hobbs, Jack Jones, Jakorian Bennett, and Darnay Holmes.

Raiders sign former 1st round EDGE to replace injured former 1st round EDGE

How do you replace a former top pick edge rusher? Why, with another former top pick edge rusher, of course.

Last Thursday, the Raiders lost starting edge rusher Malcolm Koonce to a knee injury. Six snaps into the game on Sunday, they lost former seventh overall pick Tyree Wilson to a knee injury. Thus leaving the position not only weaker, but lacking depth.

The Koonce injury was a huge blow. But they were hoping for the depth to step up and lessen that blow until Koonce could return. The Wilson injury meant something needed to happen.

“It got thin real quick,” Pierce said of the defensive end depth. “Telesco’s working on that as we speak.”

Well, Telesco’s work has yielded a result as the Raiders have signed former first round pick (20th overall) K’Lavon Chaissan to their practice squad.

Chaisson was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars with the 20th overall pick in the 2020 draft out of LSU.

Over four season in Jacksonville, he had just five career sacks. They didn’t pick up his fifth year option and he left as a free agent. He signed with the Panthers this offseason and was released last week, ahead of the season opener.

Along with the Chaisson addition, the Raiders have also added CB Kyu Blu Kelly to the practice squad. Kelly was a 5th round pick by the Ravens in the 2023 draft out of Stanford. He didn’t make the roster out of camp and spent time on three different teams last season — the Packers, Seahawks, and Commanders.