Last week, there were reports that the Raiders will be releasing both starting guards, Gabe Jackson and Richie Incognito in cost-cutting moves. While gaining some cap money is important, it leaves them in a precarious situation at guard.
Now, along with the reports that the Raiders will be releasing Incognito, there are those who say the Raiders intend on bringing him back on a lower salary.
Even if that happens, there is still the question of what to do at the other guard position. And Denzelle Good is the most logical answer to that question.
Good filled in at left guard most of last season and even played a couple of games at right tackle. That’s the primary reason why re-signing him is a sensible move. But one look at the free-agent market only strengthens that.
There are really only two sure-fire proven starting guards out there in Brandon Scherff and Joe Thuney. Both figure to get big paydays, and if the Raiders could afford that, they wouldn’t have dumped the starters they have.
After those two, there’s a significant drop-off in talent at the position. In fact, one could argue that Good *is* the next best guard on the market.
The only others out there who could be deemed worthy to step in as a starter would be Germain Ifedi and Jon Feliciano. And you can probably rule out the latter, based on his tweet immediately following the Raiders’ release of Jackson.
I know he happy af rn
— Jonathan Feliciano (@MongoFeliciano) March 3, 2021
Feliciano was selected by the Raiders in the fourth round of the 2015 draft and was never named a starter. He had to leave as a free agent to sign with the Bills before he got his shot.
For Ifedi’s part, he was a first-round pick by the Seahawks while Tom Cable was the offensive line coach there. He was drafted to play tackle, and did so for three years, but was never great there. He left as a free agent last offseason, signing a one-year deal with the Bears, where he was moved to guard.
Soooo, yeah. Ifedi would not be an obvious upgrade to Good at the guard spot, so once again it just makes sense to hold onto the guy they have in-house instead of possibly having to compete with other teams for his services or an outside free agent. They’re going to have to do plenty of that here in about a week.
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