Surprise! The Raiders have cap space once again. It took some doing and some tough decisions by Mike Mayock and Jon Gruden, but the team officially has enough cap space to target some of the biggest names in free agency.
In a recent article by Vic Tafur of The Athletic, he broke down all 32 teams by their amount of cap space available heading into free agency. The Raiders, surprisingly enough, come in at No. 7 with approximately $33.7 million in space. Here is what Tafur had to say about their cap situation:
“Thanks to a bunch of moves on the offensive line the past two weeks, the Raiders have more needs than they did at the end of the season. Throwing money around the past two years didn’t work out too well for Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock. Can they resist not doing it again?”
To answer Tafur’s question, no. Mayock and Gruden are going to be active in free agency and they should given their holes on the offensive line and defense. But the real challenge will be not to spend recklessly.
The Raiders would love to retain Nelson Agholor, but will he price himself out of Las Vegas? Probably not. But is there a chance the Raiders think they could upgrade from Agholor and go after a JuJu Smith-Schuster or a Will Fuller? That will be the challenge as the Raiders would be wise to spend those free-agent dollars on defense rather than more offensive weapons.
Expect the Raiders to be active early next week in free agency and don’t be surprised if they target a few big-name defenders, such as Shaq Barrett or Richard Sherman. This is a team that has to get better on defense and now they have the cap space to be aggressive.
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