Within moments of the Raiders signing seventh round pick C Jimmy Morrissey to his rookie deal, the Raiders got another draft pick locked in, signing fourth round safety Tyree Gillespie to his four-year rookie deal.
The deal figures to be worth $3.98 million over four years. His 2021 salary cap figure of $785K falls below the current top 51 cutoff, so it doesn’t count in the total for the moment.
Gillespie was a fulltime starter at Missouri the past three seasons. He put up solid tackle numbers over those three seasons (144) and added 12 combined pass breakups, but didn’t record a single interception.
Some criticized the pick of Gillespie in the fourth round in part because the Raiders had already used their second round pick on safety Trevon Moehrig and a third round pick on former Virginia Tech safety Divine Deablo. But Moehrig will play free safety, Deablo will switch to linebacker, and Gillespie will line up primarily at strong safety, where he will compete with former first round pick Johnathan Abram.
A strong tackler, Gillespie also figures to factor heavily on special teams.