Not once in the past three years has wide receiver Marcell Ateman been on the Raiders season-opening roster. He was drafted in the 7th round of the 2018 draft and each time the final cuts have rolled around, his name has been among those waived. And yet he keeps hanging around.
Case in point, he just signed with the Raiders on a reserve/futures contract, which means he will enter his fourth offseason with the team. That’s not bad work if you can get it.
Ateman spent nearly the entirety of last season on the team’s practice squad. For most of the season he was on practice squad injured reserve, then he was released and five days later, re-signed to the practice squad.
His first two seasons, he spent some time on the practice squad, but would get called up to the active roster in both seasons, appearing in 18 games with six starts (all in 2018). In that time, he’s caught 20 passes for 270 yards and one touchdown.