It’s fairly standard for contracts to have language written into them that guarantees all or part of their salary the following season three days after the previous season is done. The Super Bowl was Sunday, which means the Raiders had to make a decision by today to either let those guarantees kick in or cut bait.
In particular, there were four players on whom the Raiders had a decision to make. Center Rodney Hudson ($12.65M in 2020 and $3.5M in 2021), WR Tyrell Williams ($11M), G Richie Incognito ($5M), and QB Derek Carr ($2.9M), according to OverTheCap.com.
Hudson was a no-brainer, they just gave Richie Incognito a 2-year extension, and Derek Carr’s guarantee was just a small fraction of his $18.9 million base salary, raising his dead money on release or trade from $5 million to $7.9 million. So, those all figured to happen and did.
Tyrell Williams was the only one who was somewhat in question. The $11 million guarantee is his entire salary, so if the team decided to move on, they could do so free and clear. For Williams, no news is good news.
He was signed last offseason and the team said several times that when they initially courted him it was as a number one receiver. That changed when they were able to trade for Antonio Brown. And then with Brown’s epic meltdown and subsequent release, Williams was back to being the number one receiver. Though his play didn’t bear this out.
Williams was bogged down by a plantar fascia injury much of the season and didn’t offer Derek Carr and the Raiders the threat they needed in a number one receiver.
His $11 million price tag is fairly high, but it’s still 19th in the league at his position.
The 6-4, 205-pounder is an X-receiver type. A long strider who should be able to win 50/50 jump balls. He flashed that at times in the season. His return still leaves the team in need of speed as Mike Mayock pointed out in a recent interview during the Senior Bowl.
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