When it comes to the free safety position, there is no doubt the Oakland Raiders are expected to make several moves to shore up the position in 2016.
When they re-signed safety Nate Allen on Thursday after cutting him on Tuesday, per ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez, it wasn’t exactly the move most Raider fans probably hoped for or expected. Why? Simple: Nate Allen did next to nothing in 2015 to show he should be a priority to sign and keep on the team in 2016.
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In five appearances in 2015, with three of those being starts, Allen had a total of one pick, two passes defended and 11 tackles. Injury problems kept him from contributing more, but the big question is just how much more. Allen came to the Raiders last year as a free agent after parting ways with his original team, the Philadelphia Eagles, who thought very little of him and didn’t put much effort into re-signing him.
Unfortunately for Raider fans, Oakland didn’t take a page out of Philly’s book this season.
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The only good news is that the Raiders got Allen to agree to a (most likely) lower salary after cutting him to save cap space. But it’s not like Oakland needs the space. Actually, they have the opposite problem: per Tom Pelissero of USATODAY Sports, they are hovering dangerously close to the salary cap floor, a minimum that NFL must spend to avoid paying a huge chunk of cash to the NFL players union.
So why rush to re-sign an average player in Allen?
To be fair, Allen didn’t really have enough snaps to be given a real grade in 2015, but if you were to look at all of the scores for safeties by profootballfocus.com last season, Allen scored 172th out of 188 in the league.
It wasn’t an anomaly either: other than 2014, where Allen finished barely in the top 30 overall at 29th, he hasn’t scored well in PFF’s ratings in the last four years. In 2012: 159th. In 2013: 109th. It’s clear that Allen is a bit player at best, and the Raiders didn’t have to worry about him being grabbed on day one or two of NFL free agency in March.
"Nate Allen did next to nothing in 2015 to show he should be a priority to sign and keep on the team in 2016."
Oakland will need not one but two real starters at safety in 2016. Charles Woodson is gone via retirement, and Nate Allen hasn’t shown he has the skill or health history to be one of them. There will be some names with real resumes out there for the taking. Veterans like Eric Weddle, Eric Berry, Reggie Nelson, and many others will most likely be available.
Oakland can’t allow their defense to hold them back in 2016, and re-signing Allen, even at a lower cost, isn’t exactly the statement Raider fans were looking for to show it won’t. Just saving money on a questionable signing from last season isn’t enough for GM Reggie McKenzie to get the team on the right track to compete for the AFC West title like many experts are expecting them to.
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Allen at best gives them depth. What the hurry was to get him back on the team is anyone’s guess at this point, and it didn’t need to happen now.