Oakland Raiders: 5 Moves to improve in 2019 offseason
By Cory Kinnan
Usher aging veterans out the door
Last offseason, Gruden and company signed numerous veterans over the age of 30, including Jordy Nelson, and have numerous players either bordering 30 or over that hill. The Raiders should be looking to part ways with such players this offseaon.
Moving on from Nelson would cause the team to eat only a small $1.8 million in dead money, and fellow wide receiver Seth Roberts can be cut without penalty; the Raiders would see a cap relief of $3.6 millon for Nelson, $4.6 million for Roberts. While the team is currently slim at the receiver position, they can certainly do better than a core led by Nelson, Roberts, and Martavis Bryant.
Other vets that can be moved with little to no dead money include the previously mentioned Osemele, Donald Penn, and A.J. McCarron. While cap flexibility is not a worry just yet for Oakland, the team has always been a popular destination for free agents, and they have the assets to trade for other big named targets.
Having a bunch of aging veterans while in a period of transition as the team prepares to move to Las Vegas is not a sexy way to sell tickets and win over a new fan base. The team needs to get younger and use any cap flexibility to inject some talent back into their lineup.