5. Zay Jones, WR
When Zay Jones was selected as a second-round pick by the Buffalo Bills in the 2017 draft, there were a lot of people who were sold on the wide receiver’s ability. He was a massively productive player in East Carolina’s Air-Raid offense at the time and the hope was that he could be a target hog in the NFL as well.
More from NFL Spin Zone
- Dallas Cowboys made the trade everyone else should have made
- Pittsburgh Steelers rookie sleeper everyone should be talking about
- Anthony Richardson putting jaw-dropping talent on display immediately
- Denver Broncos’ stud wide receiver might be out for a while
- Washington Commanders: Three takeaways from win over Ravens
There’s no question that he has flashed his potential in his brief stint in the NFL to this point, most notably catching seven touchdowns in 2018 with the Bills while being targeted over 100 times. However, some off-field issues and unreliability/inconsistency on the field ultimately led to the Bills shipping him to the Raiders for a 2021 fifth-round pick.
The soon-to-be 24-year-old Jones played 10 games with the silver and black and had a modest impact, to say the least. He did haul in an impressive 20 of his 27 targets for Oakland but managed only 147 yards and failed to find the end zone. If nothing else, it was clear that Jones was not part of the answer to the Raiders’ problems.
Now entering the 2020 offseason and with the move to Las Vegas, this team needs to seriously upgrade at wide receiver to help out Derek Carr or anyone else at quarterback. And that should mean cutting ties with Jones. Vegas can recoup $1,389,519 by cutting the young wideout with no dead cap hit. With his limited production and what this franchise needs to do, that cap space is more valuable to them than keeping Jones on the roster.