Las Vegas Raiders: 5 Cut candidates sitting on roster bubble
4. Brandon Parker, OT
In Jon Gruden’s first draft in his return to the silver and black, he undoubtedly made waves with almost every selection. However, one of the more befuddling was taking Brandon Parker, a player who many projected as either a seventh-rounder or a UDFA, with the No. 65 overall pick. And while he was a developmental pick out of NC A&T, that choice has looked like a mistake to this point.
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As a rookie, Parker ranked 79th out of 80 qualifying offensive tackles in Pro Football Focus’ (subscription required) grading metrics. Though he played only 116 snaps last season and thus didn’t qualify for their rankings, he actually graded out worse in his second season. Though they used a third-round pick on Parker, it might be time to just go ahead and save just shy of $600,000 and admit that he was not the right selection where they took him.
3. Derek Carrier, TE
The Raiders hyped up tight end Darren Waller relentlessly heading into last season and, lo and behold, they were right to do so. He emerged as one of the elite pass-catchers at the position in 2019. Meanwhile, the franchise also inked longtime Cowboys tight end Jason Witten in free agency this offseason to pair with Waller and Foster Moreau. So the writing may be on the wall now for Derek Carrier.
Carrier had just 19 targets and 13 receptions for 108 yards last season. But while he’s more of a blocking tight end, he’s not so overwhelmingly dominant in that regard to justify keeping him as the fourth tight end on the roster. As the Raiders can instead save $1.8 million in cutting him, it would be a shock to see Carrier on the final roster.