Ailing at linebacker, the Raiders are taking a look at a longtime starter. Mark Barron, who missed all of last season, is in Las Vegas for a workout, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.
The Broncos brought Barron aboard last year, but the former first-round pick did not play. Hamstring and pectoral injuries sidelined Barron last year, and the Broncos ended up cutting ties with him in December. This marks the first Barron connection this year.
Nicholas Morrow, Nick Kwiatkoski and Darron Lee are currently down with injuries for the Raiders. While Kwiatkoski is expected back soon, Jon Gruden expressed concern about the foot injury Morrow suffered in practice last week.
Barron has made 102 career starts. Though a chunk of those have come at safety, the 31-year-old defender has been entrenched at linebacker since he joined the Rams in 2015. Barron has played with the Buccaneers, Rams and Steelers during his career.
Teams also have until 3pm CT Tuesday to trim their rosters from 85 to 80, and the Raiders made Rasul Douglas a somewhat surprising early cut, Yates adds. The team signed Douglas in April. Las Vegas rosters fellow veteran corners Casey Hayward, Blidi Wreh-Wilson and Nevin Lawson but also houses a host of recent draftees, creating a roster crunch of sorts at this position.
Douglas, 26, is a vested veteran after spending three seasons with the Eagles and one with the Panthers. The Eagles parted ways with Douglas nearly a year ago, leading to his stopover in Charlotte. His 11 starts with the Panthers marked a career-high total. The former third-round pick contributed on Philadelphia’s Super Bowl LII-winning team four years ago, but he will need to find another new home after Monday’s Raiders decision.
In addition to the Douglas release, the Raiders waived guard Parker Ehinger and punter Corliss Waitman.
Barron was all kinds of bad as a Steeler. For someone whose strength was supposed to be pass defense he looked like he couldn’t cover himself in bed.
Literally the truth… when as a Steelers fan I seen him playing, I knew it was about to be a big play coming in/over the middle when he was covering. Super bad.