Raiders Deciding Between Richard, Washington?
- Given that Marshawn Lynch and Doug Martin sit atop the Raiders‘ running back depth chart, Oakland will likely decide between keeping Jalen Richard or DeAndre Washington, as Scott Bair on NBC Sports Bay Area writes. The only problem? Richard and Washington are extremely similar players, with close physical statures (each stands 5’8″ and 205 pounds) and overall production. Both Richard and Washington averaged greater than five yards per carry during their respective rookie seasons in 2016, but each took a backseat in 2017 after Lynch was acquired from the Seahawks. Making the decision even more difficult is that both Richard and Washington return punts and kicks (in 2017, they both played exactly 33.4% of Oakland’s special teams snaps!). Whichever player is ultimately cut is sure to quickly find another home, possibly through the wavier system.
Bashaud Breeland Leaves Raiders Visit Without Deal
In the third cycle of Bashaud Breeland‘s free agency, the Raiders secured the first visit. They brought the UFA cornerback in on Sunday and continued to meet with the former Redskins starter Monday, but Breeland left the facility without a deal, Vic Tafur of The Athletic tweets.
This would mean a fourth visit will come to pass for the fifth-year defender. The Chiefs secured a meeting with Breeland for Tuesday, and it looks like he’s intent on surveying his options.
Breeland’s started 58 games since the Redskins made him a second-round pick in 2014 and is one of the top available players on the market. He initially agreed to a three-year, $24MM deal with the Panthers, but an offseason foot injury nixed the pact. The Cardinals then hosted Breeland once he healed up but went in another direction.
Breeland spent four years playing for a Jay Gruden-coached team, so a landing with one now led by Jon Gruden would have certainly been unique. The Raiders still are flanking Gareon Conley with a host of veteran corners, having signed Rashaan Melvin, Shareece Wright and Leon Hall this offseason.
The Chiefs hold just more than $7MM in cap space compared to the Raiders’ $2MM-plus. Interestingly, Eli Rogers just left his Chiefs visit without a deal. While his next stop is Cleveland, the slot receiver also has a meeting in Oakland scheduled for this week.
Raiders Notes: Sparano, Mack
Tony Sparano changed the Raiders‘ culture during his time in Oakland, Vic Tafur of The Athletic writes. Sparano, who died unexpectedly over the weekend, didn’t win when he was at the helm of the Raiders, but he earned the respect of his players through his hard work and love of the game.
- There’s reason to believe that Khalil Mack could take an aggressive approach towards his negotiations with the Raiders, Joel Corry of CBSSports.com tweets. Corry notes that Mack is represented by Joel Segal, who represented running back Chris Johnson‘s during his holdout with the Titans in 2011. If Mack has the same resolve as Johnson, the Raiders may not see him until he gets a new deal. For reference, Johnson’s holdout in 2011 was not resolved until early September.
Bashaud Breeland To Visit Raiders, Chiefs
Four-year Redskins starter Bashaud Breeland remains on the market, despite having agreed to an $8MM-per-year deal with the Panthers months ago. But the fifth-year cornerback has surmounted the foot injury that scuttled that agreement and is going to see what the pre-training camp market looks like.
Breeland will visit the Raiders and Chiefs next week, Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com tweets. He’ll head to Oakland on Sunday, with Demovsky adding that visit is slated to go into Monday as well, and is scheduled to trek to Kansas City on Tuesday.
Following his recovery from an offseason foot injury, Breeland also visited the Cardinals. But Arizona subsequently traded for Jamar Taylor, who is now in line to start opposite Patrick Peterson. The parties moved on, but the 26-year-old defender has an obvious connection in Oakland.
With Breeland (Pro Football Focus’ No. 54 corner in 2017) having played for Jay Gruden for four seasons, it’s likely Jon Gruden will have good information about the corner. The former Washington second-round pick started 58 games during his Redskins run. The Raiders moved on from their Sean Smith/David Amerson tandem this offseason but have Gareon Conley now healthy and added veterans Rashaan Melvin, Shareece Wright and Leon Hall. Breeland is younger than each of those offseason signees and would add to a crowded competition of experienced performers.
Kansas City signed Amerson but has a glaring vacancy at outside corner. The Chiefs traded Marcus Peters for what was not considered to be strong value and doesn’t have an obvious replacement for the All-Pro. Former Breeland teammate Kendall Fuller is now expected to start as one of the Chiefs’ outside corners, but he thrived in 2017 as a slot stopper. It’s possible Kansas City uses Fuller like Denver deploys Chris Harris — as an outside man in base sets and in the slot in sub-packages — but it remains to be seen how the Chiefs will use Fuller.
The team is also moving Steven Nelson from the slot spot to an outside role as well, but Breeland would look to have a better shot at surefire playing time in western Missouri than in the Bay Area due to Peters’ departure.
Interestingly, the AFC West rivals also could be battling for another notable UFA, with each slated to meet with former Steelers wideout Eli Rogers.
Eli Rogers To Work Out For Browns, Raiders
When Eli Rogers tweeted Friday he had options for his 2018 season, it doesn’t look like the young slot receiver was exaggerating.
In addition to a Chiefs workout, Rogers will audition for the Browns and Raiders, according to Pro Football Talk (on Twitter). The workouts will take place next week.
The top slot option for the 2016 Steelers, Rogers saw his role reduced last season. His most memorable sequence came on a seminal Pittsburgh mistake, with a Ben Roethlisberger pass to a tightly covered Rogers resulting in a Patriots game-sealing interception that ended up paving a clear path for New England to secure the AFC’s No. 1 seed. In 2016, however, the former UDFA out of Louisville caught 48 passes for 594 yards and three touchdowns.
Rogers tore an ACL in the Steelers’ divisional-round loss, but Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reported the 25-year-old pass-catcher’s made a surprisingly quick recovery.
Seth Roberts still resides as the Raiders’ top slot option, despite delivering lower-end-to-middling production the past two years. Rogers would represent a challenge for that role and give the Raiders some additional depth behind Amari Cooper and Jordy Nelson in the process. Oakland now employs Rogers’ former Pittsburgh teammate, Martavis Bryant, as well. But Bryant may be destined for another suspension, and the ex-Steelers wideouts’ skills don’t exactly overlap, either.
The Browns boast some fluidity among their receiving corps. Behind roster locks Jarvis Landry, Josh Gordon and Antonio Callaway are a few Sashi Brown-era draft picks — Corey Coleman, Rashard Higgins, Ricardo Louis — who are trying to impress a new regime. A Rogers addition would make matters more difficult for that to happen, especially for Higgins or Louis. After an injury-plagued first two seasons, Coleman’s been mentioned as a possible trade candidate.
Latest On Khalil Mack, Raiders
Khalil Mack sat out Raiders mandatory minicamp back in June as he pushed for a new contract. With training camp right around the corner, Jon Gruden made it sound like making the defensive end happy is a top priority. The head coach told ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez that the organization is “going to find a way to get Khalil Mack back” (Twitter link).
“That might be the toughest decision I have to figure out right now,” Gruden added. “We’re not the only team that’s faced with that. It’s tough. It’s part of this business and we’ll just keep our fingers crossed.”
The 2014 fifth-overall pick is scheduled to earn $13.846MM next season after having his fifth-year option picked up, but he’s pushing for a long-term deal before he hits free agency next offseason. As our own Zach Links previously pointed out, Aaron Donald and Jadeveon Clowney are in similar situations, and Mack could be waiting to see if one of the other 2014 first-rounders sets the market. Von Miller‘s league-leading average annual salary of $19.1MM seems to be what these defenders are aiming for. For what it’s worth, Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie previously said that the organization wouldn’t use other contracts as a basis for Mack’s extension.
With the organization having already signed quarterback Derek Carr and offensive lineman Gabe Jackson to extensions, it would make sense that they’d now shift their focus to their defensive leader. Mack has made a pair of first-team All-Pro teams, and he’s been named to three straight Pro Bowls. He had another productive season in 2017, finishing with 78 tackles and 10.5 sacks.
Former NFL DE Armonty Bryant Retires
Former NFL defensive end Armonty Bryant has announced his retirement in an Instagram post.
“However hard this may be, and although not the way I wanted to end my career, God has a funny way of timing things out in our lives,” Bryant’s statement reads. “Just before I got a chance to finish my career strong I was diagnosed with end stage renal failure.
Due to this I am forced to announce my official retirement from the sport I have eaten, breathed, slept, dreamt [sic] and loved for my entire life. But this isn’t the end. This is just the beginning of so much more that is coming. I have started a business with a woman I soon get to call my wife. And these opportunities we have together are endless.”
Bryant, 28, entered the league as a Browns seventh-round pick in 2013, and went on to appear in 31 games with Cleveland over the next three seasons. In 2016, Bryant was hit with the first of several suspensions (but his only performance-enhancing drug ban), and was subsequently waived by the Browns.
Claimed off waivers by the Lions, Bryant played in five games for Detroit, but also served two substance abuse suspensions during his time in the Motor City. After being cut by the Lions last October, Bryant hit the workout circuit, but failed to land a new contract until April, when he inked a one-year deal with the Raiders. After less than a month in Oakland (and presumably after he was diagnosed with severe kidney issues), Bryant was cut with a non-football illness designation.
LS Jon Condo Still Looking For Job
Long snapper Jon Condo spent 12 years with the Raiders, earning a pair of Pro Bowl nods along the way. However, the organization moved on from the 36-year-old this offseason, opting to roll with a younger alternative in Andrew DePaola.
Raiders Hope To Play 2019 Season In Oakland
As the second Jon Gruden era begins in Oakland, the Raiders continue to attempt to gain a foothold in Las Vegas while their new stadium is being built. They are going to play in the Bay Area this season, but beyond that, there are no guarantees just yet.
The team does not have a surefire 2019 home. The Raiders’ lease with the Oakland Alameida Coliseum expires after the 2018 season, but their goal is to remain there for 2019, Vincent Bonsignore of the Orange County Register notes.
While UNLV’s home venue — Sam Boyd Stadium — was once seen as a possible contingency plan in case the Raiders and Oakland could not make a lame-duck situation work, that no longer appears to be the case. Bonsignore writes no temporary stadium solution exists in Vegas, so unlike the Rams and Chargers, the Raiders are sticking around in their longtime market while their domed site is being constructed. The 2020 season has been mentioned as the goal for that stadium’s unveiling, but Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes that still isn’t certain.
And if the Raiders are unable to come to terms with Oakland on another lease to play at their 50-plus-year-old stadium for the 2019 season, Bonsignore expects San Diego and San Antonio to surface as possible stopgap home sites.
“As far as the gap between the announcement of the move and the actual moving into the stadium, it’s a tough one,” Mark Davis said, via Bonsignore. “But we want to try and bring a championship to the Bay Area, if we do, that will be fantastic. If we don’t, I can assure you we will have given it all we could to make that happen.”
The Raiders in September 2017 were discussing a lease extension with the city of Oakland for a possible plan to play both the 2019 and ’20 seasons there, in the event a construction delay occurs preventing the team from moving to Las Vegas until 2021. But with those talks being reported nearly 10 months ago, and no such agreement known to have taken place, it adds to the uncertainty surrounding the Raiders’ home following the 2018 campaign.
Davis maintains the eventual exit from Oakland will be agonizing, but he doesn’t regret his decision to relocate after Nevada provided the public funding — a record $750MM — Oakland didn’t.
“It all came down to the public entities and where they felt their efforts should be placed. And obviously we didn’t rank No. 1,” Davis said. “(Oakland) took the approach that why should we give you money? And it was never about them giving us money. And I’ve said that a number of times. All we ever asked for was help to stay in the Bay Area. It’s the most beautiful place in the world. We’ve got the greatest fans in the world up there. But we needed a place that would allow us to compete financially with the rest of the NFL.”
Gruden, Johnson Among Newcomers With Something To Prove
- The Raiders brought in a number of new players and coaches this offseason, and Scott Bair of NBC Sports Bay Area takes a look at the five additions with the most to prove. Head coach Jon Gruden naturally leads the list, with linebacker Derrick Johnson ranking second. Bair notes that Johnson is expected to provide Oakland’s defense with some much-needed leadership, and the signing will be a win if he can prove to be a three-down linebacker. Running back Doug Martin, wideout Jordy Nelson, and cornerback Rashaan Melvin also earned spots on the list.
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