Minor NFL Transactions: 5/7/17
Here are today’s minor moves:
- The Raiders saw enough from two tryout defenders over the weekend to extend offers. Former Tennessee defensive lineman LaTroy Lewis and ex-Wagner College linebacker Najee Harris will sign with the team, Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports (Twitter links). Both agreed to three-year deals, although they will obviously have uphill battles due to the circumstances of their respective signings. Lewis played both defensive end and tackle with the Volunteers.
- The Jets announced that they’ve signed tryout offensive linemen Benjamin Braden and Chris Bordelon. In order to create roster space, New York has waived offensive lineman Donald Hawkins and long snapper Zach Triner. Braden appeared in 38 games during his career at Michigan, while Bordelon was a 12-game starter for Nicholls State in 2016. Hawkins, meanwhile, played in seven contests for Carolina last season, but finished out the year with Gang Green.
Earlier updates:
- The Ravens have released RB Stephen Houston, per Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun (via Twitter).
- The Panthers signed their entire draft class several days ago, and now they are working on filling out their 90-man roster. As Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk reports, Carolina has signed LB Kyle Kragen (whose father, Greg Kragen, was a member of the Panthers’ 1995 expansion team), LB Alex Bazzie, and DT Gabriel Mass.
Raiders Sign 17 UDFAs
The Raiders have signed 17 undrafted free agents, according to a team announcement:
- Breon Borders, CB (Duke)
- Paul Boyette, DT (Texas)
- Chauncey Briggs, OT (SMU)
- Fadol Brown, DE (Mississippi)
- Pharaoh Brown, TE (Oregon)
- Anthony Cioffi, S (Rutgers)
- Keon Hatcher, WR (Arkansas)
- Chris Humes, CB (Arkansas State)
- Rickey Jefferson, S (LSU)
- Anthony Kukwa, LS (Lake Erie)
- Nicholas Morrow, LB (Greenville)
- Jordan Simmons, G (USC)
- Ahmad Thomas, S (Oklahoma)
- Jordan Wade, DT (Oklahoma)
- Issac Whitney, WR (USC)
- Xavier Woodson-Luster, LB (Arkansas State)
- Ishmael Zamora, WR (Baylor)
Cioffi, a product of Jonathan Dayton High School in Springfield, N.J., stayed close to home for college and worked his way up to a starting role in his senior year at Rutgers. Cioffi led all Scarlet Knights defensive backs last season in tackles (63) and interceptions (2). Prior to the draft, he reportedly ran a 4.37 second 40-yard-dash in training.
Zamora was suspended for three games last season after videos emerged of him beating his dog. He was not invited to this year’s draft combine and that was likely the results of his off-the-field behavior. He appeared in ten games last season for Baylor, tallying 63 catches for 809 yards and ten touchdowns.
Raiders Looking To Add Middle Linebacker
The Raiders are in the market for a middle linebacker. Coach Jack Del Rio tells the NFL Network that MLB is the team’s biggest area of need. 
“I don’t know that we’ve adequately addressed our middle linebacker position, to be honest,” Del Rio said (transcript Scott Bair of via NBC Bay Area). “I think we have some work to do there. The rest of our roster is pretty well situated, but we’ll be looking for a linebacker and we’ll continue to look, whether it’s the waiver wire, trades or available guys out there, veterans on the street. We’ll continue to look.”
The Raiders did select Wake Forest’s Marquel Lee in the fifth round, but it sounds like Oakland wants to add someone in the middle that can make an impact right away. The Raiders could fill that void by circling back to free agent Perry Riley and GM Reggie McKenzie recently said that the door isn’t completely closed on a reunion.
Riley, 29, had 48 total tackles, two forced fumbles, and one pass deflection in eleven games for Oakland last season. He’s one of the most high-profile linebackers available, but we haven’t heard much about him since free agency opened in March. Despite the apparent lack of interest, the advanced metrics at Pro Football Focus indicate that Riley actually had a career year in 2016 with an 84.8 overall score that dwarfs his work in the previous three seasons. He ranked as the 15th best linebacker in the NFL last year, per PFF.
Raiders Notes: Lynch, Conley
- The Raiders‘ deal with running back Marshawn Lynch is worth $9MM over two years, reports Ben Volin of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). In 2017, Lynch will earn a fully guaranteed base salary of $1.35MM plus a $1MM roster bonus due May 3 (which makes it effectively guaranteed). Lynch can also bring in $500K in per-game roster bonuses and $150K via a workout bonus. In 2018, Lynch’s cap number will be $6MM — including a $4MM base salary — but because none of that money is guaranteed (and because Oakland didn’t use a signing bonus), the Raiders can cut Lynch after 2017 with no dead money accelerating onto their cap.
- Even if new Raiders cornerback Gareon Conley is handed felony charges after an alleged sexual assault, he can’t be suspended by the NFL, league spokesman Brian McCarthy confirmed to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. Because the incident and accusations occurred prior to Conley entering the league, the NFL cannot discipline him, although the episode come into play down the line. If Conley were to violate the NFL’s conduct policy going forward, he could be treated as a “repeat offender,” according to Florio.
Latest On Raiders CB Gareon Conley
9:28pm: Spellacy has clarified his previous comments, telling Rapoport via text message: “When I referenced a ‘consensual sexual event,’ I was NOT referring to intercourse. That did NOT happen.” Spellacy added, “Nothing that Gareon has said has been inconsistent” (Twitter links).
9:13pm: Raiders first-round pick Gareon Conley, who was accused of sexual assault before the draft, gave a statement and provided a DNA sample to Cleveland police Monday, his attorney, Kevin Spellacy, told Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. It could be six to eight weeks before the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office decides whether to pursue charges against the former Ohio State cornerback, according to Spellacy.
In speaking with police, Conley claimed that he and his accuser had a consensual sexual encounter on April 9, per Spellacy. That “changes everything,” writes Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. After all, when news of the accusation came to light last week, TMZ reported that two of Conley’s friends told police that he did not have sex with the woman in question. With that in mind, this is now a “he said, she said situation,” notes Florio (also an attorney), who points out that Conley’s fate might ultimately rest with a jury. And if that jury believes Conley’s accuser, he could be indicted on first-degree felony charges and face a three- to eight-year prison sentence.
Less serious than Conley’s predicament is the plight of the Raiders, who went out on a limb in using the 24th overall pick on him. The Raiders conducted their own investigation before drafting Conley, with general manager Reggie McKenzie telling Peter King of The MMQB: “I understand the issues involved. But we did our research, and we read all the reports, and we did more than our due diligence. After all the information we got, we were comfortable with making this choice and confident in who this player is.”
Conley, for his part, has strongly denied any wrongdoing.
Cardinals Acquire No. 208 From Raiders
The Cardinals have acquired pick No. 208 from the Raiders in exchange for the No. 221 and No. 231 picks.
Arizona will select Auburn safety Johnathan Ford.
AFC Draft Notes: Mixon, Raiders, Dolphins
Some assorted draft notes from around the AFC…
- Half the league didn’t have embattled running back Joe Mixon on their draft board, tweets NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport. Meanwhile, other evaluators believe he was the best overall running back if they were only evaluating on-field skills. ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter adds that only four teams said they would consider drafting Mixon. We can assume that one of those four organizations was the Bengals, who selected the running back in the second round.
- The Raiders selected UConn safety Obi Melifonwu in the second round, although Rapoport tweets that the organization was close to selecting the defensive back in the first.
- The Dolphins ultimately selected defensive end Charles Harris with the 22nd pick on Thursday night. However, if the Missouri product hadn’t been available, the Miami Herald’s Armando Salguero says (via Twitter) that the team would have selected Michigan defensive end Taco Charlton.
- The Broncos were rather committed to selecting Florida State defensive end DeMarcus Walker. In fact, general manager John Elway revealed that he was willing to trade up if he needed to. “We made a lot of attempts to get up in (second round) to trade for Walker,” Elway told Troy Renck of Denver7 (Twitter link). “Things worked out.” Walker was selected by the Broncos with the 51st overall pick.
- Good news out of Houston: Rapoport tweets that the Texans don’t believe running back D’Onta Foreman needs surgery on the stress fracture in his foot. The team found “no progressions in the injury at rechecks,” which apparently made them comfortable enough to select him in the third round.
Gareon Conley Confident Name Will Be Cleared
- The Raiders were not the team to request a polygraph test from Ohio State cornerback Gareon Conley. Instead, it was the Ravens who ordered the test, as Peter King of The MMQB writes. Once the results came in, Conley’s camp forwarded them to teams around the league, but the Raiders would not say whether the results impacted their evaluation of what happened. Conley will meet with Cleveland police on Monday and he’s “very confident that it will be resolved” (Twitter link via Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Journal Review). First, however, the 24th overall pick is headed to the Raiders’ facility on Friday to meet with team brass.
Raiders Draft Gareon Conley
The Raiders have selected cornerback Gareon Conley with the No. 24 pick. Conley, once thought to have top ten potential, had everything thrown into flux this week when a woman accused him of sexual assault. 
After the allegations came to light on Tuesday, teams worked tirelessly to get to the bottom of what happened between Conley and a young woman in his Cleveland hotel room. After investigating, the Raiders obviously felt that there was no serious wrongdoing on the part of the Ohio State cornerback.
There was talk this week that Conley would not be drafted at all or perhaps would slip to the third round. He is surely breathing a sigh of relief after being taken by the Raiders late in the first round.
Conley will likely supplant David Amerson as the team’s No. 2 cornerback. With Sean Smith and Conley, the Raiders have themselves a solid duo.
Raiders Acquire Marshawn Lynch
It’s officially official: Marshawn Lynch is a member of the Raiders. Lynch’s representatives and the team have agreed to terms on a two-year deal.
Early Wednesday morning, the Raiders and Seahawks hammered out the framework of a trade that sending the the Raiders’ 2018 fifth-round pick to the Seahawks in exchange for Lynch and the Seahawks’ 2018 sixth-round pick. The only box to check was a passed physical, and Lynch has satisfied that requirement on Wednesday afternoon.
Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie said the draft was his deadline for a potential Lynch deal. Now, he has his starting running back in place and can satisfy other areas of need in the draft. Without Lynch, a running back would have been in consideration as early as the No. 24 overall pick.
Lynch’s deal with the Raiders will pay him a $3MM base for the 2017 season with a chance to earn $2MM more if he gains 1,000 yards. The base value of the contract is $9MM and the max is $16.5MM, giving him similar upside to Adrian Peterson‘s deal with the Saints.
In Lynch, the Raiders acquire one of the NFL’s best running backs in recent memory, though he does not come without question marks. Lynch is a 30-year-old with over 2,100 carries on his odometer and he wasn’t particularly effective in his most recent action. The last time we saw Lynch, he averaged 3.8 yards per attempt on 111 carries during an injury-shortened, seven-game 2015 campaign. They’re hoping to see Lynch in his 2014 form, a season in which he averaged 4.7 yards per carry and had a career-high 13 touchdowns on the ground.
Photo courtesy of Pro Football Rumors on Instagram. Details provided by Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, Jay Glazer of FOX Sports (on Twitter), and Adam Schefter of ESPN.com hears (Twitter link).