The 2008 Raider Free Agent Purge Nears Completion
The roster trimming party in Oakland is in full swing with Kwame Harris and Justin Griffith becoming the la
test casualties as Al Davis glances nervously at the countdown to free agency clock on his desk.
The news of Harris being dropped is only shocking in regards to the amount of time it took to occur. Yet another one of the members of the woeful 2008 Raider free agent class has been shown the exit. Years from now many will wonder which class was filled with more duds: The 2008 Raider free agents or the class in the 1987 Carl Reiner film “Summer School”.
Harris, a former first round pick of the 49ers, was given a three year contract last March yet by season’s end found himself watching Mario Henderson playing his position of left tackle. His release will save about $7 million against the cap, or roughly half a Javon Walker. Saying Kwame’s brief Raider career was a disappointment would be like saying that Goldie Hawn’s cleavage had no business being seen at the Oscars last night: It’s pretty obvious.
Justin Griffith’s release can be viewed as a simple roster move and his Wikipedia page best sums up his time as a Raider:
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Career highlights and awards |
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It is being rumored that Tommy Kelly has agreed to restructure his massive contract by changing the way his roster bonus is to be paid. But again this is just rumor as of now and most likely is a nervous reaction by Kelly in an attempt to salvage his job as he is the last man standing from the 2008 spending spree. Should Kelly be the lone member of the 2008 class to survive, he will no doubt be referred to as the Will Smith of the Oakland Raiders, or “I Am Legend” for short.
[...] year after the worst free agent class in perhaps the history of the NFL—$70M to CB DeAngelo Hall, $55M to WR Javon Walker, $36M to S Gibril Wilson, etc. (and [...]
February 25th, 2009 at 2:01 pm[...] Free Agency Class – Few franchises have shown such poor personnel decisions in a decade as the Raiders did in just one summer. Last year, Al Davis committed $70 million to DeAngelo Hall, $55 million to Javon Walker, $39 [...]
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