The Oakland Raiders are coming off a rough 2018 NFL season, but have the money, and options to revamp the roster for 2019.
After a horrendous 2018 NFL Season, the Oakland Raiders are looking forward to next season. However, before the season can start, they will get a chance to upgrade the team in the offseason.
One of the most talked about topics nowadays is the fact that Oakland has a total of $71.4 Million in cap space, according to Spotrac.com.
Although Oakland has a lot of cap space, they also have 33 free agents that need to be re-signed or replaced. Coach Gruden will have to make tough decisions on his players.
Will we keep Jared Cook, Rashaan Melvin, or Marshawn Lynch? They also have three safeties, including Erik Harris, Reggie Nelson, and Marcus Gilchrist that are all free agents.
A big concern for me is that nine of the 33 free agents were starters for the Raiders, while almost 20 of them played in over 50 percent of the games.
When you factor all of this in, $71.4 million isn’t that much in cap space to do a whole lot. A ton of Oakland’s players in 2018 were one-year rentals.
If the Raiders re-signed Jared Cook and Rashaan Melvin alone, they would pay them roughly $13 million, which puts them at about $58 million.
This also isn’t considering the fact the Raiders two primary running backs, Marshawn Lynch and Doug Martin, are both free agents. Or two of the starting defensive linemen, Johnathan Hankins and Frostee Rucker, are also both free agents.
Now, if the Raiders did need more money, they could save additional cap by cutting some players without incurring a dead cap hit. One player they could cut is Seth Roberts, which saves the Raiders $4.65 million.
Additionally, they could cut Derek Carrier or Keith Smith, which would save $1.7 & $1.5 million. Those 3 players could be real cap savers. Also, although highly unlikely, cutting Kelechi Osemele or Gabe Jackson could also save the Raiders $10.2 and $7.0 million.
The Raiders have a ton of options between free agency and the NFL Draft. For example, instead of resigning one of our safeties, we could target a free agent safety such as Tyrann Mathieu, LaMarcus Joyner, or Earl Thomas.
Another option they have is instead of drafting Nick Bosa or Josh Allen in the 2019 NFL Draft, they could sign a pass rushing free agent, such as Dante Folwer Jr, Jadeveon Clowney, Muhammad Wilkerson, or Aaron Lynch.
Whatever Coach Gruden does decide to do will be very interesting as he has a ton of options, as well as the support of ownership to make whatever move needed.