Junior Galette sat down with Matt Conner from FanSided about his 2018 season, and spoke glowingly about the Oakland Raiders and Jon Gruden.
During the 2018 NFL season, the Oakland Raiders were historically bad at getting after the quarterback, and tried to go through many measures to improve in the pass rush. They brought in veterans for workouts, tried to coach up rookies, but in the end, finished with a league-low 13 sacks as a team.
One player they worked out during the season was Junior Galette, who posted back-to-back double-digit sack seasons for the New Orleans Saints back in 2013 and 2014.
To be candid, I have been watching Galette play for a long time, as he was a teammate of my younger brother Brent Weiss at St. Joseph (NJ) Regional High School in Montvale. He was a beast back in those days, and had a nice run with the New Orleans Saints to start his NFL career, before injuries, and off-the-field incidents derailed his career.
After missing the 2015 and 2016 NFL seasons, Galette signed on with the Washington Redskins in 2017, and appeared in all 16 games for head coach Jay Gruden. When it came time for him to find a home in 2018, both the Redskins and Oakland Raiders tried to sign him, and he regrets not putting on the Silver and Black.
Speaking with Matt Conner of FanSided, Galette spoke about his journey in free agency this past season, where the Redskins offered him a two-year deal, but he balked at it thinking there would be more interest. When the Raiders offered him the veteran minimum, he turned them aside as well.
“I went to visit the Oakland Raiders about a week, I think, after Washington’s offer, and they offered me,” says Galette. “I flew out and saw Jon Gruden, who is a great coach, a legendary coach. I was excited to meet Jon and thought everything was going to be good. Obviously, Jon and Jay are brothers and they talk. I thought maybe today is the day, like if we can’t pay this guy then you get him. But Jon said, ‘All we got is veteran’s minimum.’ At that time, my agent and I agreed and said, ‘We just had this other deal on the table, so why would we take the veteran’s minimum? That’s unacceptable.’ But that would have been the best call to take that deal at that point.”
The Raiders certainly had a need for Galette in 2018, and had they been able to sign him, they could have had an inside track to offer him a longer deal. While his career has floundered as of late, he was once a solid edge rusher, and we wish him good luck as he tries to turn things around in 2019.