Oakland Raiders: Does signing Ryan Grant signal end for Seth Roberts?

The Oakland Raiders signed Ryan Grant on Wednesday, and with the move, the time may have come for the team to part ways with Seth Roberts.

The Oakland Raiders finished the 2018 NFL season with Jordy Nelson atop their depth chart at wide receiver, and very little else. Once the team traded away Amari Cooper, Nelson stepped up big time down the stretch, but he became expendable this offseason when the team brought in Antonio Brown and Tyrell Williams early on.

Since then, Oakland has continued to add talent to  the position group, signing speedster J.J. Nelson, and most recently Ryan Grant. While not a guy who has stuffed the statline during his five-year NFL career, Grant does run good routes, and is not afraid  to  get in there and lay down some big blocks.

When the Raiders signed Grant on Wednesday, the ripple effect was that the team would cut Seth Roberts, who has played his entire career with the organization. A guy who has started 25 of the 62 games he has appeared in Roberts, has had his moments in the Silver and Black, but has yet to reach his full potential with the team.

Now that the team has brought in four new wideouts, and Marcell Ateman is entering his second season after being the team’s seventh round pick last year, the writing on the wall would suggest that Roberts is done with the team. Over his career, Roberts has been a more productive receiver than Grant, but it is pretty clear this team is moving in a new direction up and down the roster.

Oakland still holds four of the first 35 picks in the 2019 NFL Draft, and there are some big name wideouts coming out this year who they could choose to target. They have done a lot with this position group this offseason, and it looks like Roberts could be the odd man out, but should have no problem latching on somewhere else.