3 players who should have made the Las Vegas Raiders 53-man roster

3 players who should have made the Las Vegas Raiders 53-man roster

Damarious Randall – Safety

The release of Damarious Randall was a big head-scratcher when the Raiders announced the move. Randall was just signed to one-year $1.5 million deal that was fully guaranteed but apparently, he was deemed surplus to requirements.

This move was all the more surprising considering who the replacement would be as the starting safety in Erik Harris. The former undrafted free agent is an absolute gamer who made some huge plays in 2019 but was at fault for some big plays as well.

He is a great depth player, but at this point, has not proven that he is a starting caliber player on a good defense.

What Randall was supposed to bring was another veteran presence in what is suddenly a very young defensive backfield but some reports suggest he was not given many chances to prove his worth to the team. If Harris struggles early, then there will be even more questions asked about the decision to cut the former first round pick.

The additional layer to this is that the team chose to keep young safety Dallin Leavitt on the 53-man roster despite the fact that he is only a special teams contributor. They could have easily gotten the same level of contribution from Harris on special teams and kept Randall, who is at the very least better than Leavitt, on the roster.