Raiders free agency: Recapping Day 2 of 2022 legal tampering period
Which Raiders are gone?
For the second day in a row, teams continue grabbing food off of the Las Vegas Raiders’ plate. By itself, this isn’t a problem – With that being said, the problem lays in the position of the players Las Vegas is losing. The receiver, linebacker and cornerback units were already three of the thinner ones, and only became more thin.
Day-one was met with the departure of Zay Jones. At the end of the ’21 season, wide-receiver may have been the weakest unit on the entire team; And that’s prior to losing Jones, who would be the no.1 outside receiver on the roster right now. the linebacker and cornerback units aren’t too far behind, and each had a player taken from their respective position group, as well.
After suffering a foot injury in pre-season, linebacker Nicholas Morrow was replaced on the injured reserve list with high hopes of coming back. Later in the year, it was announced the linebacker underwent surgery, thus expanding his return table. Still, both the Raiders and Morrow expected a return later in the year. That didn’t happen; In fact, Morrow won’t be returning at all.
The now former Raider is heading to Chicago after agreeing to terms with the Bears. With Littleton being cut prior to Morrow packing for Chicago, this only makes an already slim linebacker group stick out even more. There’s still time to fix this, and it appears the Raiders might look to do that sooner than later, as they have a reported interest in Dont’a Hightower.
Las Vegas also waives goodbye to cornerback Brandon Facyson, who follows former Raiders’ defensive coordinator Gus Bradly to Indianapolis. As much as Facyson stepped up one season ago, this likely isn’t a loss that will have many of Raider Nation lose sleep over. However, not only is their mutual interest between Casey Hayward and the Colts, but the All-Pro Darius Leonard has began recruiting him.
With the Raiders pursuing two different starting cornerbacks two nights in a row, it makes you wonder if perhaps the battle for Hayward is already lost. The Raiders do have interest in retaining the veteran corner, but he simply has stronger ties in Indy.