Armed with some of the most salary cap space in the NFL heading into free agency, the Las Vegas Raiders were expected to be big spenders. However, that hasn't been the case at all.
The team has stood by while important pieces like Robert Spillane, Nate Hobbs and Tre'von Moehrig went to other teams. The Raiders were able to retain Malcolm Koonce and sign Jeremy Chinn, along with a couple of other smaller names, but no big names have been signed to the team yet.
This has led to a lot of frustration around Raider Nation. Head coach Pete Carroll wants to win in Year 1 but how's he supposed to do that without great players? Well, I'd argue that the team is taking the correct approach.
Is Hobbs a very good player? Yes. Is he worth $48 million over four years? No. The same could be said about Spillane and Moehrig. They are very good players who are getting paid like great players. Also, history shows us that big spenders in free agency rarely don't regret it.
Raiders are wise to not overspend
Great NFL teams are built through the draft. This is why the Raiders have been so bad for so long. They miss on most of their draft picks and then spend big on overrated free agents to make up for the lack of talent. That was essentially the entire Jon Gruden tenure.
If you look at history, the last team to win over 10 games after being the biggest spender in free agency was the Chicago Bears in 2018. Guess how many playoff games they won? Zero.
That was also a good team that was going all-in. The Panthers tried to jumpstart their rebuild last year and were the biggest spenders in free agency. They ended up winning five games. There's an argument to be made that you should spend big money when you're ready to go on a Super Bowl run.
The Raiders could make some moves to get them into the playoffs but they are at least another year away from sniffing the Super Bowl. It's smart for general manager John Spytek to not overspend this year and perhaps save some money for next offseason when the team might be closer to competing.