3 affordable free agent targets for the Raiders in 2024

Next week, when the new league year begins and free agency officially begins, much of the attention will focus on the Top 25-30 guys. Big contracts will be given out, surprising moves will be made, and some poor team will be given the infamous crown of Offseason Champion.

It's fun week of content, even if some of those moves don't make much sense. Football fans will take what they can get, and a week's worth of exciting news, in the middle of one of the quieter parts of the sports calendar, is more than welcome.

The important part of free agency, however, may lie in the 2nd, or even 3rd, wave of signings. That's where, for the most part, bargains are to be found – it's where savvy front offices separate themselves from the ones looking to appease fans with huge Day 1 signings.

And given how many free agents will be around after the initial wave ends, there are plenty of clever signings to be made while everyone's busy watching playoff basketball/hockey through the spring. If the Raiders want to take a serious step towards competing in the AFC West next season, here are four moves that could get them there.

Adoree Jackson, CB

This year's CB class isn't the strongest, but there are a few big names out there. Guys like Kendall Fuller, Chidobe Awuzie, and Stephon Gilmore will probably get most of the attention, and rightfully so – all have proven to be starting-caliber corners.

They're all getting up there in age, though: of the three, Awuzie, who's 28, is the youngest. If the Raiders wanted to improve on a position of need without breaking the bank, there's a group of intriguing options that'll probably go unsigned in the first wave, led by Jackson.

Jackson's also 28, but that becomes less of a big deal given the size of the contract he's expected to get (Pro Football Focus projects it to be somewhere in the one-year, $6 million ballpark). There's no getting around it – Jackson had a bad 2023. He finished the year ranked as PFF's 117th-best corner – out of 127 eligible – and finished with some of the worst grades of his career.

With all that being said, he's still a good corner for the overwhelming majority of his career, and year-to-year production from non-elite cornerbacks can kind of be a crapshoot. If they want to, say, help/push Jakorian Bennett at training camp next season, Jackson would be a decent guy to do that with.