4 players that could surprisingly be an option for the Raiders now

At 4 PM Eastern on March 5th, the franchise tag deadline officially came and went. Teams had up until Tuesday afternoon to decide which of their impending free agents they wanted to use the tag on, which would essentially give said players a one-year contract and, for the most part, a substantial pay raise. A few of the obvious contenders were tagged: the Bears placed it on cornerback Jaylon Johnson, the Colts placed it on wide receiver Michael Pittman, the Buccaneers placed it on safety Antoine Winfield, and the Jaguars placed it on linebacker Josh Allen. And while all of those were expected candidates, the story doesn't end simply by using the tag.

For many of the cases, the decision is used as a way to buy time as longer contracts continue to be negotiated. Especially in places like Chicago and Tampa Bay, many around the league are still predicting that both sides eventually come to an agreement on new deals. But since teams are only allowed to use the tag on one player, the decision ultimately opens up a ton of different, interesting storylines. On almost every team, key players that were tag eligible will now officially become free agents when that window opens on March 13th. For the Raiders, who will have a considerable amount of cap space to work with when the spending frenzy gets going next week, Tuesday's deadline gives them a much better picture of what the free agency picture looks like. And these are four guys that now have entered that picture.