Predicting every Raider who will be cut before 2024 season

Notable Cut Candidates

The Raiders have a very strong overall roster this year, perhaps the best in recent memory. In years past, players who had key roles for the Raiders were unemployed in the following free agency cycle. But this offseason, the team let go of a handful of players who were scooped up by other teams, and they will be forced to cut some pretty good players here shortly. Antonio Pierce and Tom Telesco have some tough decisions to make, so I identified a few Raiders whose jobs may not be safe.

Ameer Abdullah

Don’t get me wrong, I love Ameer Abdullah. He is impactful on special teams and made timely plays on offense last year, and his veteran presence is surely a benefit to the younger guys on the team. However, the team drafted Dylan Laube in the sixth round of the draft, who is essentially a clone of Abdullah.

Laube is not an every-down back; he is mainly a receiving threat and his numbers in the return game in college were impressive. I think that the team will keep four running backs and likely include Abdullah in the room, but if someone like Brittain Brown or Sincere McCormick really emerges and provides a different element to the running back committee, I think the team would put Abdullah on the chopping block before Laube. 

DJ Turner

Turner, much like Abdullah, did the majority of his work on special teams. The team’s top five receivers are locked into the roster, so ultimately it will come down to how many receivers the team wants to keep. Luke Getsy puts a premium on tight ends, and due to Brock Bowers’ versatility, the team may not need more than five at the wideout position.

Keeping Turner could prevent the team from keeping an extra defensive back or linebacker, however, he is maybe our best special teams player. Turner’s livelihood will probably come down to how much Pierce and Telesco value special teams play against more depth on defense.

Byron Young

It may sound crazy to include a player who was drafted in the third round just a season ago on this list, but I don’t think it is. Pierce has made it abundantly clear that he does not care where a player came from or how much capital the team has invested in him.

The best players will play. Last year, Young only played in six games and had four tackles in 112 snaps. The kicker is that all of those snaps were before Pierce took over. Once Josh McDaniels was fired, Young never saw the field again. In fact, he was never active in a game. Unless he has a monstrous offseason or showcases some growth, he will be cut. 

Matthew Butler

The ballad of Matthew Butler is similar to that of Byron Young. Butler will be entering his third season under defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, but in Year 2, he regressed. In his rookie season, he played in six games, recorded five tackles and 0.5 sacks.

Last year, he did not sub into a game until Week 17, and he only played 11 defensive snaps in the final two weeks. The defensive line room needs a fourth player to step up alongside the veterans, and Butler has not shown that he is that guy. Like Young, he will need an impressive camp to avoid being released. 

Chris Smith II

Once again, a player drafted just over a year ago is in danger of not making the team. Chris Smith II played in 12 games last year, but only in a single game did he get defensive snaps. This game was the blowout win against the Chargers in Week 15, and in 22 snaps, he recorded a single tackle. Otherwise, in his 11 games of special teams play, he recorded zero tackles.

The team went out and drafted another safety this offseason, which does not bode well for Smith. If the team decides to keep five safeties, he could sneak his way onto the roster, but I find it more likely they’ll keep an extra corner or a better special teams guy like Abdullah or Turner.