The Las Vegas Raiders waited until the last minute to release their initial 53-man roster for the 2025 NFL season. They took some gambles with the players that they released and kept a few players around who may not have tremendous upside, but the roster looks far better than this time last year.
Among the biggest surprise moves were the release of veteran safety Terrell Edmunds and wide receiver Alex Bachman, as well as waiving rookie sixth-round wide receiver Tommy Mellott and promising quarterback Cam Miller.
However, the construction of the roster is such that it leaves room for the Raiders to make several more major moves before the season opener against the New England Patriots. In fact, the moves may come as soon as the next few days.
Raiders' initial 53-man team leaves room for more roster moves
Las Vegas opted to keep Aidan O'Connell on the 53-man roster despite him being sidelined 6-8 weeks with a broken throwing wrist. They also kept safety Thomas Harper on the initial roster despite him missing the entire second half of the preseason with an undisclosed injury.
Teams can only place two players on IR during the 53-man roster deadline and designate them to return later that season, and they used one slot on safety Lonnie Johnson Jr. So, by keeping them on the initial roster, the team can now demote them to the IR and bring them back on a different timeline.
Moving them to the IR would also open up two roster spots, which the Raiders sorely need to use. A veteran addition is badly needed at the cornerback position, and an upgrade to the safety depth would be a good move for Las Vegas as well.
The Raiders also need to bolster their depth at the offensive tackle position and potentially add another piece at defensive end. If O'Connell and Harper are moved to the IR, as they should be, then any of these moves is possible.
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Las Vegas could open up a handful of other roster spots by releasing or waiving other end-of-roster players like Cody Lindenberg, Leki Fotu or Will Putnam. This would give them the flexibility to add valuable pieces as they become available in the coming days.
Given the connections that the new regime has with strong organizations like the Philadelphia Eagles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks, the Raiders could be in line to land some sneaky-good players in free agency and on the waiver wire.
If they can pull off some roster gymnastics with O'Connell and Harper and continue to tinker with the team's depth pieces, this Raiders team could look largely different, and soon.
The most important aspect of this will be making a big move for a veteran cornerback, which certainly seems possible given how the initial 53-man roster shook out, and it is absolutely necessary.