The Las Vegas Raiders have continued to play around with the bottom half of their roster during the 2025 NFL season. With the team sitting at 2-12, at this point, general manager John Spytek may just be trying anything to find a spark or a diamond in the rough, and who can blame him?
On Tuesday, the Raiders, a bit stunningly, released veteran defensive tackle Leki Fotu. This seemed like a vote of confidence for rookie defensive tackles J.J. Pegues and Tonka Hemingway, but on Wednesday, when Pete Carroll was asked if that factored into the decision, he claimed that it didn't.
"No, that's not why that happened," Carroll said.
Carroll left it at that. He didn't get into specifics about why they released him, nor did he thank Fotu for his efforts or contributions. Without reading too far into things, it just felt tense and awkward when Carroll was asked to address the move.
Raiders sign Jahfari Harvey to active roster, McClendon Curtis to practice squad
As a result of Fotu's release, Las Vegas had an open roster spot to fill. The obvious move would have been to the active left tackle Kolton Miller, who has been on the Injured Reserve since Week 5. But that's not what the Raiders did.
On Wednesday, the team announced that they were signing practice squad defensive end Jahfari Harvey to the active roster. In his place, the team re-signed guard McClendon Curtis to the practice squad for the second time this season.
Harvey came to Las Vegas this offseason as an undrafted free agent after spending his college career at Miami and SMU. In his final collegiate season with the Mustangs, he recorded 7.5 sacks, 12.5 tackles for loss and two forced fumbles.
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After not playing in the first preseason game, Harvey played 26 defensive snaps and three special teams snaps over the final two exhibition contests. He didn't make any tackles, but he recorded two pressures in 16 pass-rush snaps, one in each game.
Although his composite stats were not tremendous, according to Pro Football Focus, he recorded pass-rush win rates of 20.0% and 25.0% in his two preseason tilts, which is quite high. Given Tyree Wilson and Malcolm Koonce's recent downtick in snaps, perhaps Harvey gets a chance.
Curtis is a solid depth piece on the interior offensive line, and he should be familiar to Raider Nation after starring in the 2023 preseason in Las Vegas. He also spent time with Carroll in Seattle, so this is a comfortable place for Curtis to land again on multiple levels.