The Las Vegas Raiders didn't even wait two hours to polish off an agreement with arguably the best free agent on the market, as they signed former Baltimore Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum to a deal that is going to permanently alter the way interior offensive line contracts are handled.
Just a few days after sending Maxx Crosby to the Ravens, John Spytek lured Linderbaum away from Baltimore with a three-year contract worth $81 million. That puts his average annual value at an astonishing $27 million per season. This is uncharted territory for this position.
Before this contract, Cowboys guard Tyler Smith was the highest-paid interior offensive lineman at $24 million per season. The next-highest-paid center is Chiefs star Creed Humphrey at $18 million per season. It's not hyperbole to say this is a historic contract for Las Vegas.
The Raiders paid nearly $9 million more per year than the next-highest-paid center on the market. While some teams that were in on him might try to call this an overpay, the Raiders knew they needed to hand out an eye-watering deal in order to check off their top offseason objective.
Raiders reset center market with three-year, $81 million Tyler Linderbaum contract
The Raiders' offensive line was an atrocity last season, but the interior was much worse than the tackles. Between the Carroll coaching consorteium moving players out of position on top of a lack of talent, Geno Smith was getting the snot kicked out of him every game. Linderbaum will fix all that.
Linderbaum graded out as the fifth-best center in the league last year in the eyes of Pro Football Focus, and he was the fourth-best in terms of run-blocking. After running into a stone wall during his rookie season, running back Ashton Jeanty should be throwing a party after this signing.
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Linderbaum will be invaluable to a young quarterback like expected No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza. Not only is he going to be a tremendous protector up the middle, but his ability to organize the offensive line could take some of the pressure off a young player starting to get acclimated.
The Raiders knew they had to reset the market to land Linderbaum, but they did it to such a tremendous degree that all other offensive linemen who come after him will look at that contract whenever some strife in negotiations comes up. Luckily for the Raiders, they have enough cap to accommodate it.