When Eli Rogers tweeted Friday he had options for his 2018 season, it doesn’t look like the young slot receiver was exaggerating.
In addition to a Chiefs workout, Rogers will audition for the Browns and Raiders, according to Pro Football Talk (on Twitter). The workouts will take place next week.
The top slot option for the 2016 Steelers, Rogers saw his role reduced last season. His most memorable sequence came on a seminal Pittsburgh mistake, with a Ben Roethlisberger pass to a tightly covered Rogers resulting in a Patriots game-sealing interception that ended up paving a clear path for New England to secure the AFC’s No. 1 seed. In 2016, however, the former UDFA out of Louisville caught 48 passes for 594 yards and three touchdowns.
Rogers tore an ACL in the Steelers’ divisional-round loss, but Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reported the 25-year-old pass-catcher’s made a surprisingly quick recovery.
Seth Roberts still resides as the Raiders’ top slot option, despite delivering lower-end-to-middling production the past two years. Rogers would represent a challenge for that role and give the Raiders some additional depth behind Amari Cooper and Jordy Nelson in the process. Oakland now employs Rogers’ former Pittsburgh teammate, Martavis Bryant, as well. But Bryant may be destined for another suspension, and the ex-Steelers wideouts’ skills don’t exactly overlap, either.
The Browns boast some fluidity among their receiving corps. Behind roster locks Jarvis Landry, Josh Gordon and Antonio Callaway are a few Sashi Brown-era draft picks — Corey Coleman, Rashard Higgins, Ricardo Louis — who are trying to impress a new regime. A Rogers addition would make matters more difficult for that to happen, especially for Higgins or Louis. After an injury-plagued first two seasons, Coleman’s been mentioned as a possible trade candidate.
I was gonna say, “Why Vegas? Did something happen to Seth Roberts?” I guess CLE would be a decent fit. In the idea that Rogers is a decent player and CLE can’t get enough of them…