Ryan Grant‘s time in Oakland is over. The Raiders are releasing the veteran receiver, according to a tweet from Scott Bair of NBC Sports Bay Area. In a follow-up tweet, Bair notes the team is promoting linebacker Justin Phillips from the practice squad to take his place on the roster.
It’s been a tumultuous past couple of seasons for Grant, who was originally drafted by the Redskins in the fifth-round back in 2014. He made a name for himself in Washington and was a favorite of head coach Jay Gruden, racking up 573 yards and four touchdowns in 2017. The strong season landed him a four-year, $29MM deal from the Ravens with a whopping $14.5MM in guaranteed money in free agency. The amount Baltimore gave him attracted a lot of criticism, and the next day they failed his physical and voided the deal.
Grant ended up signing a one-year, $5MM deal with the Colts, and spent last year in Indy. He didn’t play a huge role, catching 35 passes for 334 yards. He signed with Oakland this offseason, and he had nine targets in the team’s first two games. He quickly fell out of favor and was a healthy scratch this past week, so the writing was on the wall.
With promising rookie Hunter Renfrow in the slot, there wasn’t much of a need for Grant’s services anymore. Fortunately for Grant as a vested veteran his salary became guaranteed Week 1, so he’ll collect $1MM from Oakland. He should be able to latch on with a team in need of receiving help at some point. Phillips is an undrafted rookie from Oklahoma State.
Raiders are the same garbage pile they have been for years. No clue what they are looking for or what they are trying to build. Here’s another one of Gruden’s guys who held a roster spot until it was apparent he wasn’t going to make an impact. Problem is Gruden can’t figure that out until the garbage shows up on the field. Maybe Grant suggested the coaching staff make halftime adjustments and they cut him for taking dangerous steps towards making them a competitive team
That seems a bit… extreme. Given the Antonio Brown fiasco, it’s hard to blame the Raiders for wanting to hold onto some WR depth going into the season. It probably just came down to the matter of having two guys for one spot; one being a young player with potential upside, and the other being a veteran that is what he is at this point. If you don’t need the roster spot, there’s no harm in keeping both. If put into position where you’re forced to choose, it makes sense to give the reps to the rookie and cut bait with Grant. The Raiders are a season or two away from being competitive anyway. I think Gruden’s intent all along has been to build for Vegas though.
Yeah this guy is an obvious Raider hater…the team has some good young talent and obviously the AB nightmare was a setback. Losing Abram for the year also didn’t help our secondary…the plan was meant to take a few years to get back to where we have some depth on the roster and that’s why they stockpiled some draft picks and traded good players that weren’t going to be the difference between us making it to the super bowl