The Raiders do not have many players left that predate Jon Gruden‘s return, but they have targeted one they would like to retain in free agency. They are in talks with Nicholas Morrow about a return, Vic Tafur of The Athletic tweets.
A Division III success story who joined the team as a UDFA during Reggie McKenzie‘s GM tenure, Morrow has been a contributor at linebacker in each of his four Raiders seasons. If unsigned by March 17, he will be an unrestricted free agent. The Raiders gave Morrow a second-round RFA tender last year.
The 25-year-old defender is coming off his best season, one in which he started a career-high 11 games. Morrow also established benchmarks in tackles (78), tackles for loss (eight) and sacks (three). Pro Football Focus rated him as a top-30 off-ball ‘backer in 2020.
A Morrow re-up would be interesting, given the Raiders’ actions last year. They spent heavily at linebacker during the 2020 free agency period. They signed Cory Littleton to a lucrative deal and gave Nick Kwiatkoski a respectable pact as well. The Gruden 2.0-era Raiders have also added the likes of Tahir Whitehead, Vontaze Burfict, Brandon Marshall and Derrick Johnson. Only Whitehead played a big role among this contingent and is now elsewhere, but the franchise has been active in free agency at linebacker.
Las Vegas has Littleton and Kwiatkoski under contract in 2021; the two combine to count for more than $20MM on the Raiders’ 2021 cap sheet. It will be interesting to see if the team devotes notable funds to keeping Morrow.
‘The Raiders do not have many players left that predate Jon Gruden‘s return….’
And not a single winning season in 3 to show for it!
Yeppers… 1 year of tear down, 1 year to start implementation of the system, and an overall improvement in total year 3.
I see that you fail to recognize that the Raiders were a final play and 4 points away from sweeping the back to back AFC Champ Chiefs.
Even if that game was won, nothing would’ve came from it.
They would have been in the playoffs if it weren’t a stupid face mask. That would have been a step forward. Every year the record has been better.
Cut Littleton sign morrow. Huge savings
No savings. Littleton would count as $9M in dead money if cut
Nothing can be done at this point. Just have to hope for better play from Littleton.
Or, just maybe, better defensive coaching.