In an unsurprising move, the Raiders are committing to one of their notable exclusive rights free agents. The team announced this evening that they’ve re-signed defensive end Kendal Vickers. The lineman will earn $780K next season.
Vickers was a bit of a revelation for the Raiders in 2020. The former undrafted free agent out of Tennessee was unable to crack an active roster during his rookie campaign in 2018, and he pivoted to the Canadian Football League for the 2019 season. He signed a reserve/future contract with the Raiders towards the end of the 2019 campaign, and he ended up making the team at the end of the 2020 preseason.
At 25 years old, Vickers ended up making his NFL debut in Week 1. He missed a game due to a brief stint on the reserve/COVID-19 list, but he otherwise appeared in every game for the Raiders in 2020. He finished the campaign having compiled 10 tackles, three QB hits, and a pair of sacks, appearing in 29 percent of his team’s defensive snaps. As Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com implied, Vickers could be in line for a bigger role in 2021 considering the uncertain statuses of impending free agents Johnathan Hankins and Takk McKinley.
The Raiders will still have a decision to make on another exclusive rights free agent. Safety Dallin Leavitt is also an impending ERFA.
“and a pair of sacks”
And that, my friends, makes him the MVP of the defensive line.