Via releases, trades and restructures, the Raiders have made several moves over the past week and change to create cap space. They continued to do so Friday.
Las Vegas will restructure two deals from the 2020 free agency period, rearranging some funds in Cory Littleton and Nick Kwiatkoski‘s deals, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Together, these moves will create more than $7MM in cap space for the Raiders.
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This marks the second restructure for Littleton, who initially saw his contract reworked in September of last year. The Raiders initially signed the former Rams linebacker to a three-year, $35.25MM pact. Kwiatkoski signed a three-year, $21MM pact last March, completing an overhaul of the Raiders’ linebacking corps.
Over the past week and change, the Raiders have released Gabe Jackson, Richie Incognito and Lamarcus Joyner to clear up more than $25MM in cap space. They traded Trent Brown to the Patriots, adding another chunk to that total. They have climbed into the top 10 in cap space, now holding more than $30MM.
Closer to 43 million after this move. Will be more once mariota gets delt or cut
It is curious what the Raiders are saving up for. They’re not just shedding cap space by releasing bad players, they’re losing contributors. The obvious move is Watson, but Carr is certainly competent and the defense was by and away Vegas’ biggest problem last year.
Are they counting on Miller to be available to help the edge defense? I’m not sure what other player would be there at that price who would address an area of need. There are a few good free agents, but it’d be hard to nail one down at $30 million or so. Maybe they want to take a run at Barrett or possibly even Dupree, but I can’t see either topping $20 million. It’ll be interesting to see who the Raiders are clearing cap for. Maybe it’s just a bunch of guys. But dealing Trent Brown was a big move (despite his missing most of last season), and you certainly would only do that to use that space for something (not to mention Gabe Jackson-Joyner we expected).
Rather see them knock it out of the park in the draft. Not a great track record of late with FA’s
Agreed. The current regime has shown no ability to identify FA talent so far. Or make trades that make sense.