MONDAY, 10:32am: The Raiders are hosting free agent receiver Crabtree today, a source tells Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter).
FRIDAY, 9:32am: After spending his entire NFL career with the 49ers, Michael Crabtree could be mulling the possibility of heading across the bay from San Francisco to Oakland. According to Rand Getlin of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter), the free agent wideout has a visit scheduled next week with the Raiders.
Crabtree, 27, has only made one free agent visit so far, having met with the Dolphins, and appears to be in no rush to sign. The 49ers also maintain some interest in re-signing the six-year veteran, but a report last week indicated that Crabtree would rather sign with a team that places a greater emphasis on the passing game — it’s not clear if the Raiders will fit that bill, but Oakland certainly has the cap room to make Crabtree an aggressive offer if the team wants to bring him aboard.
The former 10th overall pick had reportedly been expecting to be a $9-10MM player, but his market “crashed” and he now appears likely to settle for a short-term, make-good contract rather than a longer-term deal.
The Raiders are viewed as a potential candidate to select a wide receiver – either Kevin White or Amari Cooper – in the first round of the draft later this month, and even if they signed Crabtree, I’m not sure that would change their plans. Oakland will likely retain both James Jones and Andre Holmes for the upcoming season, as well as tight end Mychal Rivera, but none of those players exceeded 700 receiving yards in 2014. Adding more weapons to Derek Carr‘s arsenal should only increase the young signal-caller’s chances to succeed.