Thursday the Raiders made a move to keep one of their valuable depth players from the past couple seasons. They have held onto safety Isaiah Pola-Mao with an Exclusive Rights Free Agent tender.
Pola-Mao went undrafted out of USC in 2021 and signed with the Raiders. He would land a spot on the practice squad after training camp and by midseason, he was signed to the active roster.
Since then, he has appeared in 27 games for the Raiders including 16 last season. He has proven himself to be an instinctual player who isn’t afraid of laying a big hit.
He has had 40 combined tackles over the past two seasons, two sacks, and had an interception and a pass breakup last season. He also played a majority of all special teams snaps.
The Raiders have their two starting safeties in Tre’von Moehrig and Marcus Epps, who started every game last season and played nearly every snap. But should either of them get injured, Pola-Mao has given his coaches confidence he could step up if the need arises.
As a former undrafted rookie, he has one more year left on his contract, at which point he would be a Restricted Free Agent.
