The Raiders certainly haven’t been quiet this offseason. Playing in the most competitive division in sports, the Raiders had no choice but to get into an arms race with the Chiefs, Broncos and Chargers. So far, they have certainly matched them in terms of adding talent.
In a recent article by Pro Football Focus, they graded every team’s offseason moves so far. Not surprisingly, the site loved what the Raiders have done in free agency, bringing in players like Davante Adams, Chandler Jones and Bilal Nichols. Here is a snippet of what the site had to say about the offseason for the Raiders:
“Perhaps no team has undergone more changes this offseason than the Raiders, who have an almost brand new defense under new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham that is set to terrorize opposing quarterbacks behind edge defenders Maxx Crosby and Jones. New Raiders assistant general manager Champ Kelly was also able to recruit Nichols to join him in Las Vegas, and the team did well in trading Ngakoue for Ya-Sin.
Of course, the jaw-dropping move of free agency may have been the Raiders trading a first-and second-round pick for Adams after negotiating a five-year, $140 million extension that made him the highest-paid wide receiver in NFL history. After all the back and forth about Adams truly resetting the wide receiver market, in effect, he just continued the incremental growth of the last few years at the position with a deal that will most likely end up as a three-year, $67.5 million pact.”
Outside of their three “big” free agents, the Raiders have also added some solid depth on both sides of the ball. Players like Rock Ya-Sin (trade), Darius Phillips, Anthony Averett and Micah Kiser all should have big roles for the team in 2022. That doesn’t even include Brandon Bolden and Ameer Abdullah, who should help on special teams.
Needless to say, the Raiders have had a strong offseason so far. But they aren’t finished. There are still a handful of free agents out there that could help in 2022 and of course, the draft is about a month away. Still, this is a much-improved team compared to what we saw in the playoffs last year.
