Sin City Raiders

“I don’t want safe moves. I want smart, calculated, fearless Raider-ass moves that you don’t care about anything else. Just winning. And that’s what we want to do. Right now.”

The legal tampering period is upon us and it is an exciting time to be a fan. For Raider Nation, it is an especially interesting time to follow the Silver and Black. A new regime is in town with new full-time head coach Antonio Pierce (it feels good to say that as a fan) and new general manager Tom Telesco entering a new league year together for the first time. Now, we will learn just how they want to build this team and especially how they will approach free agency.

It is well-documented that Pierce is a lifelong Raider fan. He has a great understanding of the history of the team. With that being said, Pierce would be wise to dig into that history and listen to the words of Marcel Reece. It was ten years ago at about this time on the league calendar when Reece said he wanted to see the front office make the aforementioned “Raider-ass moves.”

Reece’s words from 2014 could be applied today, or every off-season for that matter.

Sure, it is important to be responsible during this time. There is the old saying that free agency is where “B” players go to get “A+” money, and the Raiders have certainly been burnt by some free-agency mistakes in the past. But with the rise in the salary cap, and with all the ways to get out of cap trouble (how many players did the New Orleans Saints “restructure” recently?) the Raiders should not be afraid to go for big names.

As the first day of legal tampering winds down, Pierce and Telesco have shown a good balance of Raider-ass moves and self-control.

It will be weird to see Josh Jacobs in green and gold, surrounded by cheeseheads and snow next season. But the price of $12 million a year for a running back coming off a down year where injuries popped up is steep. Also, the Raiders saw what Zamir White can do as an RB1 in the last four games of the 2023 season and he helped make Jacobs expendable. So, while Jacobs will be missed, it was the right move to not pay what the Packers offered.

With that goodbye to Jacobs, the Raiders will be welcoming two new teammates at the time of this writing.

After Pierce took over the team on Halloween ,the defense showed great improvement. They’re building on that improvement by making one of the biggest splashes of the day; dare I say a true Raider-ass move. Christian Wilkins will join a defensive line that already has perennial DPOY candidate Maxx Crosby, up-and-comer Malcolm Koonce who had eight sacks last year, and 2023 first-rounder Tyree Wilson who showed improvement after Pierce’s promotion.

At quarterback, the Raiders seemingly have more questions than answers. Will they trade up in the draft, or trade for Justin Fields? Should Aidan O’Connell be given a full off-season of reps with the starters rather than being plugged into a fired coach’s system mid-season?

While we don’t have the answer, we have some clarity on the situation as Gardner Minshew is coming to Vegas on a two-year deal. At the very least, Minshew is an experienced backup who can push O’Connell for the starting job in 2024, while leaving the door open for the Raiders to still trade up in the draft for their future franchise QB. A trio of A.O.C., Minshew and a top quarterback from this year’s class would be a solid quarterback room; one in which all three could battle for the starting job.

It has only been one day, and the Raiders still have plenty of cap space to make moves, with potentially more cap space if/when Jimmy G and Hunter Renfrow are released. But looking at the first day of legal tampering in the 2024 league year, I’d like to think Marcel Reece is somewhere smiling at these Raider-ass moves.