Getty Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden
The Oakland Raiders continue to remain active in the free-agent market and are making moves in preparation for the second half of the 2019 NFL season. After previously trading former first-round pick Gareon Conley to the Houston Texans, the Raiders have now added some defensive depth.
As The Athletic’s Vic Tafur reported, Oakland has signed defensive end Kasim Edebali.
Defensive end Kasim Edebali has signed with #Raiders. Sixth-year vet was with Eagles last season.
Edebali now finds himself on his ninth team in six years. He spent most of his career with the New Orleans Saints as he was there for three seasons. He was born in Germany and played his college football at Boston College. Edebali went undrafted before he was signed by the Saints. He’s accumulated eight sacks over his career but hasn’t taken the quarterback down since 2016. The Raiders are desperate for pass-rush help. Edebali isn’t the player who is going to solve those issues, but he provides veteran depth while Arden Key tries to get healthy.
No corresponding move was mentioned as Oakland had an open roster spot after trading away Gareon Conley for a draft pick. Expect the Raiders to continue making moves ahead of their Week 8 matchup versus the Houston Texans.
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Kasim Edebali Is 1 of 4 Active German Players in the NFL
While the NFL dominates the sports world in the USA, their reach isn’t as big in Europe. According to Human Kinetics, Soccer is the most popular sport in Europe and American football isn’t even in the top five. For whatever reason, the NFL hasn’t resonated with Europeans. Because of that, there are only four active German players in the NFL. Kasim Edebali is now one of them. Ryan Smith with the Tampa Bay Bucaneers was also born in Germany. There’s also Vyncint Smith with the Houston Texans and Mark Nzeocha with the San Francisco 49ers.
These players have all put together decently long NFL careers, but none of them have ever made a pro bowl before.
The Texans Wanted Gareon Conley for a While
Hopes were high for Gareon Conley heading into the 2019 season. He put together a really strong campaign to end the 2018 season and was poised for a breakout season. Things didn’t go according to plan for the cornerback and the Raiders have sported one of the worst defenses in the NFL. Too often is the team giving up big plays to wide receivers. Getting a third-round pick in return for a former first-round pick who is still young isn’t ideal, but the Raiders must’ve thought that he was only going to depreciate in value as the season went on. Luckily for Conley, he’s going to a team that wants him.
According to Texans coach Bill O’Brien on a Tuesday conference call, they’ve been interested in the cornerback for some time:
We’ve been talking to Oakland for a while about Gareon and we were finally able to come to an agreement on a deal. It was good working with [General Manager] Mike [Mayock] and [Head Coach] Jon [Gruden] on the deal, and we studied Gareon in the draft. We’ve watched him while he’s been at Oakland and we just think that he is going to be a good fit for what we’re trying to do and we’re looking forward to working with him.
It won’t take long for Conley to face off against his former team as they play each other on Sunday. It’ll be interesting to see how he performs against an offense that he should be very familiar with.
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