Getty Jon Gruden, Mike Mayock and Derek Carr of the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Oakland Raiders have signed a few controversial players previously and they may be adding another one. Jermaine Whitehead was just recently cut by the Cleveland Browns for becoming unhinged on Twitter, threatening fans and calling them racial slurs.
He now may be getting another shot rather quickly as he recently worked out for the Raiders, per NFL Insider Adam Caplan.
After his social media tirade, Whitehead apologized and said it was “out of character” for him. Controversy aside, the defensive back does have a good amount of experience and started all eight games for the Browns before they released him. He’s been on six teams in six years, so he hasn’t had the most stable career. The team also worked out former Seattle Seahawks cornerback DeShawn Shead. Both players are veterans, but will probably be short term solves until LaMarcus Joyner gets healthy again.
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Raiders Took Chances on Other Controversial Players
If the Raiders decided to bring on Whitehead, it wouldn’t be the first controversial player the team has brought in this season. Richie Incognito and Vontaze Burfict are noteworthy names and they both started for the team. The Incognito move has paid off so far, but the Burfict move didn’t as he’s serving a suspension for the rest of the season. However, general manager Mike Mayock believes that each player should be judged on a case-by-case basis. He had an interesting quote in the offseason when asked about bringing in Incognito:
At the end of the day, you can’t have all Boy Scouts. What you have to do, is you have to do your homework on each individual case, and we’ve done our homework. We’ve talked to an awful lot of people, and we’ve brought him in. We talked to Richie, we told Richie what we expect both on and off the field, and we expect him to adhere to that. We are going to meet with our player engagement people after practice, we’ve got our clinician coming in tomorrow. I’m not going to say any more than that, but the structure will be here for him to use.
If the Raiders didn’t take chances on controversial players, they may not have any Super Bowl championships. Some of the greats like Lyle Alzado or Jack Tatum were some of the most controversial players ever. Now, the problem is, Whitehead hasn’t shown that he can play at a Pro-Bowl level like all the other players mentioned. He also doesn’t have any past known off-field issues, so his blow-up could be an anomaly.
With Karl Joseph and Johnathan Abram out for the season, Oakland needs help at safety. They already brought in D.J. Swearinger, but with LaMarcus Joyner possibly being injured, the team could need more help in the secondary. Swearinger is a safety, so it looks like he’ll fill in for Joseph. It would probably make more sense for the team to add a cornerback to replace Joyner. This should probably give Shead the advantage over Whitehead if the team decides to sign one of them.
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