Getty Jon Gruden & Mike Mayock of the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Las Vegas Raiders have slowly been letting some players go over the last week so that can get the roster to 80 players. After about a week of training camp, the team has apparently seen enough and let go of seven players on Monday. The team announced that they are waiving defensive back Jordan Brown, tight end Paul Butler, kicker Dominik Eberle, center Erik Magnuson, long snapper Liam McCullough and wide receiver Anthony Ratliff-Williams.
We have waived seven players and placed two more on the reserve/opt-out list.
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The most notable name who was let go is linebacker Marquel Lee, who was released because of a failed physical. Lee started 19 games over three seasons for the Raiders but has had a very hard time staying healthy. It might be best for him to take a year off to get fully healthy.
Two undrafted free agent rookies were let go in Eberle and McCullough. It was thought there could be a chance that Eberle puts some pressure on Daniel Carlson after his disappointing season. With roster space limited, it looks like the Raiders are going to give Carlson one more shot at the job. Trent Sieg is a solid long snapper for the team so it was always a long shot that McCullough was going to make the team.
Magnuson getting cut makes sense as the Raiders have an overabundance of offensive linemen right now. It’s actually somewhat surprising that more didn’t get cut.
Paul Butler has been on and off the roster several times at this point. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he somehow makes his way back to the team eventually.
Unfortunately for Brown and Ratliff-Williams, the Raiders invested a lot of draft capital into cornerback and wide receiver this year. It was always going to be very hard for either of them to make the team.
Raiders Get First Opt-Outs
Las Vegas was one of the few teams that have been lucky enough to not have any players opt-out for the upcoming season. However, that changed on Monday as the team announced that cornerback D.J. Killings and defensive end Jeremiah Valoaga will not play this season. Neither player was expected to make the regular-season roster so it shouldn’t be too big of a blow for the Raiders to not have either of them.
With the deadline to opt-out closing in, it seems very unlikely that any prominent players decide to not play for the Raiders.
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Raiders Roster Should Be Set for Now
In addition to the news that nine players won’t be playing for the Raiders in 2020, the team also made a couple of more moves official. First, they confirmed that they traded former second-round pick P.J. Hall to the Minnesota Vikings. They also made the signing of running back Jeremy Hill official.
With training camp about to ramp up to full speed soon, there shouldn’t be any more big roster moves by the team for a little bit. They’ve got their 80 players and there’s over a month before the regular season starts.
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