Raiders Letting Go of Veteran WR & Rookie TE: Report

The Las Vegas Raiders have been trimming down the roster of the defensive side of the ball and now the moves on offense are coming in. The team needs to cut down the roster to 53 players by Saturday and have some tough decisions on their hands. One of the first wide receivers to get the ax is De’Mornay Pierson-El, according to Levi Damien of the USA Today.

This wasn’t Pierson-El’s first stint with the Raiders. He was on and off the team’s roster last year and ended the season on the practice squad. He was re-signed by the team after a brief stint in the XFL. He first came into the NFL as an undrafted free agent and was signed by the Washington Football Team. Pierson-El never made their active roster and has yet to play in a regular-season game. He’ll have a good shot to get back on the Raiders’ practice squad at some point.

Nick Bowers Cut, Expected to Get Practice Squad Spot

The cuts didn’t stop with Pierson-El as Damien also reported that undrafted rookie tight end Nick Bowers is getting cut.

Bowers never had a real shot at making the roster. The Raiders are absolutely loaded at tight end and arguably have the deepest group in the NFL. The former Penn State standout didn’t put up big numbers in college but must’ve impressed the Raiders to last this long. As Damien mentioned, it sounds like Bowers will get a shot on the practice squad. He’ll get a chance to sit back and learn from some of the best in the game. It’s the ideal situation for an undrafted rookie to be put in.

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Raiders OC Laments Tough Cuts

The Raiders have already made some surprising cuts and there should be more coming as the deadline gets closer and close. Offensive coordinator Greg Olson had a chance to talk about the impending roster cuts on Friday.

“A lot of tough decisions are going to be made here in the next 24 hours,” Olson said. “I think the running back position is one of them, but just great competition across the board … We got a lot of tough decisions to make here. So, when we get our roster cut down then we’ll focus on the [running back] personnel groupings that we’re going to use in this opening game.”

The team recently released Rod Smith, so they’ve already started to thing out the running back herd. However, they will still need to decide if Theo Riddick or Devontae Booker deserves a spot on the roster. There’s also a chance that neither of them makes the team.

With Josh Jacobs, Lynn Bowden Jr. and Jalen Richard all locks to make the roster, it could be harder to keep four running backs than the Raiders had hoped. It wouldn’t be all that surprising if the team decides to move on from both Booker and Riddick.

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