Getty Hunter Renfrow, Raiders receiver and prime trade deadline target
When it comes to Raiders trade rumors, Hunter Renfrow is at the top of the chart. And if there is a team that could use a sure-handed, short-yardage, bail-out type option at wide receiver, it would be the Dallas Cowboys. That’s why it is not exactly a surprise that a potential Raiders-Cowboys trade for got a mention at Pro Football Focus ahead of the trade deadline.
Renfrow, as has become painfully obvious, is not fitting in with Raiders coach Josh McDaniels, just one year after the team gave him a $32 million, two-year contract extension. He’d been a Pro Bowl receiver in 2021, with 103 catches and 1,036 yards but when McDaniels came in and changed the offense (a concussion to Renfrow and an oblique injury causing him to miss seven games did not help), Renfrow’s production plummeted to 36 catches and 330 yards.
This year he’s had a rather sad six catches in six games, for just 59 yards. Around the league, there may be a sense that if an abundantly weak offensive team like the Raiders can’t use Renfrow, why should we?
But at PFF, they see it different, writing, “Adding a player who can separately quickly at the line of scrimmage and provide a check-down outlet for a quarterback is always a benefit, and a handful of playoff contenders — such as the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles — could benefit from adding his skill set.”
Hunter Renfrow Raiders Trade Rumors Heating Up
Chatter about Renfrow has been heating up because, though he is publicly playing the good soldier and saying the right things when asked questions by members of the media, privately he apparently wants out.
That was the view from NFL insider Jordan Schultz, who said on a live stream that the Raiders are trying to trade Renfrow ahead of next week’s deadline.
“I don’t think Hunter Renfrow wants to be there either,” Schultz said. “The problem is [that] he makes a lot of money … Really it comes down to finding a home for him and actually having a team absorb that salary. I don’t know if the Raiders would take some of that salary themselves, but as things stand right now, the reason Hunter Renfrow hasn’t traded isn’t because teams don’t want him … the problem is finding a team that’s willing to absorb that contract.”
Certainly, there are teams that could fit Renfrow’s money onto their books, especially if the Raiders help them to do so. That includes the Cowboys, who have more than $11 million to spare, per Spotrac.
Timing Could be Key to Trade
But absorbing the contract, at least in the short term, should not prove all that difficult, as PFF reports. It might behoove the acquiring team to wait to add Renfrow just before the deadline to keep as much money off the books as possible, and if that happens, the price tag is not really that much.
That flies in the face, somewhat, of Schultz’s reporting, indicating that trading Renfrow is more about timing than no one wanting him.
“It’d be somewhat of a surprise if he isn’t moved before the Oct. 31 trade deadline,” PFF wrote of Renfrow, in a piece titled, “2023 NFL trade deadline candidates, rumors and hypothetical trades.” “Renfrow has two years remaining on the extension he signed in 2022 but no guarantees beyond this season. An acquiring team would take on a $3.61 million salary for the remainder of 2023 if they add Renfrow right before the deadline, which is a reasonable number.”