Getty Las Vegas Raiders DE Carl Nassib.
Three quarters through the NFL season and it’s pretty safe to say that the Las Vegas Raiders botched free agency. One of the biggest disappointments has been defensive end Carl Nassib. The team gave him a three-year $25 million deal with $16.75 million guaranteed this past offseason.
In 11 games played this season, Nassib only has 1.5 sacks. He’s the Raiders’ highest-paid defensive lineman and that’s simply not good enough. Things only seem to be getting worse as Nassib was inactive for Sunday’s game against the New York Jets. When asked if the defensive end was a healthy scratch, head coach Jon Gruden answered “yes” without hesitation. He went onto explain why and suggested that Nassib wasn’t great in practice this past week.
“We put a hat on eight defensive linemen and we like Carl [Nassib], we like everybody, we try to play the guys that have the best weeks of practice,” Gruden said Monday. “We feel like we want to create competition. Vic Beasley’s here to create that. He didn’t come here to sit on the bench. Takk McKinley, when he comes back, he’s not going to be just sitting out there waiting until next year. We’re going to put the ball down Wednesday in the morning for practice and we’re going to play the guys that performed the best on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.”
The Raiders’ defensive line hasn’t been effective this year so Nassib not being able to perform well enough to be active during a game is very concerning.
ALL the latest Raiders news straight to your inbox! Subscribe to the Heavy on Raiders newsletter here!
Sign up for the Heavy on Raiders Newsletter!
Raiders Have Been Bad in Free Agency
General Manager Mike Mayock got a lot of praise last season for the draft class he put together. He still deserves praise for the job he did because it looks like the team has found a number of impact players from that draft. However, everything outside of that draft has been questionable. Last year, he gave big money to LaMarcus Joyner and Trent Brown. Joyner has been inconsistent and Brown almost never plays.
This past free-agent haul looks even worse. Nassib is healthy and not getting on the field. Cory Littleton has been a massive disappointment, along with Maliek Collins. Nick Kwiatkoski is solid but he’s not good enough to make this past free-agent class look like anything less than a disaster.
Vic Beasley Will Likely Get Larger Role
Though the Raiders are definitely stuck with Nassib through next season, that doesn’t mean they have to play him. The team recently signed Vic Beasley to the practice squad and he already got a chance to play against Sunday. That means the Raiders would rather him on the field than Nassib.
Beasley didn’t get any sacks against the New York Jets but he was effective. He was rushing the passer when Clelin Ferrell got his second strip-sack of the game. He may be significantly cheaper than Nassib but he could end up being a better fit. Unfortunately, the Raiders can’t get out of Nassib’s contract until after next season.
READ NEXT: Raiders Cut Veteran Defensive Lineman
Comments