The Las Vegas Raiders are at the start of a rebuild, and while they want to build their core around young players like Brock Bowers, Ashton Jeanty, and potentially Fernando Mendoza. Nonetheless, the team needs veterans to help the young talent and set an example for them.
Moreover, with roughly $111.9 million in cap space, per Over the Cap, the Raiders can overspend a little to ensure that they bring in the right veterans to help their young group learn what it takes to win in the NFL.
One name that The Volume’s John Middlekauff floated is Mike Evans, who has spent his entire career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and will now test free agency.
“I think one thing they have to do over the next three or four days, is potentially overpay a high-level, veteran, winning-type guy,” Middlekauff said on the March 8 edition of “The Colin Cowherd Podcast.”
“Get a guy who has been a part of a winner, who is a high-character team leader. If you got to overpay them [do it]. Listen, they got advantages. People like living in Vegas, no state income tax. It’s not like a tough sell in free agency in football. This isn’t basketball or baseball. These guys go where you give them the most money.”
Raiders Can’t Put Young Players Into Leadership Roles Just Yet
Moreover, if the Raiders need to overpay Evans, Middlekauff believes it will be well worth the money because of his experience, which can rub off on the young players and avoid putting them in leadership positions they might not be ready for at the NFL level.
“If I’m the Raiders, ‘Hey Mike, who’s offering you what? What’s the most you got? A 10? Hey, we’ll offer you 15,’” Middlekauff added. “You’ve already won a Super Bowl. You’re already going to the Hall of Fame.
“‘We will overpay for what you bring intangibly to our facility.’ Because you can’t put that all on Mendoza. You can’t put that all on Carnell Tate or whoever you take with the 14th pick. You’re going to need some guys for them to look up to.”
Should Las Vegas Avoid Mike Evans?
Despite what Middlekauff is saying and has some logic, one NFL writer disagrees with bringing in Evans, who has played with minority owner Tom Brady when the quarterback was in Tampa Bay.
The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen believes that the Raiders, who are in the early stages of their rebuild, shouldn’t be pursuing the veteran wideout.
“Two teams [the Raiders and the Tennessee Titans] that should not be interested [in Evans] with where they’re at in their rebuilding stages,” Nguyen wrote on X on March 5.
Jeanty and Bowers are two of the weapons Mendoza is likely to lean on, but can someone like Jack Bech emerge? Raiders general manager John Spytek spoke about whether Bech can become a No. 1 outside wideout for them.
“I trust Jack Bech, the football player, you know?” Spytek told reporters on Feb. 24. “I mean, where he aligns we’re going to move people all over the place. I think you guys saw how Klint used [Jaxon Smith‑Njigba]. They’re going to move him all over the place. So we’re not going to be an offense where we just stick a guy, and he’s the No. 1 guy on the outside.
“I also don’t think there are many of those guys walking around on the face of the earth like you’re talking about, the true Xs. So if you’re lucky enough to get one of them you hold on to them for dear life. And if you don’t, then you make it work with what you got.”
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