Getty Yannick Ngakoue of the Las Vegas Raiders.
When the Las Vegas Raiders cut John Brown and Karl Joseph, they gave up a bit of cap space heading into the season. They were in a similar situation last year and were able to convert Corry Littleton’s contract to create space. The team recently signed linebacker K.J. Wright and had to restructure Nick Kwiatkoski’s contract but that only created $2.3 million in space, which wouldn’t have given them much flexibility during the season.
Fortunately for the Raiders, they were able to figure out how to free up a good chunk of money. According to ESPN’s Field Yates, the team converted Yannick Ngakoue’s salary into a signing bonus with three added void years. That’s going to create $8 million in cap space.
Make it $8M* in cap savings for the Raiders with Yannick Ngakoue, whose cap charge for 2021 is for now just about $5M.
The Raiders not only added some space to soon officially sign LB KJ Wright, but also for in-season roster resources.
That gives Las Vegas a lot of money to play now and in the future. Ngakoue was recently named a team captain and the team is thrilled with how he’s performed so far. There’s almost no way they’re moving on from him anytime soon so they can play around with the specifics of his contract.
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Is a Big Move Incoming?
Naturally, when a team creates as much cap space as the Raiders just did, it’s fair to speculate if they’re planning to make a big move. While that would be exciting, the signing of Wright is likely the last big move the team makes for now. The roster is pretty much set outside of little additions and subtractions here and there.
What this added cap space does is give the Raiders flexibility during the season. If injuries pile up or a big name suddenly becomes available, then they’ll be in a good position to make a move. General manager Mike Mayock has typically been active with the roster during the season and that shouldn’t change this season.
Mayock Explains Why Joseph Was Cut
One of the notable surprises from the Raiders’ final roster cutdown was that they decided to let go of Karl Joseph. The former first-round pick was brought back by the team this offseason with the idea that he’d have a key role on the defense. Instead, he was cut before the season started and the team still has to pay him $1 million. Mayock had a chance to explain why they decided to let him go.
“Look, No. 1, you got to stay healthy,” Mayock said Wednesday. “And, No. 2, we’ve got some young guys that are pushing hard. This Teamer kid came in and I didn’t even know much about Teamer. That was Gus and his guys saying, ‘Mike, can we get him in here? He can play free, he can play strong, he can even play nickel and he’d be a nice piece for us to look at this summer.’
“To my surprise, he’s better than that. And he earned a roster spot, make no mistake about it. … And then you’ve got [Tyree] Gillespie, the fourth-round kid. He got hurt early, he came back and he’s competing now. We think he’s going to be a really good special-teams player as he learns how to play safety.”
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