Last offseason, the talk was about how many of their defensive starters were coming back because they were still under contract. Well, those chickens have come home to roost, and now they are facing an offseason in which the vast majority of their defensive starters’ contracts are coming up in March.
In total, there are nine Raiders players headed for free agency who were either starters headed into last season or ended up starting the majority of the games this season:
DT Adam Butler (16 starts)
DT John Jenkins (17 starts)
DE Malcolm Koonce (Projected starter, IR)
DE K’Lavon Chaisson (4 starts)
LB Robert Spillane (17 starts)
LB Divine Deablo (14 starts)
CB Nate Hobbs (7 starts)
CB Darnay Holmes (1 start)
S Tre’von Moehrig (17 starts)
S Marcus Epps (3 starts, IR)
S Isaiah Pola-Mao (RFA, 14 starts)
There are far fewer on the offensive side of the ball:
RB Alexander Mattison
RB Ameer Abdullah
WR Terrace Marshall
TE Harrison Bryant
T Andrus Peat
G Cody Whitehair
The Raiders are projected to have the second most cap space in the league this offseason behind only the Patriots. And they will need to use a good portion of that to make sure their defense doesn’t get gutted in free agency.