Although Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler are long gone, the Raiders are still adding former Patriot regulars. Elandon Roberts will be the latest, though he has enjoyed multiple stopovers since his Patriot Way days.
The Raiders are adding the recent Steelers starter on a one-year deal worth $3MM, ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets. Roberts has run his career start count to 105 games. After the Patriots added Robert Spillane earlier Monday, the Raiders will bring in one of the players the Steelers used to replace him back in 2023.
While the Raiders are no longer embracing the Patriot Way model, they do have a key holdover from that period in Patrick Graham, who will now work as DC for a third head coach. Graham and Roberts’ Patriots tenures did not overlap, but the current Raiders DC coached Roberts under Brian Flores in Miami.
The Raiders were unable to retain Spillane, Tre’von Moehrig or Nate Hobbs, but they have now added Roberts and Jeremy Chinn to go along with the re-signed Malcolm Koonce and Adam Butler. The team also signed veteran DB Lonnie Johnson. In Roberts, they will add an experienced player that has remained a starter despite a few scheme shifts.
Roberts, 31 in April, comes to the Raiders after seeing his snap share reduced in Pittsburgh. The Steelers used Roberts as a 14-game starter, but he did not share the responsibilities Patrick Queen did. Roberts played only 44% of Pittsburgh’s defensive plays last season — down from 54% in 2023. Despite the reduced role, Pro Football Focus assigned the veteran as the No. 3 overall run defender among off-ball linebackers. This came as Roberts totaled five tackles for loss after he finished with 10 apiece in 2022 and ’23. Butler’s most impressive statistical season came in 2022, when he totaled 107 tackles and 4.5 sacks for the playoff-bound Dolphins.
A Bill Belichick piece on three Patriots Super Bowl teams in the late 2010s, Roberts signed three one-year contracts with the Dolphins. He played on a two-year, $7MM Steelers deal. The Raiders probably still have some work to do at linebacker, with Divine Deablo also a free agent.