Bargain Signings Could Pay off for the Raiders

The Oakland Raiders have a lot of needs and there’s no sense sugarcoating it. A lack of top talent has led many to refer to Oakland’s roster as the worst in football. Although the Raiders are at least a couple years away from being contenders, it’s too early to judge the 2013 roster. After all, you wouldn’t judge a house under construction that doesn’t have running water, electricity or a roof.

Essential pieces of the puzzle are missing in Oakland and the Raiders haven’t had the draft picks or the salary cap space to get them. The Raiders signing of players like Mike Jenkins (team announced) and Andre Carter (confirmed by Ian Rapoport of NFL.com) are just examples of the Raiders buying lumber.

It’s not the most important or the most expensive, but even the finest materials are still just covering a bunch of unsexy two-by-fours. Framing is one of the least expensive and most essential parts of building a house. Everything fits around the frame and that’s why all these bargain signings could pay off for the Raiders.

Unlike last year, the Raiders have had the resources to sign younger players. The average age of the players McKenzie has signed is 27.6 years-old. The only player to over the age of 30 that was given a multi-year deal was linebacker Kevin Burnett and the Raiders can easily release him after one season with minimal impact (via spotrac.com figures).



The pessimistic view is that the Raiders have a mountain of dead-money that can’t be used on players in 2013, but there are only a handful of free agents that would have been worth signing anyway. McKenzie came to Oakland from Green Bay and the Packers had $17.8 million in cap space last week according to Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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