2024 NFL Offseason Primer: Las Vegas Raiders

Logan Ulrich

March 3, 2024

Las Vegas Raiders

Projected Cap Space: $37.4 million

Draft Picks: 9

1st (No. 13)
2nd (No. 44)
3rd (No. 77)
4th (No. 113)
5th (No. 147)
6th (No. 210, KC)
7th (No. 221, NE)
7th (No. 225, TEN)
7th (No. 227, MIN)

Notable Free Agents:

Top Three Needs

1 – Quarterback

Figuring out who’s going to be under center in 2024 is the top priority for the Raiders this offseason. Aidan O’Connell was better than expected last year, but he was also graded on a steep curve as a fourth-round rookie. He looked more like a solid backup option than a future high-level starter. In a division with Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert, that’s not going to cut it.

The challenge for Las Vegas is going to be finding an upgrade with the resources available. Picking 13th is not high enough for the top options on the board and a trade up would wipe out a huge chunk of their significant draft capital for the next two seasons — and that’s assuming a team is willing to trade down. Las Vegas isn’t a realistic option to trade for Bears QB Justin Fields after hiring his former offensive coordinator, Luke Getsy, who is no longer in Chicago in part because he couldn’t maximize Fields’ talents.

Free agency is an option, but for top players like Vikings QB Kirk Cousins or even Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield, the Raiders would have to shell out tons of money. One attainable option, though, is soon-to-be-former Broncos QB Russell Wilson, who will make $39 million no matter what in 2024, most of it from Denver regardless of whether he’s on or off the roster.

Wilson’s not necessarily a long-term option at this stage of his career, but he’s still good enough to be a starter. There’s also the added benefit of coming far cheaper than just about any other option for Las Vegas, even some of the lesser-heralded bridge quarterbacks. Signing him would buy the Raiders a little bit of time to find a younger heir, and give new HC Antonio Pierce a veteran to help win right away.

2 – Offensive Line

The entire right side of the Raiders’ offensive line is set to hit free agency right now, including James, Van Roten and Eluemunor. James is a solid starting center and a decent candidate to be back, but Eluemunor could get more in free agency than the Raiders are comfortable matching. Van Roten was a stopgap who would ideally be a great backup option.

To mete out the physical, punishing style Pierce wants to play with, the Raiders need to get a lot better up front. Revamping the right side of the line is the best way to do that. There could be some solid tackle options in the first or second round, or Las Vegas could roll the dice on another player like Eluemunor who was looking for a change of scenery.

3 – Defensive Tackle

Las Vegas is likely aware of cornerback as a need as well, but the Raiders have more pending free agents on the interior of their defensive line which will need replacing. Three key role players in Jenkins, Nichols and Butler are on expiring deals and a fourth, DT Jerry Tillery, is a possible cut candidate.

Like with the offensive line, the Raiders could try to bring back one or two players here to minimize the turnover. But this is also an opportunity to add an impact player at a high value position. The face of the Raiders’ defense is DE Maxx Crosby, a relentless player with Defensive Player of the Year potential. There are some solid options across from him with DEs Malcolm Koonce and last year’s first-rounder Tyree Wilson, but a disruptive interior rusher could turn Las Vegas from good to outstanding on the defensive line.

Pierce knows this as well as anyone after playing on the Giants’ Super Bowl squad in 2007: an elite defensive line can be kryptonite for any offense and any quarterback. The Raiders have edge rushers with the potential to reach that standard of play, they just need to boost things in the middle.

One Big Question

Is Pierce more than a flash in the pan?

Raiders owner Mark Davis gets a lot of things wrong, and his decision to go all-in on the duo of HC Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler remains a horrid blunder. But Davis should get a scooch of credit for pulling the plug halfway through last season and not making Raiders fans sit through another season and a half of a failed regime.

Davis has been hesitant to commit to an interim head coach in the past, as they largely have unsuccessful records on the rare occasion they get pushed into the full-time job. The way Pierce won over the locker room was just impossible to ignore. The Raiders looked like a different team in a lot of ways. It’s not that the limitations on the roster weren’t still there. The offensive line still was below average, the quarterback play was bad and the defense had a lack of true impact players outside of Crosby.

But the Raiders just kept finding ways to win with Pierce. They crushed some bad teams and played some good teams close. They even scored an upset over the Super Bowl champion Chiefs, who have had the Raiders’ number the past several years. Pierce seemed to embody a swagger and toughness that the franchise has personified in its best moments throughout its history, and the team took on his personality.

The big question is, however, how sustainable is this? It’s tough to describe what Pierce brings to the Raiders without relying on vague intangibles like “leadership” and “culture.” It’s not that the model can’t be successful, as the Lions have shown. Plenty of teams eyed coaching candidates in the same vein as Lions HC Dan Campbell, and there are some interesting similarities between Pierce and Campbell as former players who had never been coordinators before ascending to a top job after a stint as an interim head coach.

Teams just get in trouble when they chase copycats without understanding what makes the original unique or the true reason for their success. Time will tell if Pierce is the next in a new line of head coaching archetypes or if he’s another failed experiment.