The first day of free agency came and went with the Raiders making no sounds at all. No signings, no rumors, no scheduled visits announced. And this is a good thing.
The first day of free agency is when teams tend to overspend to fill a need instead of waiting for the right value. The Raiders can neither afford to overspend nor need to.
As someone on Twitter pointed out yesterday, no team that has “won” free agency has ever gone on to win the Super Bowl. The two simply aren’t compatible. Free agency can field some good values but those aren’t found on the first day.
Think of free agency like Goodwill. You can find some good value but only if you sift through a lot of junk.
In fact, none of the teams in the AFC West made any kind of real splash.
The Chargers signed WR Robert Meachum to a 4 year deal to replace departed WR Vincent Jackson but Meachum, while talented, isn’t nearly the same talent as Jackson so that’s a win for the Raiders.
The Chiefs are going to host former Chargers RB Mike Tolbert. No real splash, there.
The Broncos are still considered one of the front runners to land Peyton Manning. That would obviously be a splash, if it happened. I have my doubts that Peyton would choose Denver over other options but I’ll defer to those closer to the situation that they’re still a strong candidate.
Expect the Raiders to set up some low key free agent visits in the next few days. With Boss’ release they have more than $3 million to use this season and I would expect them to bring in some new players with it.
None of the players the Raiders were realistically going to be able to target have been signed – I’ve heard only that C Chris Myers may go visit with the Titans and have heard some passing interest in CB Tracy Porter. The LB market hasn’t really done anything, so many options are still available at that position.
With day 1 in the books, who would you like the Raiders to turn their attention to?
You can ask me questions or tell me what you think on Twitter @AsherMathews
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