Le Journal

On the same day the team announced the dismissal of Pete Carroll as head coach, the Las Vegas Raiders embarked on the offseason roster building the Monday the regular season concluded. General manager John Spytek, who is going to be the lead architect on the Silver & Black’s roster alongside the next head coach, got busy like the rest of the other 31 NFL teams on “Black Monday” by inking 12 players to reserve/future contracts. A majority of the dozen were already in the Raiders’ program on the practice squad. And it’s a mix of young and veteran players. And it’s easy to dismiss the early offseason signings as nothing more than cannon fodder, because, most of the time, that’s what they often are. But defensive tackle Adam Butler is a prime example of a flier signing turning into a solid 53-man roster contributor. #RAIDERS ROSTER MOVES:– The Las Vegas Raiders have signed the following 12 players to Reserve/Future contracts: #RaiderNation | @Raiders pic.twitter.com/AkvtCdKWpi— Raiders PR (@RAIDERS_PR) January 5, 2026 Once Spytek and minority owner Tom Brady identify and hire the head coach they see fit to lead the Silver & Black, the roster building continues. That entails free agency in March and then the 2026 NFL Draft in April. Spytek’s player personnel group also has a group of 25 in-house free agents. And in the season-ending press conference, the general manager admitted to his shortcomings in that regard during his initial offseason in Las Vegas. It was one that saw 14 in-house free agents from the 2024 squad ink deals elsewhere. Most lucrative were safety Tre’Von Moehrig (three year, $51-million pact with the Carolina Panthers), cornerback Nate Hobbs (four-year, $48-million deal with the Green Bay Packers), and linebacker Robert Spillane (three-year, $33-million contract with the New England Patriots). Linebacker Divine Deablo was a solid defender for the Atlanta Falcons (two-year, $14-million deal) while edge rusher K’Lavon Chaisson is good production/value with the Patriots (one-year, $3-million contract). “And, yeah, we don’t want to let good players leave our building. That’s happened around here,” Spytek said. “I was in charge last year when a couple good players left the building. And it’s one of the things I learned, you got to keep our good players here. And we were talking about it this morning. You look around the league there’s some former Raiders that are playing good football somewhere. And I got to do a better job in that world.” From https://t.co/C6hwx1ptN0, the #Raiders in-house free agents. Expect the exclusive rights free agents/restricted free agents back on one-year qualifying offers. Then there's 19 unrestricted free agents.#RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/dMEwC64gte— Ray Aspuria (@AsukalAspuria) January 15, 2026 Let’s take a look at the in-house free agents that merit a return. I’ll be going through unrestricted free agents, which OverTheCap lists as 19 0f the 25 in-house free agents. The group of four exclusive rights free agents and two restricted free agents are likely back on one-year tenders. Exclusive Rights Free Agents (ERFA) Kyu Blu Kelly, cornerback, 24 years old Charles Snowden, defensive end, 27 years old Tristin McCollum, safety, 26 Will Putnam, center/guard, 25 Restricted Free Agents (RFA) Thomas Booker, defensive tackle, 26 Jordan Meredith, center/guard, 27 Eric Stokes Cornerback, 26 years old: One of Spytek’s flier signings that hit, the 6-foot-1 and 193-pound cornerback fit the size, speed, length requires of former Raiders head coach Pete Carroll. But Stokes has the makings of a scheme versatile cover corner that can shadow top wide receivers. As a career-high 16-game starter, Stokes was charted by Pro Football Reference as allowing 34 catches on 60 targets (56.7 percent completion rate) for 329 yards and one touchdown this past season. Opposing quarterbacks sported a 77.7 rating throwing Stokes’ way. While the cornerback didn’t snare as ingle interception this year,…

It’s no secret, I enjoy reminiscing about Raiders history. I do every chance I get. I got another chance this week. Saturday, during the television broadcast of the Denver Broncos’ thrilling overtime home victory over the Buffalo Bills, a stat was shown that the Bills became the 85th team to play on the road have have three or m0re turnovers Saturday. Of those 85 times to put themselves in that hole, only one was able to actually in the game. The 1977 Oakland Raiders. It occurred on Christmas Eve, 1977 at the Baltimore Colts. It was the great Ghost To The Post game when Dave Casper gave the Silver and Black a 37-31 victory in double overtime. It, to this day, is considered one of the great NFL games ever played. It was epic and I’ll never forget it. Thanks, Buffalo, for the reminder In other Raiders’ news: FEED talk: Check out this FEED post and join the party. Head coach tracker: The Raiders’ website is keeping tabs. Talking Mendoza: Check out our mailbag, featuring Fernando Mendoza chatter.