General manager Reggie McKenzie probably can’t wait to get Khalil’s Mack’s contract extension in the rearview, but once it finally happens, it won’t be long before McKenzie has to start a similar dance with two more key figures on the roster.
With his fifth-year option, Amari Cooper is under contract through the 2019 season, but there’s a good chance Cooper is taking notes on how things come together for Mack after holding out this year.
Cooper’s has the potential to be more complicated than Mack’s, in part because the Raiders know exactly what they have in Mack. The jury is still out a bit on Cooper.
The other extension that could happen (maybe sooner than Cooper’s) is Rodney Hudson – whose contract also expires after the 2019 season.
According to Pro Football Focus, Hudson has been as good as it gets when it comes to pass protection. PFF’s Austin Gayle recently expanded on Hudson’s impact as a pass blocker:
Since 2015, Hudson has allowed a pressure just once out of every 85.5 pass-block snaps on average, ranking No. 1 among centers with at least 1,000 pass-block snaps in the three-year span. Most recently, Hudson allowed just three total pressures across 592 pass-blocking snaps to earn the top-ranked pass-blocking efficiency among qualifying centers.
Would the Raiders prioritize Hudson over Cooper? Maybe not, but for all the discussion about Cooper’s next contract, Hudson has actually been the better player.
When he signed his deal with the Raiders three years ago, Hudson was the highest paid center in the NFL at $8.9 million per year. The highest paid center in the league now gets $10.5 million per year and six centers are currently making per year than Hudson.
With only so much money to go around, it’s fair to wonder which big-time player on the Raiders roster will be first to be left out.
If the Raiders are smart, they’ll make sure that person isn’t Rodney Hudson.
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I’d try and get both players extended this offseason. Sign Mack, then work on Cooper and Hudson. If we can get Cooper signed at under or around 10M per year, based on his inconsistency and injury history thus far in his career, that would be ideal. With Watkins getting 16M per year from KC, that really skyrocketed the WR payscale. So, if we wait until next offseason and Cooper breaks out under Gruden, the cost to retain him would be way too high. Do it now and we might get a deal.
With Hudson signed up for this and next season, we could wait on his contract, but why? His contract isn’t much lower then the top guys now, so why not extend him now at top Center money. Get him extended for 4-5 years at maybe 10.5-11M per year, and keep one of the best Centers in the game for a very long time. Once again, pay a bit more now, in order to save a boat load by not waiting for the market to continue to skyrocket.
The reality is that if you can only have one, you keep Hudson. First, top notch OL are much harder to land in the draft of free agency than WRs. Second, Hudson is flat out among absolute best at his position based on the numbers quoted, whereas Cooper is in the “really good and possibly better” category. The reality is, you can pick up some 3rd or 4th year middle of the road WRs and have them completely blossom in the right system, whereas your OL are pretty much either good, great or not regardless of the system (with the exception of moving to from ZBS schemes).
As much as I love Amari as a Raider, if push comes to shove cap wise, this is where the team would have to give. Big money is already going to Carr, Mack soon, and that awesome OL. If there’s not enough left for another massive contract that would mean gutting multiple other positions to fit, so be it.