The Davante Adams trade didn’t work out great for the Raiders, and that’s especially true considering the pick they received from the Jets for Adams ended up being used on Geno Smith.
The irony of the situation, though, is that the first-round pick sent to Green Bay for Adams was used by the Packers to get Quay Walker, and Walker is now the highest-paid linebacker on the Vegas roster.
Walker signed a three-year $40.5 million deal with the Raiders in March, and along with Nakobe Dean, the linebacker group in Las Vegas has been entirely overhauled.
Dean has been getting more attention in recent months, but Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers thinks Walker is going to be a “difference maker” in Rob Leonard’s defense.
“I really do think he’s going to be a big difference maker for this Raiders defense. That linebacking room looks so much different than it did a year ago,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders podcast last week.
The Raiders spoiled the Cowboys’ efforts to sign Quay Walker and Nakobe Dean
According to The Athletic’s Jon Machota, the Cowboys were trying to sign both Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker prior to both linebackers agreeing to deals with the Raiders in March.
‘The pass rush won’t be what it was with Micah Parsons, but it should be improved from last season. Inside linebacker is the spot that probably still needs a little help. It would be nice to have a team captain-type green dot linebacker. The Cowboys obviously wanted one, making a run at Nakobe Dean, Quay Walker and Devin Lloyd in free agency,” Machota rote this week.
Machota isn’t the first to report the Cowboys wanted Dean and Walker, but combined with an ESPN report following Jerry Jones’ efforts to trade for Maxx Crosby, there’s no doubt the Raiders spoiled some of the Cowboys’ biggest ideas of the offseason.
“The Raiders had two teams willing to swing for the fence [Crosby]; the Cowboys and the Ravens,” ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler said the day after the Baltimore deal was announced.
“The Ravens were willing to give up the two first-round picks, the Cowboys simply were not and I was told the Cowboys were low key devastated. They really wanted Maxx Crosby. They were eyeing him for months, but they just had a tipping point. It was a first-round pick and a second-round pick. They tried to involve a veteran player or two to sweeten the deal. The Raiders didn’t want to that. They simply wanted the youth and the draft picks.”
Did the Raiders benefit from Jerry Jones sleeping at the wheel?
Stealing players from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is a good story, but the deeper details might be even better than advertised.
According to Raider Nation Radio host ‘JT the Brick’, there was at least one team the Raiders swooped in against and made a deal while the opposing GM wasn’t answering his phone.
“I have been told that… when Spytek was making deals, other GMs were not aware that the Raiders were on the phone making late afternoon deals, where the other GMs were sleeping on the job, and one of these players, they wanted the exact players that the Raiders got,” JT said on his flagship radio show in March.
“Spytek was humming at the Raider facility while others were not available or weren’t or didn’t feel a sense of urgency. They didn’t believe the Raiders after the Maxx Crosby trade, the Linderbaum move, [were] going out and getting [Jalen] Nailor, they didn’t see the Raiders coming to pounce on the defensive side of the ball.”
“According to someone who’s very connected,” JT continued, “Spytek pounced on the phones and closed those deals as other GMs. I don’t know if they were in the bathroom, I don’t know if they were on the phone with their wife, I don’t know if they were picking up their kids at school, but Spytek sensed that he could get in on this and he got the players and he closed down day one. It was incredible.”
Could Maxx Crosby still be traded before the start of the season?
According to Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter, there are still at least two teams in hot pursuit of Crosby.
“I am telling you, there is a lot of interest in Maxx Crosby. Two teams, specifically, nuclear hot, [are] the Eagles and the 49ers,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast.
“I still believe there are two, maybe as many as three other teams absolutely in play for Maxx. Okay, does that mean that Maxx is in Spytek’s office [wanting out]? No. Does that mean that Spytek is like, ‘I want him gone?’ No. But it means the reality is… I do believe someone could get Maxx. I think he could be had. [It would have to be] the right team, and it would have to be the right price.”
“Do I think [a Crosby trade] is as probable as it was when the season ended? No, but I certainly don’t think it’s far-fetched. I would not be shocked or surprised with a trade. I’m not predicting one, but I would not be shocked or surprised. That’s just the reality, and that’s my job to report to you the reality.”
x: @raidersbeat