Is a Top 5 Salary Cap Number on the Raiders’ Roster at Risk of Being Cut?

Is there a surprise roster cut potentially coming for the Raiders?

Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter talked about the roster on Tuesday and he believes one of the better paid players on the team is at risk of not making the final roster.

“I think there are some veterans who could be in a lot of trouble and one of them in particular has a very high price tag,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast.

Carpenter didn’t name the player he was talking about, but it’s fair to wonder if might have been Malcolm Koonce.

Koonce signed a one-year deal worth a little more than $11 million in the offseason, and he has been largely ineffective in 27 defensive snaps in preseason.

According to Pro Football Focus, Koonce has just one quarterback pressure in 15 pass rush attempts and the film hasn’t offered the 28-year-old edge rusher any excuses.

Maybe the Raiders wouldn’t have signed Koonce if they knew Maxx Crosby was coming back, but with more than $10 million of his contract fully guaranteed, the team saves essentially nothing against the cap by cutting or trading Koonce.

It could have been someone else Carpenter was talking about, but Koonce is one of only five players on the roster set to make more than $10 million this year, and the Raiders won’t be cutting Maxx Crosby, Tyler Linderbaum, Kolton Miller or Fernando Mendoza.

With players like Cian Slone and Patrick Johnson pushing hard to make the roster, it’s possible Koonce will be the odd man out.

It would be a big disappointment for the team to cut a player they just signed to a deal with nearly $11 million in guaranteed money, but unless Koonce has shown something in training camp that he hasn’t shown in games, it might be time to cut bait and double down on one of the younger players on the roster.

x: @raidersbeat