The Raiders invested heavily on the defensive side of the football this offseason, but ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler thinks it might make sense for Las Vegas to go after one more big name before the start of the season.
Following Vita Vea’s trade request from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Fowler listed the Raiders as one of the logical landing spots for the veteran defensive tackle.
“The ties are obvious,” Fowler said of Vea’s connections to the Silver & Black.
“Second-year general manager John Spytek was a longtime Buccaneers executive who played a role in drafting Vea out of Washington in 2018. The Raiders’ current defensive tackles are a journeyman (Adam Butler) and a promising 2024 seventh-rounder (Jonah Laulu). So there’s plenty of room for reinforcements,” Fowler continued.
“The downside: The Raiders are in the middle of a significant rebuild and skew young. And they’ve already spent big in free agency on defensive players such as linebacker Quay Walker and corner Eric Stokes (re-signing). They have $14 million in cap space, but is an older veteran really the player they’re looking for this season?”
Did the Raiders already reach out about Vea?
Chat Sports’ host Mitchell Renz said on Tuesday that Vea is interested in joining the Raiders, but he added a detail that has not been reported by anyone else to this point.
“The good news is Vita is interested in playing for the Raiders,” Renz said on the Raiders Report. “The Raiders are interested in trading for Vita, and I’m under the impression there’s already a deal on the table.”
It wouldn’t be a surprise if Spytek and company are interested in Vea, but the same can be said of Crosby and more than half of the teams in the NFL
Crosby is a defensive commodity at a premium position, but no one has been willing to meet the Raiders’ asking price. The Buccaneers might be willing to trade Vea, but if the cost is too high, the veteran defensive tackle won’t be going anywhere.
Adding Vea would fit the vision in Las Vegas, but at 31 years old, would he fit into their timeline to compete for a Super Bowl?
Bucs not looking to trade Vea?
ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting that Tampa Bay isn’t looking to trade Vea, but noted that Dallas said the same thing about Micah Parsons a year ago.
“These things are fluid evolving situation,” Schefter said on the Pat McAfee Show.
Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles told reporters on Wednesday that Vea “tweaked something” and was not able to practice. Bowles also said the Bucs have had no conversations about trading their star defensive tackle.
From the outside, it looks like a bad situation between Vea and the Buccaneers, but it’s too early to assume a solution can’t be worked out.
The Bucs are a playoff contender and have every reason to try to win now. Trading Vea certainly would not be the commonsense path to winning now.