According to an NFL Network report on Tuesday, the Raiders restructured the contract of linebacker Cory Littleton to save $8.272 million against this year’s salary cap.
The question is, what was the motivation behind the move?
The most expensive trade and/or free agent options like Jadeveon Clowney and Yannick Ngakoue are no longer available, but it’s possible the Raiders have something else coming.
The Raiders were down to very little cap room (least in the league according to OverTheCap), but $8 million is a lot of cleared cap room. So it’s fair to wonder if the Raiders might have plans to make another move before the season begins. It’s also possible that they simply wanted to have more flexibility in the weeks ahead, but then you might think they would choose to wait to restructure Littleton’s deal.
The Raiders restructured Rodney Hudson’s deal in April, but it’s noteworthy that the deal that never gets restructured belongs to Derek Carr. The only reason to not restructure Carr’s deal is to give the team flexibility with him down the road. As GM Mike Mayock pointed out in the offseason, the Raiders love Carr’s deal. It was the richest quarterback deal in history when it was signed, but three years later it looks more like a bargain.
twitter: @raidersbeat
Do not mess with Carr’s contract!
When Vegas drops him like a bad habit in 2021 with no cap hit the Raiders brass will look like geniuses.
Raiders could be looking for another QB to backup Carr. The Mariota deal is already looking like a bust. He is on injured reserve. Not good.
Going for speed trying to match up with KC