Last week, a Los Angeles radio host said the “streets are talking” and the Raiders were believed to be one of four team interested in free agent cornerback Terrion Arnold.
Considering the Raiders made significant investments at the cornerback position in the offseason, it seemed unlikely they would be considering a player like Arnold, who is two weeks into defending himself against a host of felony charges, including kidnapping and armed robbery.
Earlier this week, Terrion Arnold’s attorney stated in a Florida court that three NFL teams have reached out to Arnold’s representatives to inquire about signing the former first round pick but stopped short of naming the teams.
At Friday’s court hearing, though, Arnold’s agent said there are now four teams who have interest in signing him. Those teams, she said, are the Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets and Seattle Seahawks.
Based on Friday’s information, the streets were wrong about the Raiders level of interest in Arnold, and it’s fair to wonder if any of the teams mentioned by his agent are genuinely interested.
Given the way relationships sometimes work in the NFL, it wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that one or more of the teams linked to Arnold was doing him or his agent a favor by allowing her to drop their name in court.
As for the Raiders, they have high hopes for at least three young cornerbacks on the roster, and adding a player like Arnold would only take opportunities away from Darien Porter, Jermod McCoy and Hezekiah Masses.
For now, it sounds like Porter is the slight front runner to start at cornerback across from Eric Stokes, but the streets really are saying McCoy could make a strong run at the job in training camp and preseason.
x: @raidersbeat