In March, the Raiders made Tyler Linderbaum the highest paid center in NFL history, and it was a deal that seemingly left the Washington Commanders without a backup plan at center.
According to ESPN Radio’s Lake Lewis Jr., the Commanders thought they had an agreement in place with Linderbaum, but the Raiders showed up at the 11th hour and changed his mind with a three-year, $81 million deal.
“I was told by somebody I do trust that they had an agreement, supposedly like a handshake agreement pretty much with Linderbaum,” Lewis said of the Commanders on the Rambling with Rio podcast.
“I just think that when the Raiders came in and made you the highest paid center in history, you can’t turn that money down, can you? No way. If you’re Adam [Peters], you don’t want to overpay, so you didn’t… but I guess if you feel like you have a gentleman’s agreement, I guess, with your top prospect, the no. 1 free agent center, and all of a sudden at the last second it goes haywire and you don’t get him, maybe you didn’t have that plan B…”
The irony to the Linderbaum report is that the Raiders were on the other side of a botched deal in March, when the trade for Maxx Crosby fell through with the Baltimore Ravens.
In both cases, the Raiders ended up getting the elite player, even though they were the organization blindsided by the Ravens’ decision to back out of the deal.
Linderbaum not the only player the Raiders swooped in on in free agency.
According to Raider Nation Radio host ‘JT the Brick’, there was a 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.”
JT didn’t name the team he was referring to, but a lot of the details lined with what has been reported about the Cowboys, who went hard after Quay Walker and Nakobe Dean in free agency.