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Last season the Raiders had the most dead money of any team in the league which meant they also had the least amount of money being spent on players who were actually contributing. So, when they went about putting their team together, it was all about value. With that in mind, let's see which players gave them the most bang for their buck and those who gave them the least.
Let's start with the good news - the best values. The value is quantified by taking the rank of the player's salary at their position versus their position ranking on Pro Football Focus.
When calculating the salary ranking, if the player's salary was outside the top 50, it usually meant they were at or near league minimum and therefore were each given a salary ranking of 51.
Best values:
| Position | Player | Salary rank | PFF rank | Value |
| DE | Lamarr Houston | 48 | 11 | 37 |
| LB | Sio Moore | 39 | 8 | 31 |
| DT | Pat Sims | 47 | 17 | 30 |
| RB | Rashad Jennings | 51 | 21 | 30 |
| TE | Mychal Rivera | 51 | 23 | 28 |
| QB | Matt McGloin | 51 | 29 | 22 |
| OT | Jared Veldheer | 51 | 30 | 21 |
| C | Stefen Wisniewski | 26 | 9 | 17 |
| TE | Jeron Mastrud | 51 | 34 | 17 |
| WR | Andre Holmes | 51 | 38 | 13 |
Worst values:
| Position | Player | Salary rank | PFF rank | Value |
| CB | D.J. Hayden | 44 | 90 | -46 |
| RB | Darren McFadden | 9 | 54 | -45 |
| OG | Mike Brisiel | 19 | 44 | -25 |
| K | Sebastian Janikowski | 1 | 25 | -24 |
| LB | Nick Roach | 19 | 42 | -23 |
| LB | Kevin Burnett | 15 | 24 | -9 |
| DE | Jason Hunter | 49 | 49 | 0 |
There are a few cases which must be taken into consideration when putting together these values. First off, no players who were out of the top 50 salaries were counted among the worst values. Just consider that a "you get what you pay for" situation. Otherwise, players such as Lucas Nix and Brandian Ross would surely make the worst values, even at league minimum salaries.
Most notably those of curious cases is Tyvon Branch, Marcel Reece, and Taiwan Jones.
Branch had one of the highest salaries on the team, and was the tenth highest paid safety in the league. But being that he played just one full game last season, it's hard to judge his value. Based on past performance, the team considers his salary justified.
Reece is the team's fullback but plays some running back as well. He is the second highest paid fullback in the league but the 20th highest running back. His PFF ranking is 7th among fullbacks. That means one value ranking would have him at a 13 while the other a negative 5. His actual value is hard to quantify by there is no way it's negative.
Taiwan Jones also held a couple different positions. He was special teams gunner and a return man. His special team's PFF rank is somewhere in the 700s, simply because there are so many special teamers. His rank as a return man is 37. He is certainly valuable but it's hard to say just where he would fit in here.
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