Raiders in no hurry to fill open roster spot left by Kevin Burnett release

The first order of business for the Raiders the day before training camp began was to cut ties with Kevin Burnett. He wasn't in the team's plans so it didn't make sense to drag it out into training camp. Now the team has an open roster spot they have yet to fill. Dennis Allen said the team is in no hurry to fill the roster spot left open by Burnett's release.

"I don't think right now," Allen said Saturday. "We came into camp with significant depth at the linebacker position and so I don't really see a huge sense of urgency to try to fill that spot obviously. If we have any more injuries or if Kaluka (Maiava) is going to miss some sort of extended amount of time, we may look at that, but I don't see that as something that we're in a sense of urgency to try to fill it."

This isn't unusual for the Raiders. A good portion of camp last season they had at least one roster spot open, sometimes two. Allen likes the idea of having the flexibility to just add the right player when he comes available as opposed to playing roster bubble shuffle.

"Yeah, we're at 89 on our team right now and we've got the ability to have 90 at camp, so we've got an open roster spot and if and when we feel the need to try and fill that, the good news is we don't have to make any releases to be able to do that."

As he mentioned, there is also the Kaluka Maiava hamstring injury which has the Raiders down a linebacker. It sounds as if he doesn't expect Maiava to be out long and the open roster spot, when filled, would very likely be filled by a player at another position if and when injuries occur elsewhere and there isn't sufficient depth to cover it.

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