Raiders sought Nate Allen last year, gets long term deal this time

The Raiders made the deal to add safety Nate Allen official Thursday, but according to Allen, this union was a year in the making.

"The Raiders have been coming after me since last year," Allen said over conference call. "So, I'd always known there was interest there and then this year right when free agency started up, they were there again knocking. So, the interest has always been there and I just needed to come out here and visit and see what was going on and I felt in love with everything out here."

Despite the interest from the Raiders last offseason, Allen opted to return to the Eagles on a one-year deal. Those are often referred to as ‘prove it' deals. What Allen did with his one year extension was ‘prove it' by having arguably the best season of his five-year career.

In 2014 Allen had a career high 4 interceptions starting nearly every game at free safety for the Eagles. He had to win the job too, competing with Earl Wolff. Allen finished strong with all four of his interceptions coming in the latter half of the season, including one in each of the final two games.

Once again the Eagles let Allen hit the free agent market and once again the Raiders came calling. But this time, they gave Allen the deal he was looking for.

"Last year was a different situation," said Allen. There wasn't any long term deals really on the table and this year I was fortunate enough to be able to get a long term deal set up and it was here in Oakland and I'm happy with what's going on and the deal that was done and I'm glad all the business stuff is over with now and it's just all football now."

There is no word yet as to exactly how long term the contract is. Allen is 27 years old so he could easily play through at least a 3-year deal, which has been a relatively standard contract given out by the Raiders.

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