Silver Minings: Raiders enter offseason with 4th-most resources

The Las Vegas Raiders head into the offseason with some major holes at major spots on their roster. They could use reinforcements on their offensive line, need to add several defensive playmakers and, most importantly, need to find a starting quarterback. Luckily, a study by Pro Football Focus’ Arjun Menon found that the Raiders have the fourth-most resources to improve their roster heading into the offseason.

Menon quantified each team’s resources using the amount of draft capital, effective cap space and prorateable money each team has, placing a greater weight on each category in that order. Las Vegas currently has 11 draft picks, putting them in the 90th percentile of the study, about $11.8 million in effective cap space, per OverTheCap.com, which is in the 70th percentile, and their prorateable money is just shy of the 70th percentile.

All of that gave the Silver and Black a 90.3 composite score, behind the Houston Texans (100.0), Chicago Bears (96.8) and Seattle Seahawks (93.6). However, the study includes Derek Carr’s contract, so the Raiders could potentially leapfrog the Seahawks after getting a boost in effective cap space once Carr comes off the books.

So, general manager Dave Ziegler and head coach Josh McDaniels should have plenty of resources to help the team improve on its 6-11 record from this past season. That will also help those two restore confidence in the fanbase as our recent poll showed that 18 percent of Raiders fans still believe in the team’s direction.

For those curious, the Kansas City Chiefs (67.7) have the 11th-most resources, Denver Broncos (48.4) are 17th and the Los Angeles Chargers (16.1) rank 27th.

In other Raiders’ links:

• Raiders meet with Washington safety Alex Cook: the defensive back was a captain for the Huskies and met with the Silver and Black at this past week’s Hula Bowl along with several other teams, per Justin Melo of The Draft Network.
• 5 team fits for Carr: our Bill Williamson dives into a few playoff teams who could be in the market for Las Vegas’ soon-to-be former signal caller.
• In-house free agent targets: Las Vegas will also want to look into bringing a few players back.
• Raiders to aggressively pursue Tom Brady: “Beyond that, the Raiders would also get what one source called a “program changer.” Much like Brady lifted the Buccaneers to great heights in 2020 and 2021, the Raiders would get a quarterback who has won (as it stands now) 33 playoff games since the Raiders franchise last won one,” via CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones.