Raiders already know one of the players they want to use their No. 1 waiver wire spot on after finalizing their initial 53-man roster
The Las Vegas Raiders have the No. 1 waiver wire spot, and they intend to use it on Darrell Luter Jr.
The Las Vegas Raiders hold the No. 1 waiver wire spot, and they’re putting it to use. Las Vegas can claim as many waived players as it wants from that position, and one of the first names on the list is former San Francisco 49ers cornerback Darrell Luter Jr.
The move tells us a lot about what general manager John Spytek has in mind for the rest of this roster, because the initial 53-man roster is never the roster a team runs with throughout the season. The Raiders kept some players on their roster specifically so they wouldn’t get picked up elsewhere. Several of those players will end up on the practice squad. Others who weren’t on the roster at all are about to join it. Luter is one of those guys, and he brings something this cornerback room desperately needs: experience.
What Luter brings to a thin cornerback room
Luter has played 27 career games in the NFL, including 17 games last season. He started three of those games and has a fumble recovery, a pass deflection, a forced fumble, a tackle for loss, and 38 career tackles to his name. That résumé may not jump off the page, but the Raiders’ cornerback room is short on proven commodities.
Las Vegas has two rookies set to play significant snaps in fourth-round pick Jermod McCoy, who many expected to go in the first round, and fifth-round pick Hezekiah Masses. Then there’s Darien Porter, who is entering his second year but is only in his third or fourth year of playing cornerback after starting at Iowa State as a receiver. Porter has all the athletic tools; it’s everything else that needs development. Cornerback Eric Stokes is the clear CB1, but he needs help around him, and the Raiders are hoping Luter can provide some of that.
The stats paint a mixed picture
The numbers suggest Luter has potential, but they also explain why San Francisco let him go. He appeared in 17 games last year, but only seven of those included coverage reps. In 169 coverage snaps, he was targeted 15 times and allowed 10 catches for 142 yards and a touchdown. Of those 15 targets, 12 were catchable, per Sports Info Solutions. The stats aren’t great, especially considering the limited sample size, but there’s clearly something Spytek sees that the rest of us might not.
You don’t use a No. 1 waiver wire claim on just anybody. The Raiders can make as many claims as they want from that spot and add whoever is available through the system, but this isn’t a player they believed would still be around if they passed on him. There’s a reason for that.
This is a depth move, not a starter acquisition
The key here is not to think about Luter as a potential starter. This is about depth and adding a veteran presence to a young room. The Raiders aren’t grabbing him expecting he’ll walk in and immediately become CB1 or even CB2. Can that happen? Sure, it’s the NFL, and anything can happen. But that shouldn’t be the expectation here.
The hope is that Luter fits the system and the regime well. Spytek and the coaching staff believe that could be the case, and for a cornerback room that needs all the help it can get, even a modest contribution from a player with NFL game experience would be valuable.
