Tre'von Moehrig signing with the Carolina Panthers is the reality of a bad situation the Las Vegas Raiders were stuck in
The Las Vegas Raiders have now lost their third and fourth best defenders from last season. You can put them in whatever order you want, to be honest, but either way they lost their two quarterbacks of the defense. Lienbacker Robert Spillane is now with the New England Patriots. He was the quarterback of the […]
The Las Vegas Raiders have now lost their third and fourth best defenders from last season. You can put them in whatever order you want, to be honest, but either way they lost their two quarterbacks of the defense.
Lienbacker Robert Spillane is now with the New England Patriots. He was the quarterback of the defense, was great in the run game, and even had five interceptions the last two years wearing silver and black. He was a huge reason the Raiders were that good on that side of the ball. And then there's Tre'von Moehrig, who is now heading to the Carolina Panthers. He was the quarterback of the secondary last season, and a guy the Raiders drafted and watched develop from a poor player to one of the best safeties in the league.
And the Raiders wanted both back, as did the fan base. But, it seems like it was never possible, even though I, myself, thought it was just a few weeks ago. Coming into this week, the Raiders could have chosen just those two as their players they wanted to retain. But, that was before they signed Alex Cappa, the former Cincinnati Bengals guard, and traded for Geno Smith, the former Seattle Seahawks QB.
So, Spillane goes first and it makes you think that there's a real chance Moehrig comes back. No, there was never a chance, especially seeing how much the two of them got paid. The Raiders were stuck in a harsh reality that they are now freed from.
Raiders lose Robert Spillane and Tre'von Moehrig
The reality is, the Raiders were stuck. When you have really good defensive players, and not enough money to pay them all, they won't be back. Then there are really bad teams like the Panthers and Patriots who are more than willing to overpay because they aren't good and have the money. That's not a situation the Raiders can win, frankly. That's not the only way they're stuck, though.
Years ago, when Dave Ziegler and even before him, honestly, was the general manager, he signed a ton of players to the same deals, and the same length, so that caused the Raiders to have all of their players become free agents at the same time. They had 17 defensive free agents entering the offseason, and 25 free agents overall. That's not something that will help you build a team, because now there's turnover and not enough money.
The only way they were going to be able to afford that was drafting a quarterback or playing a QB on a rookie contract instead of trading for Smith, whose contract is only going to get bigger, too.
It sucks, but that's the reality of the situation. Now, two cornerstone pieces of the defense are gone.
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