At Season's End, These Raiders Moves Will be Considered Steals

Following a dismal 4-13 campaign, the Las Vegas Raiders have had a productive offseason. John Spytek has taken over as the team's general manager and quickly provided new Raiders Head Coach Pete Carroll with the tools to be a more competitive team at the very least, this upcoming season.

Time will tell how Spytek's moves in his first offseason as the team's general manager will ultimately be viewed. However, some of the moves he has made may already quietly be some of the best value moves any team in the National Football League has made this offseason.

The Raiders entered last season with one of the worst rosters in the league, even when they were fully healthy. Then, their bottom-tier roster sustained far too many injuries to produce a successful season.

Spytek has given the Raiders what appears to be a respectable offense for the first time in years and a defense that has the potential to be sneaky-good under Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham. The well-respected coordinator is one of the few Raiders' holdovers from the past couple of seasons.

Spytek made several moves that, at season's end, may go down as a more significant move than many may realize at the moment. Below are some of those moves.

1. Adding Jack Bech and Dont'e Thornton

It must be noted that the Raiders now have many talented players at their skill positions, and as a result, many of their individual numbers will likely take a hit, as there is only one football to go around. While Bech and Thornton may or may not put up huge numbers, their addition to the offense and ability to be productive under Chip Kelly will be well worth their respective draft positions. Bech and Thornton should open things up for Jakobi Meyers, Brock Bowers, and even Tre Tucker. Their addition to the Raiders will do more than what can show up on a stat sheet. The days of the Raiders' offense being painfully one-dimensional appear to be gone.

2. Affordably Adding Devin White

The Las Vegas Raiders signed veteran linebacker Devin White to a contract worth over just $1 million for this season. White, a former top-five pick in the NFL Draft, won a Super Bowl with Tom Brady in Tampa Bay. While his play has dropped off recently, he still appears to have something left in the tank at Raiders' Organized Team Activities. If he is able to stay healthy and play anything close to what everyone knows his potential is, the Raiders undoubtedly got a steal.

3. Retaining Malcolm Koonce

Last season was supposed to be Koonce's season to burst onto the national scene after a productive end to the 2023-24 season and an even more productive offseason after that. Koonce's injury days before the Raiders' first game of last season was one of the most significant losses in an injury-plagued season. His injury would, unfortunately, foreshadow how the rest of the season would go for the Raiders. Now back and looking healthy in OTAs, the new Raiders' regime's decision to keep Koonce on a deal that is fair to both the team and the player could be one of their best decisions of the offseason. Koonce was paid a fair amount of money and has a chance to make more next offseason, as it was only a one-year deal. If Koonce lives up to the potential many believe he has, retaining him will go down as a wise move.

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