The Las Vegas Raiders introduced former Tampa Bay Buccaneers' assistant general manager John Spytek as their new general manager, marking the next era of Raiders football. The Raiders have struggled to field a truly quality team over the past two seasons, which Spytek has been tasked with changing.
Las Vegas must figure out which of their 17 unrestricted free agents to keep, as some of the team's best defensive players are set to hit free agency this offseason.
The Raiders also have upward of $100 million to spend in free agency this offseason, as well as the sixth overall pick in the upcoming NFL Draft. This gives the Raiders multiple ways of addressing many of the positions on the roster that needs to be addressed.
"I don't think there's any perfect way to do it," Spytek said. "For us in Tampa recently it was definitely draft and develop. I think at the start of the season 44 of the players that made the inital 53 were drafted or signed by us as undrafted free agents. I think all but two starters were. But at the end of the day, we're going to look anywhere we can to find a good football player. I don't care if it's at Michigan, Ohio State.
"But our job is to be so open minded where we will literally go anywhere in the country, anywhere in Canada to find a good football player. I always admired the way that they started in Seattle at the quarterback position in particular. They just kept taking shots and shots and shots. They traded, they drafted guys high, they found their way to Russell. What an unbelievable move that was. He was a little bit different. He was under six feet at a time when most quarterbacks were over six feet, so willing to think outside the box a little bit. These are things that I've learned throughout my career.
During Spytek's nine seasons with the Buccaneers, he used both free agency and the draft to help build Tampa's roster into one of the best in the league. He plans to again use whichever method works the best in Las Vegas.
"Yes, we want to draft and develop because it's the best way to build a solid foundation of a team and then to reward those players with second contracts because we know exactly what we're doing," Spytek said. "But if the opportunity comes to sign a Tom Brady or a Baker Mayfield or trade for a Jason Pierre-Paul or Rob Gronkowski, just examples of my career, we will absolutely do that when the team is ready and the organization is ready for that."
