The Las Vegas Raiders lost two of their best players during free agency. Well, now you can make it three with Nate Hobbs off to the Green Bay Packers getting a huge pay day that the Raiders likely won't have been able to match.
Regardless, it's safe to say the core group of players under Pete Carroll and John Spytek will look a lot different on the defensive side of the ball than it has the last two years or so. That's not a bad thing, especially when you upgrade at the positions. They already have for one of them, but either way it still hurts to see guys that, in my case, I've covered for three years now and grown to root for, whether it be their success on or off the football field.
But as I said, it's a bit different when the Raiders replace the guys they lose with players that are better, or near the same but cheaper, etc. They have already done that once, and still have time to do it with some of the other positions.
After letting Tre'von Moehrig walk and sign a huge deal with the Carolina Panthers, it was obvious the Raiders were never going to be able to afford him at $17 million APY. He's a great player, but the Panthers overpaid because they have to as that's the position they are in as a franchise.
Luckily, they picked up someone better, for cheaper, which only reveals why they were so okay with letting Moehrig go after drafting and developing him into the player he is today.
Raiders sign safety Jeremy Chinn
Earlier this off-season the Raiders signed Isaiah Pola-Mao to a contract extension, showing that they are interested in making him one of their starters at the two safety positions for the future. The other position still needed to be filled, and with Moehrig gone, it really only left one player out of all of the available safeties for the Raiders to target.
That is, of course, Jeremy Chinn who played for the Washington Commanders last year and the Carolina Panthers before that. He is somewhat familiar with the defensive system that the Raiders will run under Pete Carroll, as he played under Dan Quinn last year, who was once Carroll’s defensive coordinator with the Seattle Seahawks.
And Chinn is a much better all-around player than Moehrig is. I would say he certainly fits what the Raiders are going to want to do on defense more than what Moehrig did. But Moehrig was certainly better in coverage these last few years.
Everyone remembers those Seahawks defenses, right? Kam Chancellor was one of the baddest dudes on the field anytime he stepped foot on one. He was a big safety that hit hard, but also could do a little bit of everything the Seahawks needed him to do. Chinn will be used in a similar way, but of course, no one is Chancellor.
Getting Chinn for the price they got him at makes, two year deal for $16 million, and this is an easy upgrade, and then factoring in how he will be used, and it's even more of a plus.
