The NFL free agency legal tampering period officially began on Monday morning, meaning teams can begin negotiating with players on the open market. They are allowed to agree to deals with players, although those cannot be officially signed until free agency begins on Wednesday.
The Las Vegas Raiders are expected to be one of the more active teams in free agency this year as they have around $57 million in cap space to improve their roster.
A big need for the Raiders is to improve their defense, and it looks like they have already begun working on that. According to Josina Anderson of ESPN, the Raiders are among the teams showing interest in free-agent defensive backs Byron Jones, Damarious Randall and Chris Harris Jr.:
I'm told the #Dolphins, #Jets, #Raiders, #Eagles are among the clubs that have discussed interest in impending free agent CB Byron Jones, per source.
— ig: josinaanderson (@JosinaAnderson) March 16, 2020
I'm told of the teams expressing preliminary interest in impending free agent S Damarious Randall, the #Raiders, #Seahawks & #Skins are the teams Randall would most likely entertain to join, as of now, per source.
— ig: josinaanderson (@JosinaAnderson) March 16, 2020
I'm told the #Cowboys, #Bills, #Jets and #Raiders are among the teams showing interest in impending free agent CB Chris Harris, per source.
— ig: josinaanderson (@JosinaAnderson) March 16, 2020
Additionally, Vic Tafur of The Athletic is reporting that Las Vegas is eyeing linebacker Cory Littleton:
While they wait to see what quarterback Tom Brady decides to do, coach Jon Gruden and general manager Mike Mayock will be active early. And they are going to be all over free-agent linebacker Cory Littleton when and if the tampering window officially opens. He is a popular target.
None of these targets come as a surprise as the Raiders have been linked to them all in the past. Jones and Littleton are the best free agents at their respective positions so while they would greatly improve Las Vegas’ defense, it will not come at a cheap price.
Safety isn’t as big of a need for the Raiders, but signing Randall would give them another young option to pair with Johnathan Abram, who is coming off a shoulder injury that cost him almost his entire rookie season.
The only real need for the Raiders on the offensive side of the ball is wide receiver, and it looks like they may wait to address that in the draft so they can use their cap space to improve the defense.
