The Oakland Raiders front office has a lot of decisions to make with NFL free agency beginning, and a lot of that has to do with their internal free agents.
Three free agents that have had solid tenures with the Raiders, linebacker Malcolm Smith, who was a Super Bowl MVP for the Seattle Seahawks, quarterback Matt McGloin, who served as Derek Carr’s primary backup the past few seasons and tight end Mychal Rivera.
According to Adam Caplan of ESPN, the Raiders are likely to let all three sign elsewhere in free agency:
Expect the following #Raiders to be playing elsewhere: LB Malcolm Smith, TE Mychal Rivera, QB Matt McGloin.
— Adam Caplan (@caplannfl) March 8, 2017
Smith spent the last two season with the Raiders, playing in 31 of the team’s 32 games in starting in 30 of them. In 2016 he had 103 total tackles, two forced fumbles and an interception.
McGloin signed as an undrafted free agent with the Raiders in 2013 out of Penn State. He started six games his rookie season, throwing for 1,547 yards, eight touchdowns and eight interceptions. He started one game in 2016 after Derek Carr got hurt, but left the game with an injury of his own.
The Raiders selected Rivera in the sixth round of the 2013 draft out of Tennessee. In four season with the team he had 1,413 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. He was the team’s backup tight end the past two seasons with Clive Walford getting most of the first team reps.
Oakland has recently been linked to New England Patriots free agent tight end Martellus Bennett, which would make Rivera expendable.
Free agency officially begins on Thursday, with teams already able to begin contract negotiations with unrestricted free agents.
