The Raiders may be on the lookout for help before the November 10 trade deadline, but the player that makes the most sense on paper isn’t necessarily the one that’s going to move. If Las Vegas does decide to buy, defensive line help would be the obvious place to start, especially with Malcolm Koonce set to hit free agency after the season.
That’s why Khalil Mack naturally comes up in the conversation. It would make for a tidy reunion story, but there are real obstacles in the way. A trade inside the division is never simple, and it’s tough to picture GM John Spytek taking on a 35-year-old defensive player who’ll be a free agent in five months.
Jonathan Jones of The Athletic reported this week that Mack would be a fit for the Bears and pegged his trade value at around a fifth-round pick. “Mack is on an 0-4 Chargers team and on an expiring contract.
He signed a one-year, $18 million deal that includes $8 million in base salary. Trading him this upcoming week would mean a team would need roughly $5 million to $6 million in cap space to take him on,” Jones wrote on Saturday.
Jones also noted that “One GM and one assistant GM on different teams slotted Mack’s value as worthy of a fifth-round pick. The Bears have one of those, but the Chargers have shown no interest in dealing any player just yet.
Only one team in league history has started 0-4 and made the playoffs, and no team has started 0-5 and seen the postseason. How the Bolts fare against Payton’s Broncos could set things in motion.”
Meanwhile, another trade rumor is hanging out there involving Marvin Harrison Jr. The Texans are said to be the team willing to send a second-round pick for him, though for whatever reason they don’t want anything finalized until after the weekend. According to the report, they didn’t even want to be identified as the team leading the chase.
There are different possible explanations for the delay, but one idea is that Houston wants to see whether it starts 0-5 too. If the Texans lose to the 0-4 Titans on Sunday, that could change the way they view spending a premium pick on Harrison, especially if the reality sinks in that a playoff run may not be in the cards this year.
In Other News...
Raiders Have Extra Motivation In New England After Incognito's McDaniels Blast
Richie Incognito added another layer to the Raiders' trip to New England by publicly revisiting Josh McDaniels' brief and rocky run in Las Vegas. On a podcast, Incognito said McDaniels treated players poorly during his time with the team, a reminder of how quickly that tenure unraveled before he was fired on Oct. 31, 2023, after 21 months as head coach.
There are only a handful of players left on the current roster who were around for McDaniels' final season, but the memory of that stretch still lingers in the building. Malcolm Koonce is among the holdovers, and his rise after McDaniels' departure stands as one of the clearer examples of how different things looked once the coaching change was made, which helps explain why this matchup carries a little extra edge for some in the locker room. [Read more 🡒]
Raiders Face An Early Prove It Spot In New England
The Raiders head to New England in a spot that already feels more revealing than the calendar suggests. Las Vegas has opened 3-1 and still looks like a team with real early-season credibility, even after a loss to the Chiefs, but the trip to Foxborough comes against a Patriots squad riding the momentum of an upset in Buffalo and trying to turn one statement win into something sturdier.
Oddsmakers have made New England a 3.5-point favorite, a sign the market is giving the Patriots more respect than it did before the weekend. From the Raiders' side, the trip raises familiar questions about whether their offense can control games the way a contender needs to, especially against a defense that is being viewed as one of the league's tougher early assignments. [Read more 🡒]
Maxx Crosby Trade Buzz Puts Raiders At Center Of A Huge Debate
The Cowboys loss to Tampa Bay only turned up the volume on a conversation that has been building around one of the NFLs most disruptive defenders, with Dallas once again short on edge pressure and looking the part of a team that could use help in a hurry. Jerry Jones sounded disappointed afterward, and that frustration has fed the kind of trade chatter that always follows a game like this, especially when a proven pass rusher is sitting on another roster and drawing attention from a team with a glaring need.
For the Raiders, the noise matters because Maxx Crosby is not just a name in speculation, he is the centerpiece of a defense and one of the most recognizable players on the roster. Any idea of moving him would put Las Vegas at the center of a huge debate about where the team is headed and how much it would take to even consider listening, while the talk around Dallas keeps circling the same basic question: how far would the Cowboys go to fix a problem that showed up again on a national stage? [Read more 🡒]