3 Raiders veterans who will be cut before Week 1 and why

Raiders veteran who will be cut No. 2: Bilal Nichols, DL

Assuming that we see a much better year two with the Raiders from Chandler Jones, Vegas could legitimately have one of the best group of edge rushers in the NFL this season. Jones, Maxx Crosby and aforementioned first-round pick Tyree Wilson is a trio with a ton of talent that could do real damage in the pass rush.

Where things are quite a bit less sunny, however, is on the interior of the defensive line. It’s a group that lacks a great deal of proven talent, if there’s even anyone who could fit that bill on the roster at all.

Subsequently, conventional wisdom might say that Bilal Nichols, the former Bears defensive tackle who played in 17 games for the Raiders last season, would be a lock to make the roster. That, however, is probably not the case.

As depth was an issue last season too, Vegas picked up Jerry Tillery off of waivers from the Chargers near the end of last year. They liked what he saw to the degree that they re-signed the former first-round pick this offseason, even if he’s drastically underperformed in his career. Meanwhile, the franchise then selected Byron Young from Alabama and Nesta Jade Silvera from Arizona State in this year’s draft to go with two picks from 2022, Matthew Butler and Neil Farrell Jr.

In that equation with an interior that, frankly, likely won’t be good with this combination of players, the best route is to favor youth instead of a middling veteran such as Nichols. That’s especially true when considering that the Raiders would save $3.125 million by cutting Nichols. Importantly, there aren’t really other cut candidates in this group that could net that kind of savings.

Factoring all of that into the equation, expect Vegas to favor youth to fill out the depth chart and Nichols to get the ax on cut-down day.