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

Raiders veteran who will be cut No. 1: Keelan Cole, WR

Keelan Cole spent his first four seasons in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars and developed a reuptation as an upside playmaker for an offense. He then spent the 2021 campaign with the Jets before ending up on the Raiders last season. The results, however, weren’t there in the Vegas offense as, despite playing in 14 games, he notched just 10 receptions (21 targets) for 141 yards and one touchdown.

There has been talk throughout Raiders training camp that many of the receivers in their second season working in the constructs of McDaniels’ offense have started to take steps forward. Cole hasn’t specifically been mentioned, but the hope would be that he could insert himself into that conversation.

What’s working against the veteran, unfortunately, is the emergence of rookie Tre Tucker, who the club took with the 100th overall pick out of Cincinnati.

Tucker, who looked raw early in the offseason during OTAs, has been drawing rave reviews in training camp. Levi Edwards of Raiders.com noted earlier this week that Tucker “continues to separate himself” from the rest of the depth wide receivers behind Davante Adams, Jakobi Meyers and Hunter Renfrow. That sentiment was furthered by Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

With the rookie Tucker clearly making a name for himself and assumedly earning a role in the offense, that’s going to push out one of the veterans like Cole, Phillip Dorsett or Deandre Carter. The latter’s return ability could keep him on the roster, which likely brings it down to Cole and Dorsett to cut.

Really, it could go either way. But given that Cole was lackluster in his first season with the Raiders, I foresee that working against him and being a decisive factor in him being cut.