3 Raiders who shouldn’t be back in 2025 to start rebuild, 2 who should

There have been better days for the Las Vegas Raiders, whether that was in Sin City, Oakland or Los Angeles. On Sunday in Week 11, Antonio Pierce's club dropped its sixth straight game to move to a dismal 2-8 on the season. The future of the first-year (not including the interim) head coach is in doubt. But it's also a Raiders roster that's going to look completely different when the 2025 season starts.

Obviously, priority one should be getting a quarterback. Whether that's a dice-roll with a veteran like Sam Darnold or being aggressive in the 2025 NFL Draft to pursue a Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward or Jalen Milroe, it's the most glaring need for the Raiders by a wide margin.

Beyond that, though, this roster could largely be viewed as a blank slate in Las Vegas. Even better for the Raiders, they are projected to have the third-most effective cap space in the NFL next season at $91,215,792. They can spend to fill holes and afford to bring players back if they want to.

There are several current members of the Raiders who shouldn't be back in 2025, however, though there are also a couple of veterans who might seem like obvious departures who would make a ton of sense if they were back in Las Vegas next year.

Raiders who shouldn't be back for 2025

3. RB Alexander Mattison

To be sure, there is a litany of issues holding back the Raiders right now. The complete absence of an effective run game, however, makes things exponentially more difficult for an already star-devoid offense. While Zamir White has been massively disappointing, you would hope that a veteran like Alexander Mattison could keep things steady. Unfortunately, he's done nothing of the sort.

The 26-year-old who spent his first five seasons with Minnesota hasn't been a disaster, to be sure. He was averaging 4.0 yards per carry coming into Sunday's loss to the Dolphins and, while he only had five carries for 19 yards, he did catch three passes for 50 yards in the defeat. At the same time, though, the explosiveness in the run game just hasn't been there, nor has the consistency game-to-game.

Set to be a free agent after this season, I simply don't see the need to bring Mattison back. At this current juncture and likely with a rookie quarterback, the Raiders should be swinging for more from the position. Mattison doesn't look like he could provide that and it may behoove the offense as a whole to scour the market or the draft for better options.

2. EDGE K'Lavon Chaisson

We knew that the Raiders defense, even in the most optimistic outlook, was going to be short on depth for the 2024 season. So it was little surprise when Tom Telesco dialed up 2020 first-round pick K'Lavon Chaisson to bring in some key reinforcements in the front seven. You can't hate the logic there so that the defense doesn't have to run Maxx Crosby into the ground every game. What you can dislike is how ineffective Chaisson has been.

Over 206 defensive snaps this season, Chaisson has come away with just one sack and 11 total pressures this year. More importantly, though, when you look at his PFF ($) grades, this is actually the best-graded season of the LSU product's career. So even if he's been lackluster and nothing more than a depth piece for the Vegas defense, it's actually an outlier for his still-young career.

Since the Raiders only inked Chaisson to a one-year deal, he'll be a free agent this offseason, making it exceptionally easy to just move on from him. Granted, depth on the edge will again be important for this organization to keep on the roster. At the same time, taking swings in the mid-to-late rounds of the draft or looking for other cheap veterans with untapped potential might offer the promise of better results than what Chaisson has delivered.

1. QB Gardner Minshew

Let's get this out of the way: Gardner Minshew isn't a free agent this offseason. That's obviously not ideal for the Raiders but it also shouldn't deter the franchise from being ready to move on from him.

As mentioned, the plan should undeniably be for the Raiders to be one of the biggest players in the quarterback market this offseason in any way they can. But when looking at how dismal the play at the position has been this year for Vegas, it's not hard to think that they need a full reset, perhaps with only Aidan O'Connell — despite not being all that impressive himself when healthy — returning as depth.

Minshew has a reputation as a steady veteran teams can insert as a stopgap but the Raiders are proving what some have said about that theory: It's not true. He's a bit too much of a risk-taker and, surrounded by a poor roster, that leads to too many negative decisions and plays that the rest of the team is ultimately unable to overcome.

By designating Minshew at a post-June 1 cut, the Raiders could save $9.34 million of the $14 million that he's owed. Again, the organization is flush with cap space and doesn't have many concerns in that capacity. Having said that, it would probably be best if Minshew simply wasn't involved with the future of the offense based on this season's results.

Raiders who should return in 2025

2. LB Robert Spillane

Set to be a free agent after this season, I initially looked at 29-year-old linebacker Robert Spillane and thought he'd easily make sense as a player the Raiders should let walk. However, the more I considered it and looked at what he's done this season, the more reasonable it became for the franchise to actually bring him back for the 2025 campaign.

For starters, Spillane has been legitimately the only good linebacker on the Raiders defense this season. Making that more pressing, one of his. veteran running mates at the position, Divine Deablo, is set to be a free agent after this season.

It seems pretty obvious that Vegas could look at the roster and aim to completely reshape the linebacker room. However, bringing back Spillane for the 2025 campaign as a veteran leader and tone-setter for both the position group and the defense as a whole, along with Crosby, could be highly beneficial for a roster we expect to be exceptionally young.

1. WR Jakobi Meyers

On the opposite end of the spectrum from Minshew, we have another player under contract for the 2025 season in wide receiver Jakobi Meyers. He's set to have the fourth-highest cap hit on the roster ($14,992,334) next year and, given that he's not been much of a factor, at least consistently, this season, some might be ready to designate him as a post-June 1 cut and save $11 million of that.

It's again worth noting, however, that the Raiders aren't facing really any financial constraints right now. And more importantly, they are going to be working to develop either a young quarterback coming to a new situation or a rookie signal-caller. While Brock Bowers is great, the Davante Adams trade has left this wide receiver room quite barren. Take Meyers out of the equation, and it's even worse.

In the interest of helping whichever quarterback gets inserted into this Vegas offense next season, though, having a veteran and usually reliable pass-catcher of Meyers' ilk would be highly helpful for what the developmental stages of a new-look offense look like.