Not 24 hours into the free agent negotiating period and all the running backs worth mentioning are gone. One of which was Josh Jacobs heading to the Packers. But none of which saw the Raiders replace his spot on the roster. Leaving them with a need at the position.
The last big domino to fall was The King himself, Derrick Henry. He went to the Ravens. And with that, it’s crumbs in the RB free agent cupboard.
Adam Schefter listed out all the running backs who are changing teams this free agency period and it’s quite a list.
New RB homes:
🏈Derrick Henry, Ravens
🏈Aaron Jones, Vikings
🏈Joe Mixon, Texans
🏈Zach Moss, Bengals
🏈Saquon Barkley: Eagles
🏈Josh Jacobs: Packers
🏈Austin Ekeler: Commanders
🏈Tony Pollard: Titans
🏈D’Andre Swift: Bears
🏈Devin Singletary: Giants
🏈Gus Edwards: Chargers… https://t.co/L27KgiC4St— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 12, 2024
Some will simply say the Raiders have Zamir White, so they don’t need another running back. There are a few problems with that.
First and foremost, that new GM Tom Telesco made it clear they aren’t looking to have a workhorse back, but rather a committee situation in the Raiders backfield.
“From what I see he’s a very good player,” Telesco said of White. “He has size, he has speed, he has some nice vision, he had some nice production late in the year. But the way we’re going to play and a lot of teams play is you need more than one back. I don’t really see a lead back type thing. You need to have more than one. You need to have two, you need to have three. They all have different roles with the team. The way this game’s played, it’s hard to put that all on one person.”
White had a handful of very good games late last season. But it was by far the most work he had seen in his two-year career. He was as fresh as can be. We don’t know how well he would handle anything approaching the kind of workload Jacobs carried in his five seasons with the Raiders. And ‘there’s one way to find out’ is a risky and reckless approach.
What this leaves is either waiting around to see if any more backs are cut, feeling around to see who might be available via a trade, or — and seemingly the most likely option at this point — looking to the draft for one.
This isn’t considered a particularly strong RB class this year. But in recent years, decent running backs have been found in the mid rounds, so perhaps they can have one fall into their laps there.
