Raiders not expected to pick up 5th-year option on SS Karl Joseph

By the end of the day on Friday, the Raiders have to decide if they want to pick up safety Karl Joseph’s fifth-year option. For Joseph, the fifth-year option would be a one-year deal, worth over $9 million. That would keep the 2016 first-round pick under contract through the 2020 season.

However, it looks like the Raiders are likely to decline that option, according to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network.

The #Raiders are not expected to use their fifth-year option on former first-round S Karl Joseph, source said. He’ll be a free agent in 2020 at 26-years-old, an opportunity to hit the market as the new Oakland regime weighs whether to move on to their own picks.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 3, 2019

With the Raiders selecting safety Johnathan Abram in the first round of the 2019 NFL draft, the writing has been on the wall for Joseph. While he did play the best football of his career in 2018, it may have come a little too late.

Joseph just hasn’t been reliable enough for the Raiders to invest that much money into him. Instead, he will likely hit the free agent market in 2020 and will be playing elsewhere.