The Las Vegas Raiders have officially cut down their active roster to 53 players.
This is never an easy decision to make, and Coach Josh McDaniels and General Manager Dave Ziegler had their hands full with trying to make the right calls on which players to keep, which players to let go, and which players to sign to the practice squad.
While the team can still make moves, the Raiders’ roster is all but set, and they can now turn their attention to the regular season.
Before they do that, let’s take a closer look at some surprise decisions the Raiders made in regards to their 53-man roster.
No cornerback Duke Shelley - It was not expected that the Raiders would not keep Duke Shelley.
Our Hondo S. Carpenter Sr. projected that Shelley would be one of the six cornerbacks the Raiders would keep, but he did not make the cut.
Shelley had a great season with the Minnesota Vikings in 2022, grading out as one of the top cover corners in the league on Pro Football Focus. Shelley finished with a 86.7 coverage grade, third-highest in the NFL.
As it stands, the Raiders did not decide to keep Shelley, which comes as a surprise based on how well he performed last season.
No guard Alex Bars - The Raiders had several quality offensive linemen on the roster, but they could only keep so many.
They ended up keeping eight, but last year’s starter at right guard, Alex Bars, was not one of them.
Bars, who played over 700 snaps last season, finds himself off the 53-man roster. Instead, the Raiders opted to go with Jordan Meredith, Dylan Parham, and Greg Van Roten as their guards. Jermaine Eluemunor was listed as a guard and tackle.
The Raiders will go in another direction for their starting right guard in 2023, and they have a few capable players on the roster for it.
Raiders keep five safeties - Marcus Epps, Tre’von Moehrig, Isaiah Pola-Mao, Roderic Teamer, and Christopher Smith II all made the 53-man roster.
Pola-Mao had an uphill battle to make the roster, but he was simply too good in the preseason for the Raiders to keep him off of it. Epps and Moehrig are the expected starters, while Smith and Teamer look to factor in as depth pieces.
While this is a bigger safety room than expected, each player brings a different skill set to the table, and the Raiders are expecting each of them to contribute to the secondary in their own way.
The Silver and Black open the regular season at the Denver Broncos on Sunday, Sept. 10, at 4:25 p.m. EDT/1:25 p.m. PDT.
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