Tahir Whitehead‘s Raiders run will end after two seasons. The team released the veteran linebacker on Monday, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. The Raiders have since announced the move.
One season remained on Whitehead’s three-year, $19M deal. The Raiders cutting Whitehead will save them $6.25M, bumping their cap-space figure up north of $56M.
Set to turn 30 in two weeks, Whitehead provided durability in Oakland. Part of Jon Gruden‘s initial free agency class upon coming back to the NFL, Whitehead started all 32 Raiders games during his tenure. He has not missed a start since the 2016 season and has only missed three games in his eight-year career. The former Lions starter also extended his streak of 100-tackle seasons to four during the Raiders’ Oakland swansong, posting 108 stops.
Whitehead was by far Oakland’s tackles leader in each of his two seasons there, registering 126 in 2018. But he is no longer in line to be part of the franchise’s Las Vegas run.
This will leave the Raiders in need at multiple linebacker spots. They relied on Whitehead last year after signings of Vontaze Burfict and Brandon Marshall did not work out. Although Burfict has since been reinstated from his suspension, the perpetual suspension risk is certainly no lock to come back. No Gruden-era draftee resides on Las Vegas’ roster at linebacker, pointing the Raiders toward addressing this area in both free agency and the draft.
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