Silver And Black Pride
The Las Vegas Raiders kick off their 2025 season very shortly, and if you’re reading this, they may already have faced off with the New England Patriots. After recapping how the compensatory formula works for 2025 free agents, it’s time to take a look at the Raiders who will be up for new contracts following this season. Before breaking down the free agents to be, let’s take a look at the NFL’s free agent designations first:
NFL Contracts are based on accrued seasons, which is essentially the amount of length a player has been in the , a NFL. To earn an accrued season, a player must have been (or should have been) on full pay status for at least 6 regular seasons games in one season.
A credited season is used to measure NFL benefits. If a player is on full pay status for three or more regular season games. These credited seasons are used to determine the minimum salaries that a player can earn with the following being those salaries: 0 years (840k), 1 year (960k), 2 years (1.03 M), 3 years (1.1 M), 4-6 years (1.17 M), and 7+ years (1.25 M)
If a player spends their entire season on the practice squad, they will not be counted for an accrued season, however, a player could theoretically never earn UFA status and spend majority, or all, of their career as an ERFA/RFA though the odds are nearly impossible.
These free agents are players who have three or less accrued seasons of experience. If a player is an ERFA, their team is entitled to issue a one year league minimum contract to them. If the contract is issued the player must sign the contract and is prevented from negotiating with other teams. In the rare chances that a player is not issued an ERFA contract, they become a UFA. This type of free agent is often achieved through players being released from rookie contracts and are re-signed by their original team, a new team, or going to a practice squad.
Players who have contracts expire and have accrued exactly three seasons they are listed as an RFA. This is often achieved through players who spend 2 years as an ERFA, but most often from undrafted free agents who spend their careers on active rosters for all three seasons due to UDFA contracts being 3 year deals. When players are listed as RFA, teams have the option to sign them to one of four contract tenders, the value of the tender increases through each season and the type of tender determines the compensation going to the player. Players issued RFA tenders can negotiate with other teams, though depending on their contract teams are entitled to match the contract, in such scenario the player must re-sign with their original team on that new contract, or receive draft compensation (this scenario happened this season with...
