Silver And Black Pride
Las Vegas likely to face competition to re-sign the defensive end; could eye to keep K’Lavon Chaisson instead
The are a couple of things the Las Vegas Raiders are not short on: Holes on the roster, in-house free agents, and cap space.
Head coach Pete Carroll, general manager John Spytek, and the rest of the Silver & Black decision makers are going to navigate a key offseason in their inaugural offseason. One that sees the roster rife with missing pieces and holes, 28 players without contracts — 17 of which will be unrestricted free agents next month.
Fortunately for Spytek, he assumes the role as chief personnel man for a Raiders team that’ll be flush with cap space.
Projections have the NFL’s cap space between $277 and $281 million for the upcoming 2025 season which will land Las Vegas in the $98 to $101 million cap space range — depending on the official salary cap. That’s plenty of operating overhead for Spytek and Carroll to build a roster this offseason. When the franchise tag window opened earlier this week, our Matt Holder explored the cost associated with tagging unrestricted free agents like safety Tre’Von Moehrig, defensive end Malcolm Koonce, and linebacker Robert Spillane, to name a few.
But it’s Malcolm in the middle of that trio that is an interesting free agent. NFL teams have long favored and sought pass rushers who can get to the opposing quarterback and Koonce did plenty of that, albeit during the 2023 season. His 2024 campaign was wiped out with knee injury in practice thus all that’s on tape is his eight-sack season a year ago.
Still, missing an entire season hasn’t dampened the 26-year-old edge rusher’s offseason projection. Fellow defensive end Maxx Crosby spoke glowingly of his fellow pass rusher on the Let’s Go podcast with Jim Gray.
“Malcolm Koonce, I’m telling you, this guy I’ve seen him since he was a pup when he first got in the league — another Mid-American Conference guy, Crosby began, “He is quiet, cool, collected and confident as hell. And he’s learned how to work so I don’t have to sit there and say nothing.”
There’s a high likelihood Crosby and the Raiders aren’t the only team to notice the work ethic and progression Koonce has made since being picked int he third round of the 2021 NFL Draft. Koonce is set to have no shortage of suitors and he’d be wise to see what the market dictates his value at while listening to any overtures the Raiders make for his return.
Koonce landed on ESPN’s Top 50 Free Agents rankings in late January getting the No. 28 nod.
“A knee injury in early September erased Koonce’s 2024 season before it even started. But he posted eight sacks and 29 pressures in 2023. If the knee checks out, Koonce should be viewed as a three-down defensive end with the pass-rush juice to disrupt the pocket,” Matt Bowen wrote in the ranking.
And early this week,...
