Silver Minings: Moehrig, Koonce named top 50 free agents

Raiders will have to open up the checkbook to keep Moehrig and Koonce

With the calendar turning to February, NFL free agency starts next month and the Las Vegas Raiders will face several tough decisions with a bunch of key defenders. Two of the Raiders' biggest impending free agents are safety Tre’von Moehrig and defensive end Malcolm Koonce.

Moehrig is coming off the best season of his career while Koonce enjoyed a breakout campaign in 2023 before a torn ACL kept him off the field this past fall. Also, those two were named as Top 50 free agents by ESPN’s Matt Bowen.

“An ascending player, Moehrig notched five interceptions and 12 pass breakups over the past two seasons,” Bowen wrote. “He had five tackles for loss in 2024. He has the range to play from depth, and he is a tone-setter on contact when he spins down into the front.

“...[Koonce] 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.”

With John Spytek taking over as general manager and Pete Carroll as head coach, it’s difficult to predict what the Raiders will do when it comes to re-signing any of their impending free agents, including Moehrig and Koonce. But the club does have $92.6 million of cap space to spend, according to Over The Cap.

So, the organization has enough room to open up the checkbook to bring the two starters back and still sign other free agents.

In Other Raiders’ Links:

• Isaiah Pola-Mao’s return: “The 25-year-old undrafted free agent from USC completed his third season in the league and with the Raiders,” Silver and Black Pride’s Ray Aspuria wrote. “And that’s why he’s a restricted free agent (RFA) this offseason as players with expiring contracts that have exactly three accrued seasons are RFAs.”
• Get to know Matt Capurro: S&BP’s Bill Williamson gives the low down on the Raiders’ new vice president of coaching operations.
• Aaron Rodgers trade prediction: “[Pete] Carroll may think he can do it with Russell Wilson, but that would be a risk,” Pro Football Network’s Ben Rolfe wrote. “Rodgers, though, could be available for a trade and potentially make Vegas a challenger. Of course, that’s a risk, given what we saw from him last season.”
• Carroll pumps breaks on Wilson talk: “It’s so early, and we’re just in the midst of trying to find the puzzle pieces. We’re not even putting them together yet, so I can’t even say,” Carroll said on the What the Football with Suzy Shuster & Amy Trask podcast. “Free agency hasn’t come yet. That’s the first competitive opportunity that will occur. Then, the draft is coming. We’ll have that opportunity. I can’t tell you right now. I could guess, but it would just be a guess.”