The Las Vegas Raiders signed plenty of UFAs after the draft, but these players are ones to keep an eye on.
Becoming an undrafted free agent after the draft used to be a lottery ticket to a potential NFL career. That’s no longer quite the case, though, especially with a team like the Las Vegas Raiders. The Raiders are just starting a full rebuild, which is just one reason why the team is bringing in a boatload of undrafted free agents.
There’s more to the story, though. Due to a combination of NIL money and the NFL’s post-draft pay structure, many college players are choosing to become undrafted free agents, which means more of them can actually play.
Given how many UFAs the Raiders are bringing in, it’s well worth taking a closer look at some of them, so let’s see who some of the key players and colorful figures are, according to Nikhil Mehta of ProFootballRumors.com.
Roman Hemby RB
Hemby is getting a lot of attention because he’s a former Teammate of Fernando (ToF) Mendoza, but he was also a three-year starter at Maryland who transferred when his snap count started dropping, according to Mehta. He became the Hoosiers bell-cow running back last year, where he got 230 carries and gained 1,120 yards. Playing for a national championship team with a stellar quarterback gets you noticed, and Hemby will have a chance to compete for a depth spot behind running backs Ashton Jeanty and Mike Washington Jr., and his competition will be Dylan Laube and Chris Collier.
Kansei Matsuzawa K
A lot of kickers come with remarkable backstories, and Matsuzawa’s is that he’s a self-taught place kicker who played at Hocking College, which is a Division II school that’s part of the National Junior College Athletic Association. He transferred to the University of Hawaii and found success, and last year he made 27 of his 29 field goals and went 40-for-40 in extra points. That produced 121 points that led the Mountain West as he became a consensus All-American. The Raiders moved on from kicker Daniel Carlson and signed Matt Gay, but Gay doesn’t have much guaranteed money, so Matsuzawa will get a genuine opportunity unseat him.
E.J. Williams WR
Williams is another former teammate of Mendoza’s who got a lot of visibility at Indiana. He caught 36 passes for 438 yards and six touchdowns at Indiana last year, which doesn’t sound like much, but the Hoosiers didn’t exactly have a wide-open offense last year. He’ll come into camp with a leg up based on his connection with Mendoza, who could benefit from having a familiar target.