There is a lot on the checklist for the Las Vegas Raiders and their 2025 offseason. We all know they need a quarterback, and whether they address that in free agency, via trade, or the 2025 NFL Draft is a question and article in itself, but there are so many other things on the list, too. One of them, and one of the more important things, is addressing what they do with their restricted free agents.
The offensive free agents on their roster are not as important, as the offense was terrible last season and they may want to get mostly new players on that side of the ball to get the stink out, as they say. As for the defensive side of the ball, though, they were great. The Raiders may want to try and bring back as many guys on that side of the ball as they can.
In fact, that’s exactly what they want to do.
“Yes, it is. We need every one of them back,” Raiders head coach Pete Carroll said at the NFL Combine on Tuesday when asked about all of the defensive free agents. “We’re anxious to get Malcolm (Koonce) back.”
The Koonce comment is really the surprising thing, though. We all figured that the Raiders would want to get him back, but for him to flat-out say it when he’s a player who could be wanted by some teams but is also a bit of an unknown due to the injury he suffered, means something. They want him back because they see the potential he had before the injury, and they must not see the injury bothering him much.
However, the injury will still decide how much he gets paid. Had he played the same season he had last year, this year, but didn’t get injured, he would be in for a pretty decent payday by the Raiders. Instead, we could see him take a pretty significant pay bump as compared to what he would have gotten.
But, either way, Carroll is laying it all out there. He knows what he wants, and he wants Koonce back on the field in Silver and Black. In the AFC West, against three teams who made the playoffs last year in the Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, and Denver Broncos, the Raiders will need a great defense.