- Joined
- Jul 31, 2010
- Messages
- 8,874
Tipsheet: Raiders return Saffold unopened
• By Jeff Gordon
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colu...cle_472e0fb5-35b6-5993-b72c-fca9487d1d7b.html
How will history remember the Rodger Saffold Era in Oakland?
One minute he was a Raider, the happy recipient of a five-year, $42.5 million contract -- with $21 million of that staggering deal guaranteed.
The next minute ESPN announced he was headed back with the Rams, also on a five-year contract. We’re guessing that deal won’t quite so outrageous, since the team was offering less salary and less guaranteed money during the run up to free agency.
So what happened? Saffold flunked his physical with the Raiders due to team concerns about the condition of his shoulder, injured during the previous preseason.
The Rams medical team did not see the shoulder an unusual liability, since Saffold came back from the injury last season. So Saffold returned to Rams back on the rebound.
Was this a case of buyer’s remorse? ESPN.com analyst Bill Barnwell lampooned the Raiders’ largesse:
Oakland’s signing of Saffold was the most curious of all. To be clear, by curious, I mean something not very far from mind-boggling and impossible to understand. He played left tackle for the Rams from 2010 to 2012 before the team signed Jake Long, moving a frustrated Saffold to right tackle and then, eventually, to right guard, where he played well during a brief stint to end 2013. It wasn’t clear what position Saffold would play for his new team after free agency, but the amount of money the Raiders gave him would seem to suggest he would suit up at left tackle, widely regarded as the most important position on the line. The only problem? One report suggests that Saffold will play guard for the Raiders in 2014. That seems ludicrous, but Oakland did spend $25 million to lock up the aforementioned Howard from the Jets, who they might consider moving from right tackle to the left side. If that’s true, the Raiders just gave Saffold $21 million guaranteed — the third-largest total for a guard in league history — based on a six-game sample to end the 2013 season. But hey, it’s the Raiders, they probably deserve the benefit of the dou— oh, wait, it hasn’t looked like the Raiders have had any idea what they’re doing and they don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt? Oh well.
NFL.com’s Gregg Rosenthal added this:
The news puts a huge dent in the Raiders' free-agent plans. The other top tackles are now off the market, and the team had targeted Saffold days before free agency started to take over its left tackle position.
"One of the worst days of my life as a professional," one Raiders source told NFL Media columnist Michael Silver. A Raiders source told Silver that Raiders owner Mark Davis pulled the plug on the Saffold deal. Saffold could have had shoulder surgery and been ready for training camp, but Davis said no.
Michael Oher and Zach Strief are two mid-level options that are still available. The Raiders also signed former New York Jet Austin Howard to a shockingly large contract Tuesday.
Regaining Saffold stabilizes an offensive line that saw handyman Chris Williams leave via free agency and guard Harvey Dahl exit (at least for now) as a salary cap casualty. As for Williams’ departure, CBSSports.com’s Pete Prisco ripped the Bills for signing him:
This is one of the weirdest signings. He is just a guy. He gets a four-year deal with $5.5 million in guaranteed money. Are you kidding? He's not close to that level of player.
Maybe the Bills will figure that out during the team physical.
