Jordy Nelson signs two-year, $15M deal with Raiders

By Nick Shook
NFL.com
Read full post on NFL.com

Jordy Nelson said his goodbyes to Green Bay less than 48 hours ago, and now he has his new team.

The former Packers wideout is headed to the Bay, signing a two-year deal with the Oakland Raidersworth $15 million ($13 million guaranteed), NFL Network’s James Jones reported. The team later officially announced the signing.

In a related move, Oakland also is cutting receiver Michael Crabtree, NFL Network’s James Palmer reported.

Nelson moves from a team that wasn’t willing to pay him the back end of an extension that included a salary-cap number of $11.5 million last season to a franchise so desperate for him, it guaranteed the veteran wideout $13 million of a $15 million deal. Nelson arrives to replace Crabtree, who had his worst season in Oakland in 2017, catching 58 passes for 618 yards and eight touchdowns. Statistically, Nelson was even worse (53 receptions, 482 yards, six touchdowns), but was also playing a good chunk of his season with Brett Hundley.

Nelson joins an offense led by Derek Carr, who could use Nelson’s route-running savvy opposite Amari Cooper. Oakland’s receiving corps also includes Cordarrelle Patterson and Seth Roberts, as well as new addition Griff Whalen, among others.

What Nelson’s ceiling is in Oakland is anyone’s guess, because while the wideout had an excellent 2016 season (earning Comeback Player of the Year), it became clear in 2017 he was no longer the team’s best wideout. At 32 years old (he turns 33 in May) and entering his second season after an ACL injury, his expected contribution lands somewhere between 2017 Crabtree and bordering on a 1,000-yard season in a best-case scenario.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s