ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Raise your hand if you had Daren Bates and Brynden Trawick leaving the Oakland Raiders in free agency.
Really?
OK, now give yourself a hearty pat on the back if you thought they’d be gone in the first wave of the frenzy.
That’s what I thought.
It would have been more believable to bet on Oakland standing pat on the first day of the new NFL year, and as Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie did just that, he also allowed all 13 of his unrestricted free agents to test the waters. By the end of the day, four of them were with other teams.
Bates, a linebacker by trade, and Trawick, a safety, both went to the Tennessee Titans as special-teams aces. Bates got a three-year, $6 million contract; Trawick got a two-year, $4.75 million deal that can grow to $6.85 million with $3 million guaranteed, the most for a special-teamer.
Defensive tackle Stacy McGee, who had 2½ sacks in nine games last season, went to Washington on a reported five-year, $25 million deal, while linebacker Malcolm Smith, who started 30 games for the Raiders over the past two years and had more than 100 tackles each season but saw his productivity dip last year, got a whopping five-year, $26.5 million contract with $13 million guaranteed to go down I-880 to Santa Clara and play for the San Francisco 49ers.
Plus, running back Latavius Murray, who had 12 rushing touchdowns for Oakland last season, is reportedly scheduled to visit the Seattle Seahawks.
So what does it all mean for Oakland?
The mission remains the same as it did 24 hours earlier. They still want to re-up their two faces of the franchise -- quarterback Derek Carr, who finished tied for third in NFL MVP voting, and edge rusher Khalil Mack, the league’s defensive player of the year -- before the 2014 draft classmates enter the final year of their rookie contracts this fall.
McKenzie, the NFL’s executive of the year, did jump in early last year with left guard Kelechi Osemele and outside linebacker Bruce Irvin on Day 1, as well as center Rodney Hudson on the first day of free agency in 2015. But this is different.
The Raiders are coming off a 12-4 season, have a young, talented nucleus and the feeling is they merely need to supplement the talent already on the roster with about $43 million in cap space and without breaking the bank.
Oakland was linked to tight end Martellus Bennett, who had 55 catches for 701 yards and seven TDs in 16 games for the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots last season. And running back Adrian Peterson, who has dealt with injury two of the past three seasons, also purportedly remains interested in Oakland.
The second wave is about to crest.