Trades are always going to be risky business, no matter what teams or players are involved.
It is difficult to project how a player will perform in a new city, as well as taking into consideration unforeseen things such as injuries or legal troubles. As a result, a player brought in can quickly turn into a declining asset. Depending on the price, a bad trade has the potential to set a team back years.
Unfortunately for the Las Vegas Raiders, their recent franchise history has been littered with a few bad deals.
The Raiders have gotten burned by a pair of trades in the past.
In his list of the worst player trades this century, CBS Sports’ Jared Dubin has the Raiders on twice.
The first trade Dubin brought up was the one that brought wide receiver Randy Moss from the Minnesota Vikings, then trading him to the New England Patriots at a much lower rate.
“In March 2005, the Raiders traded first- and seventh-round picks, plus Napoleon Harris, to the Vikings for Moss, who by that point had already established himself as one of the best and most explosive receivers in history. He was unhappy in Minnesota, though, and the Vikings were fairly unhappy with him, and so the two sides cut ties,” wrote Dubin.
“Moss never looked anything like himself while playing for Oakland. He lazed his way through two seasons, catching 102 passes for 1,553 yards and 11 scores in 29 games. At 29 years old, it looked like he might be done… and then the Raiders traded him to New England for a mere fourth-round pick and Moss had one of the best wide-receiver seasons in NFL history, hauling in 98 passes for 1,493 yards and a league-record 23 touchdown grabs. He clearly had plenty left in the tank over the next few years.”
Moss clearly was never a good fit on the Raiders, but it would not be the last time the team got burned on a great receiver who wore out his welcome.
Dubin also brought up the 2019 trade of wide receiver Antonio Brown from the Pittsburgh Steelers, bringing him along at a reduced rate after the Steelers grew tired of Brown’s growing off-field issues. Unfortunately, the Raiders wound up getting caught in them themselves.
“Brown proceeded to get frostbite in a cryotherapy session, file a grievance about his helmet, sit out almost all of training camp, violate team rules and get fined multiple times by the team, confront and reportedly threaten then-Raiders general manager Mike Mayock and then demand his release shortly before the season opener. He never played for the Raiders and has since been plagued by various legal issues of increasing severity, including sexual assault allegations and a recent arrest on a charge of second-degree attempted murder,” wrote Dubin on the Brown saga in Las Vegas.
Both times, the Raiders believed they were getting tremendous deals on top-flight receivers. Instead, for varying reasons, neither lived up to the expectations or the price tag that came with them.
This year’s big trade fish in quarterback Geno Smith may carry some risk, but it is hard to imagine it could go any more disastrous than either Moss or Brown turned out.
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