The Oakland Raiders have two very important players who were given restricted free agent tenders in wide receiver Rod Streater and punter Marquette King. Streater is probably the best receiver on the roster but he missed the majority of 2014 after injuring his foot early in the year. King had a breakout season in his second year as the starting punter, ranking 11th in the league in net average
Streater was given a second round tender worth $2.356 million, so there was never any real risk of another team stealing him away. Despite being an undrafted free agent, Streater has proven himself to be an NFL caliber receiver and has shown flashes of potentially becoming a very good one. Even so, no team was going to give up a second round draft pick in order to get him. Streater could have done what many players do and waited until the last minute to sign his tender in order to show the team that he is upset about not getting a long-term contract. Streater surely wants additional security, but he also understands that he needs to display a full recovery from his injury. Signing his tender early enough to attend the full regimen of offseason activities with the team is the best way to accomplish that.
It was understandable why the Raiders gave Streater a second round tender, but many scratched their heads when the team gave Marquette King an original round tender. Also an undrafted free agent, King could have been taken by another team without any compensation to the Raiders. As noted above, King had a very good year with the Raiders and showed not only a booming leg but also a greatly increased accuracy with his punts. He is young and still has room to grow so many were surprised the team didn’t just ink him to a long-term deal. Perhaps that will happen soon enough, as he has already proven himself worthy of staying with the Raiders for years to come.
