Dean joins the Raiders after a middling final season in Philadelphia in which he thrived as a pass rusher (4.0 sacks) but played in just 10 games, logging 55 tackles (seven for loss) one year after racking up 128 tackles in 15 games. At a $12 million per year average, Dean moves to Las Vegas on a competitive rate that ranks among the top eight linebackers in the NFL.<\/p>\n
Walker, meanwhile, might have seen his change of scenery coming after his former employer, the Packers, added Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin<\/a> via trade<\/a> over the weekend. Instead of negotiating a deal to stay in Green Bay, Walker went elsewhere in search of gainful employment, landing with a Raiders team that entered free agency with an immense amount of cap space to spend and needs scattered throughout the roster.<\/p>\n A talented former first-round pick, Walker exhibited traits fitting of a top selection over four seasons. But he also made frustrating mental errors that hindered his attempts to become a cornerstone of Green Bay’s defense. Despite this reality, Walker’s production — including an average of 117.25 tackles recorded per year — and lasting potential earned him the higher compensation between the two, landing him just behind Pittsburgh’s Patrick Queen<\/a> in average annual salary at $13.5 million.<\/p>\n In one day, the Raiders dedicated $76.5 million to two linebackers over the next three years, spending lavishly while reuniting a duo that starred in SEC action in Athens, Georgia. They’ll hope it’s an investment that pays off under new head coach Klint Kubiak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dean joins the Raiders after a middling final season in Philadelphia in which he thrived as a pass…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[1227,7,393,477,88,6,609,468,10944],"class_list":["post-803521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-around-the-nfl","tag-football","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-nakobe-dean","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-no-minute","tag-quay-walker","tag-regular-season"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116202512262273457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}