Raiders free agency 2025: Malcolm Koonce to have no shortage of suitors

Las Vegas likely to face competition to re-sign the defensive end; could eye to keep K’Lavon Chaisson instead

The are a couple of things the Las Vegas Raiders are not short on: Holes on the roster, in-house free agents, and cap space.

Head coach Pete Carroll, general manager John Spytek, and the rest of the Silver & Black decision makers are going to navigate a key offseason in their inaugural offseason. One that sees the roster rife with missing pieces and holes, 28 players without contracts — 17 of which will be unrestricted free agents next month.

Fortunately for Spytek, he assumes the role as chief personnel man for a Raiders team that’ll be flush with cap space.

Projections have the NFL’s cap space between $277 and $281 million for the upcoming 2025 season which will land Las Vegas in the $98 to $101 million cap space range — depending on the official salary cap. That’s plenty of operating overhead for Spytek and Carroll to build a roster this offseason. When the franchise tag window opened earlier this week, our Matt Holder explored the cost associated with tagging unrestricted free agents like safety Tre’Von Moehrig, defensive end Malcolm Koonce, and linebacker Robert Spillane, to name a few.

But it’s Malcolm in the middle of that trio that is an interesting free agent. NFL teams have long favored and sought pass rushers who can get to the opposing quarterback and Koonce did plenty of that, albeit during the 2023 season. His 2024 campaign was wiped out with knee injury in practice thus all that’s on tape is his eight-sack season a year ago.

Still, missing an entire season hasn’t dampened the 26-year-old edge rusher’s offseason projection. Fellow defensive end Maxx Crosby spoke glowingly of his fellow pass rusher on the Let’s Go podcast with Jim Gray.

“Malcolm Koonce, I’m telling you, this guy I’ve seen him since he was a pup when he first got in the league — another Mid-American Conference guy, Crosby began, “He is quiet, cool, collected and confident as hell. And he’s learned how to work so I don’t have to sit there and say nothing.”

There’s a high likelihood Crosby and the Raiders aren’t the only team to notice the work ethic and progression Koonce has made since being picked int he third round of the 2021 NFL Draft. Koonce is set to have no shortage of suitors and he’d be wise to see what the market dictates his value at while listening to any overtures the Raiders make for his return.

Koonce landed on ESPN’s Top 50 Free Agents rankings in late January getting the No. 28 nod.

“A knee injury in early September erased Koonce’s 2024 season before it even started. But he posted eight sacks and 29 pressures in 2023. If the knee checks out, Koonce should be viewed as a three-down defensive end with the pass-rush juice to disrupt the pocket,” Matt Bowen wrote in the ranking.

And early this week, in Bowen’s ranking with team fits Top 50 free agent revisit, Koonce jumped to No. 27. And the team Bowen earmarked as the best fit for the former Buffalo Bulls’ services: The Tennessee Titans.

“Titans defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson needs an impact edge rusher to complement his two interior defenders — Jeffery Simmons and T’Vondre Sweat. A knee injury in early September erased Koonce’s 2024 season before it started, but he posted eight sacks and 29 pressures in 2023. If the knee checks out, Koonce would have upside in Wilson’s system as a three-down defender with pass-rush chops,” Bowen wrote.

While which teams make a free agency run at Koonce is intriguing, the valuations said squads and Las Vegas has on the 6-foot-3 and 250-pound defensive end is equally interesting. Spotrac has an eye-opening market value for Koonce: An average annual salary of $20 million per year and a projected two-year, $40.04-plus million contract. That’d give Koonce the 81st richest deal while the seventh-highest contract numbers at the defensive end position group.

Gaudy figures for a player who missed all of this past season, no?

I regularly compare Spotrac’s market value for players with Over The Cap’s (OTC) valuation figures, but OTC doesn’t even have a figure for Koonce due to the lack of a 2024 campaign. But the $10 million average per year projection may be slightly under what Koonce eventually gets, perhaps.

A one-year, prove-it type contract may be what’s in store for Koonce on the open market but we’ll see where Spytek’s valuation of the 79th overall pick in 2021 falls soon enough. Of course, the Raiders general manager and coaching staff could go another route: Re-upping K’Lavon Chaisson instead.

A flier signing that turned into regular contributor as injuries and ineffectiveness mounted, Chaisson finished with five sacks to go along with 32 total tackles, seven stops for loss, 10 pressures, and a forced fumble. The 25-year-old defensive end spent the first four years of his career with the Jacksonville Jaguars after being picked with the 20th overall pick in the 2020 draft.

OTC’s valuation of Chaisson is at $3.558 million per season while Spotrac has a market value of $3.4 million per year. Much more manageable numbers for those that are fiscal responsibility truthers, I’d say.

Take away draft pedigree and look at statistical production alone, Koonce and Chaisson are quite comparable. Both have 10 career sacks with Chaisson having 105 total tackles and 44 pressures with Koonce sporting 55 total tackles and 27 pressures in the three seasons he’s played.

It’s also plausible that Las Vegas brings Koonce and Chaisson both back to create depth and a rotation with Crosby and Tyree Wilson on the roster already.

Salary cap is a finite resource, however, and all of Raider Nation’s collective eyes will be zeroed in on how Spytek and Co. operate with a bevy of coin.