The Oakland Raiders have a new wide receiver on the team in Carson Palmer's former teammate TJ Houshmandzadeh. In order to make room for Houshmandzadeh on the roster, the Raiders have reportedly waived the man who was previously the newest wide receiver on the Raiders in Derek Hagan.
This is not a surprising move as Hue Jackson has not exactly shown Hagan the love this year despite a stellar preseason and a decent regular season. Hagan led the entire receiving corps in the preseason, and by a large margin. Despite this, he was not even active for the first game of the season. Since then, he has caught 11 passes for 114 yards which is not bad considering he plays in a six man receiving rotation.
It is also not that surprising when you consider the fact that Houshmandzadeh and Hagan essentially played the same role, as a possession type receiver used often on third down. While Hagan played decently well in Oakland, the Raiders want to employ primarily a vertical passing offense, using their young, speedy receivers to stretch the field. Because of that, holding onto too many possession style receivers just does not make sense. The Raiders still hope that Chaz Schilens will develop into the dominant possession style receiver he showed signs of early in his career, so cutting him was a no go. Thus, if the Raiders only wanted two possession style receivers on the roster to compliment the speedy guys, Hagan makes sense as the odd man out.
Hagan quickly became a fan favorite during the preseason and as such, I am sure the Raider Nation wishes him luck on his next team.