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Oakland Raiders In Salary Dump Mode, Probably Must Unload At Least 22 Million Dollars In Contracts

The Oakland Raiders have tended to spend a lot of money. Exorbitant contracts to various players who probably weren't worth the cost have killed this team's upward mobility. The Raiders haved tied in too much money to their biggest players, and that is going to end up biting them.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk files this report.

In two weeks, each team must be in compliance with the 2012 salary cap, whatever that number may be. In the offseason, cap compliance is based on the cap numbers of the 51 highest-paid players on the roster.

The Raiders may have to dump more than a few of their top 51 in order to get under the cap.

Based on the "top 51″ report for each team as of February 28, a copy of which PFT has obtained, the Raiders stand at $145.7 million. That’s more than $16 million more than the next team, the Giants.

Al Davis has left the Raiders in a tough spot. Too many big deals to too many players will force Oakland to have to trim back and let players go the next few months. It won't be an easy transition for any of the involved parties.

Paul Gutierrez of CSN Bay Area has a list of the top contracts, and it's looking like at least $20 million in contracts must be released. Pick and choose who should go.

DT Richard Seymour $14,068,000

QB Carson Palmer $12,500,000

LB Kamerion Wimbley $11,850,000

CB Stanford Routt $10,785,334

FS Michael Huff $9,828,750

RB Darren McFadden $9,478,833

DT Tommy Kelly $8,874,266

WR Darrius Heyward-Bey $8,159,000

LB Aaron Curry $5,757,500

P Shane Lechler $4,900,000

TE Kevin Boss $4,750,000

DT John Henderson $4,750,000

PK Sebastian Janikowski $4,500,000

CB Chris Johnson $4,500,000

LB Rolando McClain $3,640,000

OG Cooper Carlisle $3,300,000

FS Hiram Eugene $2,500,000

DE Lamarr Houston $1,116,250

SS Mike Mitchell $965,500

To talk about the Raiders and who they might have to dump with regards to salary, head on over to Silver and Black Pride.