Raiders waive Leatherwood, trade Mullen on final cut day

By Case Keefer (contact)

Published Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022 | 12:13 p.m.

Updated Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022 | 4:31 p.m.

Another recent first-round draft pick is no longer with the Raiders.

Las Vegas has waived second-year tackle Alex Leatherwood, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, as part of the NFL-mandated cuts down to the official 53-man roster.

Minutes later, the team also traded cornerback Trayvon Mullen to the Arizona Cardinals according to Schefter.

The latter is the slightly more surprising move. Mullen had an injury-plagued season a year ago but had performed well enough for the Raiders after being taken in the second round with the 40^th overall pick out of Clemson in 2019.

He missed most of training camp after foot surgery, however, and apparently couldn’t beat out Nate Hobbs, Rock Ya-Sin and Anthony Averett for a consistent role going into this year. The Raiders will receive a conditional seventh-round pick that could be upgraded to a sixth-rounder in exchange.

Mullen mostly lived up to where he was drafted under the former regime of coach Jon Gruden and general manager Mike Mayock, but the same can not be said for Leatherwood, who went No. 17 overall in 2021. It was considered a reach at the time and immediately appeared to backfire.

Leatherwood started every game for the Raiders a year ago but graded as one of the worst linemen in the league even after being moved from tackle to guard. New coach Josh McDaniels appeared to give Leatherwood every opportunity to win the right tackle job coming into training camp, but he continually struggled.

Reports started to circulate last week that the Raiders were ready to move on from the former All American out of Alabama, and another poor performance in the fourth and final preseason game didn’t help matters. It would have been ideal for Las Vegas to find a trade partner, but one never materialized.

“They tried to trade him to everyone,” NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tweeted. “Got 32 ‘Nos.’”

Any of the other 31 teams can now claim Leatherwood off waivers. The Raiders will take an $11 million cap hit for cutting Leatherwood, including nearly $8 million to this season’s bottom line.

Jermaine Eluemunor is expected to be the Raiders’ starting right tackle in the regular season, in the spot where Leatherwood came into training camp splitting first-team reps.

The Raiders now have none of the first-round draft picks they’ve made since moving to Las Vegas. The other two choices apart from Leatherwood were wide receiver Henry Ruggs and cornerback Damon Arnette.

Ruggs is currently facing charges of two counts of DUI resulting in death or substantial bodily harm after a fiery crash that killed a woman last year, while Arnette was cut after a series of incidents. Las Vegas traded this year’s first-round pick to Green Bay in exchange for star receiver Davante Adams.

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or