Casey Hayward: I feel like the Raiders were the best situation for me

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As a veteran player in a year with a depressed salary cap, cornerback Casey Hayward was aware his options might be limited in free agency. But after signing a one-year deal with the Raiders, Hayward feels like he landed in in a good spot.

Hayward is already familiar with key members of Las Vegas’ coaching staff, as he played under defensive coordinator Gus Bradley and defensive backs coach Ron Milus with the Chargers for the last few years. Being able to help improve the defense to turn the Raiders into contenders was an attractive prospect to the veteran DB.

“When we found out the cap dropped, I knew this was going to be a weird situation, especially for a lot of the vets,” Hayward said in a recent interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio. “There’s still a lot of vets that’s still not signed, which is kind of crazy — some guys that have played a lot of ball and have been successful. But I wasn’t worried, I’ve got good faith. My agent told me we could’ve been signed if that was the case, but we wanted to wait and figure it out and try to be in the best situation. I feel like the Raiders were the best situation for me.

“As a team, I feel like they’re just missing a few pieces. They were really good on offense last year. They put up 30 points a game. Now it’s about the defense. If we can hold teams to 20 points, if we’re scoring 30, we’re going to win most of those games. so we’ve got to do a good job on the defensive side.”

The Raiders were close but didn’t quite reach Hayward’s cited stat, finishing 2020 No. 10 in scoring 27.1 points per game. Still, the gist of the corner’s point is correct, since the team finished 30th by surrendering 29.9 points per game.

As General Manager Mike Mayock said, one of Hayward’s tasks will be to help out the younger players in Las Vegas’ secondary. Hayward is already on it.

“I was talking to [Trayvon] Mullen earlier and he was like, ‘Hey when are you coming to Vegas?’ He wanted to talk to me and things like that,” Hayward said. “He’s learning the defense, but there’s always some tricks and trades of the defense where you won’t have to overthink. And I think when I get there I’m going to be able to teach some of those guys those things.”

Hayward, who turns 32 in September, had one interception and eight passes defensed in 14 games last year for the Chargers.