Former Raiders’ first-round pick Damon Arnette clears waivers

As expected, Las Vegas stayed away from OBJ on waivers

While Odell Beckham Jr. was the headliner on the NFL waiver wire on Tuesday, there was a high-profile name on it as well: 2020 first-round pick Damon Arnette. Yes, it was an unusual waiver-wire process this year.

However, like OBJ, Arnette went unclaimed. He is now a free agent and available to sign anywhere if there is interest. The Las Vegas Raiders released Arnette — who they took with the No. 19 overall pick in the 2020 draft — on Monday because of off-field concerns.

Because of the nature of his release, his lack of production when he has played and the fact that he is currently on the injured reserve, it is not surprising at all that Arnette went unclaimed. Once he is healthy, Arnette potentially could get an opportunity to work out for a team and perhaps to try to revive his career on the practice squad initially somewhere.

As for Beckham Jr., it is also not a surprise that he went unclaimed because it would have cost the claiming team more than $7 million to get him for the rest of the season. Many teams, including the Raiders, currently don’t have that much salary cap room. The Raiders can always try to sign Beckham Jr. as a free agent and there has been some reports of interest … but there are also reports that Las Vegas, which signed veteran receiver DeSean Jackson this week, is not interested in OBJ.

The Raiders, though, did work out receivers Jaelen Strong and Marqise Lee on Tuesday. Therefore, they could add both or one of them to the program soon as they try to beef up the receiver group. Strong hasn’t played in the NFL since 2017 and Lee hasn’t played in the league since 2019.

The Tennessee Titans cut veteran receiver Josh Reynolds and he will be available on Wednesday at a reasonable price, so the Raiders could consider putting in a claim on him.