Michael Gallup, a longtime Dallas Cowboys wideout, recently decided to hang up the cleats before this 2024 season even begins. Gallup spent the first six years of his career with the Cowboys before leaving for the first time in the offseason to join up with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Gallup appeared in OTAs and minicamp for the Raiders up to this point, but apparently, his heart isn’t in it anymore. When he announced his decision to step away, it was one day before the team was set to meet for training camp. Gallup is just 28 years old and has accumulated 3,744 yards and 21 touchdowns throughout his NFL journey. In 2019, he had 66 receptions for 1,100 yards and six touchdowns, easily going down as his most impressive campaign.
For the bettors out there, this retirement does impact the Las Vegas Raiders. Their offense needed more talent, and in the offseason, they tried to emphasize it to acquire more. At the wideout position, they already had Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers, they just needed more. That’s where Gallup came in, who was supposed to be the solidified number three in the passing game but won’t be playing anymore. To make matters worse, Jalen Guyton is also on the physically unable-to-perform list, a player who was listed as the fourth string in the receiver room. So, Vegas went from trying to stack receiver talent to once again having just two reliable options coming into the season. Not to mention that they lost Josh Jacobs to the Green Bay Packers, nor were they able to acquire a big-name free-agent quarterback or draft one early in the first round. All in all, Gallup was one of the few things they did on the offensive side of the ball besides drafting Brock Bowers and Jackson Powers-Johnson.
Luckily, this retirement doesn’t hurt the Raiders much financially. Las Vegas avoided giving Gallup a massive contract coming into the offseason and came to a deal on a one-year, $3 million contract. This might not have been the money he was hoping for, but then again, Dallas released him after he went through a few injuries.
Speaking of those injuries, he’s only played a full season in three of his six years. He missed two games in his second year, then seven in his fourth, and three more in his fifth. HOWEVER, even though he didn’t miss a significant number of games over that stretch, he wasn’t producing at the same level he used to. After putting up 1,100 receiving yards in 2019, his production fell off a cliff. He put up 843 yards in 2020, followed by 445 in 2021, 424 in 2022, and most recently, 418 in 2023. He fell further and further out of the offense, and when he was on the field, there just wasn’t anything explosive happening to force Dallas to keep him on it. It’s a shame considering that he once had immense potential, and it’s hard to discount the battles he went through with injuries off the field. Did that factor into his decision to retire? That’s yet to be known, though I’m sure it didn’t help.
I would imagine that we see the Raiders look elsewhere for receiver help moving into the season. It’s hard to believe that they remain complacent with their receiver room given Gallup’s retirement. Outside of Adams and Meyers, they have an injured Guyton, Kristian Wilkerson, Alex Bachman, Jeff Foreman, and Ramel Keyton on their listed depth chart. Of course, their first-round draft pick Brock Bowers will be a tremendous benefit in the passing game, he’s simply listed as a tight end as opposed to a receiver. The bottom line is that at the official receiver position, there is no genuine third weapon right now. For a team that lost their big-name starting running back and doesn’t exactly have the greatest quarterback under center, putting together a few good weapons is exactly what the Raiders should do. They’ve got a couple of great ones, I’ll give them that, but it’s a big disappointment for them that neither Guyton nor Gallup will be out there for them shortly. Hopefully, Guyton can recover and get himself back on the field.
Lastly, you might be wondering why I haven’t mentioned Tre Tucker yet. There’s a reason I saved him for the last talking point. Tucker was slated to be in a battle for the third receiver position alongside Gallup and Guyton. Now, the doors have just blown out and it leaves him with a clear path to victory for that job. He might not look like a solid third-string wideout on paper, but there is genuine potential there even if there hasn’t been matched production yet. The 23-year-old had 19 catches for 331 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie. He’s a speedy receiver who can make people miss in the open field. His numbers don’t jump off the page at you, and he’s undersized.
That aside, it’s hard to ignore the potential impact that a young speedster can make on a team that’s built exactly like the Raiders. I believe if Tucker ends up being incredibly good in 2024, the Raiders as a team will thrive. He will open their offense up and become their x-factor type of player. Both Adams and Meyers are physical route-running receivers, while Tucker is the complete opposite. He can fly down the field, make something out of nothing in the screen game, and scare opposing defenses into always knowing where he is on the field. With Gallup retiring and Guyton out of action, you should be betting on a much bigger season from Tre Tucker.
To recap, I think Tucker is a determining factor now as to how good the Raiders can be in 2024 and beyond. I also believe that it’s still a big blow for the team to lose Gallup, even if he’s not produced as we’d hoped lately. All in all, not the greatest news for Raiders fans lately, but there’s still hope.
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