2008 Season - Day 4 - RB - Dominic Rhodes

Tuesday

The Raiders have a surplus of running backs.

Raiders release Dominic Rhodes.

Rhodes' release was meant to put the Raiders back under the league salary cap, which they exceeded when they traded cornerback Fabian Washington to the Baltimore Ravens. That trade gave the Raiders a nearly $1.1 million cap hit, ESPN reported. Rhodes, who had restructured his contract to remain with the Raiders, was due to earn $1.75 million this year.

The release of a running back wasn't surprising; the identity of that back was. LaMont Jordan seemed a likely candidate to depart, considering he has a $4.7 million deal this season and asked to be released last fall after losing his starting job. Raiders coach Lane Kiffin was noncommittal about Jordan's status last week. "LaMont does have a very high contract and a big number coming into this," Kiffin said before the draft. "So we have to look at what happens in the draft, look at what else is going on and make a decision."

Rhodes signed a two-year deal last year after playing for the Indianapolis Colts' 2007 Super Bowl-winning team. He was suspended for the first four games of the next season with the Raiders following an arrest for driving while intoxicated and later pleading guilty to reckless driving. Upon returning to the team, Rhodes' playing time was limited. He finished with 75 carries for 302 yards and a touchdown. Most of his production came in the final two games of the season after Justin Fargas went down with a knee injury. Rhodes had 56 carries for 237 yards in those games. He also returned 16 kickoffs for 316 yards.

The two games he started, were Weeks 16-17.

Week 16 - a 49-11 loss at Jacksonville....29 touches for 124 yards

Week 17 - a 30-17 loss to the Chargers....35 touches for 164 yards

Several teammates said they were surprised by the move after Rhodes agreed to a pay cut from $3 million to $1.75 million in the offseason. LaMont Jordan, who is owed $4.7 million next season, could be next. "I didn't foresee that happening," running back Justin Fargas said. "Dominic is a good player and a good locker-room guy (who) brings everybody else up. Those are the kind of guys you want to have around, so when they let him go, it was a little bit of a shock, a little bit of a disappointment to me."

Dominic Rhodes says, "I don't really think that Lane Kiffin wanted to take a running back in the first round, let's just put it like that."