Raiders Rumors: Jerry Tillery to Be Released at Start of NFL League Year | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
Olivia Shea
Published Mar 25, 2026
The Las Vegas Raiders will release defensive lineman Jerry Tillery at the start of the NFL's new league year next week, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.
Tillery, 27, spent parts of the past two seasons with the Raiders after a four-year run with the Los Angeles Chargers to start his career.
Appearing in all 17 games last season and starting six of them, Tillery recorded 31 tackles, two sacks, two tackles for loss and one fumble recovery.
The Chargers selected Tillery with the No. 28 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft out of Notre Dame, but he never quite became the disruptive force they were hoping for.
Tillery started 29 of the 54 games he played in for the Bolts over the course of four seasons, registering 98 tackles, 10.5 sacks and 12 tackles for loss.
His most productive season occurred in 2021 when Tillery set career highs with 51 tackles, 4.5 sacks and six tackles for loss.
Tillery failed to build on that solid campaign, putting up just eight tackles and one sack in seven games for he Bolts in 2022. That led to the Chargers waiving him about midway through the season, and the Raiders claimed him.
After Tillery appeared in eight games for the Raiders in 2022, they signed him to a two-year, $6.8 million extension.
Tillery was an important part of the Raiders' defensive line rotation in 2023 and performed fairly well, but it wasn't enough for Vegas to keep him in the fold.
The decision to release him is somewhat surprising since the Raiders are already set to experience a ton of turnover on their interior defensive line.
John Jenkins, Bilal Nichols and Adam Butler are all in line to hit free agency next week. With Tillery out of the picture as well, the top returning defensive tackles on the roster are 2023 third-round pick Byron Young, 2022 fifth-round pick Matthew Butler and 2023 seventh-round pick Nesta Jade Silvera.
The Raiders boast one of the best outside pass-rushing duos in the NFL, as Maxx Crosby and Malcolm Koonce combined for 22.5 sacks last season.
However, they will need some quality additions to the interior defensive line in order to take away some of the opposition's focus in 2024.
