Veteran wide receiver Brandon Johnson didn’t have to wait long to find a new home after being released by the Steelers on Wednesday. The Raiders announced that they have signed Johnson to their 90-man roster on Thursday. Wide receiver Corey Rucker was placed on injured reserve in a corresponding move. Johnson did not play in any games last season while spending time on practice squads in Pittsburgh and Tampa. He had one catch for nine yards in three games for the Steelers in 2024 and 25 catches for 326 yards and five touchdowns while with the Broncos the previous two years. Rucker signed with the Raiders after going undrafted out of Arkansas State earlier this year
Veteran wide receiver Brandon Johnson didn't have to wait long to find a new home after being released by the Steelers on Wednesday. The Raiders announced that they have signed Johnson to their 90-man roster on Thursday. Wide receiver Corey Rucker was placed on injured reserve in a corresponding move. Johnson did not play in any games last season while spending time on practice squads in Pittsburgh and Tampa. He had one catch for nine yards in three games for the Steelers in 2024 and 25 catches for 326 yards and five touchdowns while with the Broncos the previous two years. Rucker signed with the Raiders after going undrafted out of Arkansas State earlier this year
The guaranteed money in undrafted free agent contracts for the Las Vegas Raiders provides insight into which players are most likely to make the 53-man roster. Corey Rucker and Chase Roberts appear to have an advantage over E.J. Williams and Jonathan Brady due to higher guaranteed money. However, familiarity with quarterback Fernando Mendoza could also play a role. Rucker is among the highest-paid UDFAs, but competition for roster spots, particularly at edge rusher, remains fierce
The Las Vegas Raiders are widely expected to have one or two roster spots at wide receiver up for grabs during training camp , giving undrafted free agent signing Corey Rucker from Arkansas State a chance to fill out the depth chart. It helps that he’s tied with Cian Slone as the Raiders’ highest-paid UDFA in the 2026 class, per Spotrac . Rucker had an interesting college career, spending the 2020 and 2021 seasons with the Red Wolves before transferring to South Carolina for a year and then returning to Arkansas State. He was productive during his five years in Jonesboro, collecting 255 catches for 4,069 yards and 27 touchdowns in 59 games. However, he had just one catch for a 52-yard touchdown with the Gamecocks before suffering a foot injury that limited him to just two games and led to his return to ASU. As a prospect, the three-time All-Sun Belt selection didn’t get invited to the NFL Combine, but turned heads at his pro day by weighing in at nearly 210 pounds and running a 4.38-second 40-yard dash . He also showed off some impressive explosion numbers, recording a 37-inch vertical and a 10-foot-6 broad jump. With that in mind, let’s flip on the tape and see what the Arkansas State product can bring to the table. What stands out about Rucker’s route running is that he uses his speed as a threat to create separation on curls. He knows that cornerbacks are worried about getting beaten over the top when lining up against him and uses that to his advantage. Here, he’s on the single-receiver side of a three-by-one formation while the defense runs Cover 3. That puts the corner on an island, where the corner is in man coverage while the rest of the unit plays zone. With no safety help, the corner doesn’t want to give up a big play to the speedy wide receiver and plays off coverage. Post-snap, Rucker sells the go route by pushing vertical or releasing hard off the line of scrimmage and keeping his shoulders down before hitting the brakes on the curl route. That gets the cornerback to open his hips and begin defending the vertical route. So, when Rucker pulls up on the curl, the cornerback is in an awkward position and ends up slipping before being able to drive on the route. While it’s only a yard or two on this rep specifically, the wideout also does a good job of working back to the quarterback to maximize his separation. All of that leads to a fourth-down conversion late in the game to keep Arkansas State’s hopes alive. We’ll get another look at a curl route from Rucker on the clip above. Again, he sells the vertical route well by accelerating off the line of scrimmage and keeping his shoulders down. One subtle addition that he does here is veering toward the sideline at about the 35-yard line to really make it look like a fade route. That gets the corner to open his hips again, but the corner does a much better job of staying on his feet and driving on the route this time. In response—and in part because it’s second down and not fourth, so moving the sticks isn’t as important for the offense—Rucker works back to the quarterback a little more to get enough separation to make the catch. Additionally, he recognizes or feels the defender on his back. Rather than bringing the ball into his chest like a receiver normally would, Rucker keeps the ball away from his body. That prevents the defender from being able to play through the receiver’s back and punch the ball out for an incompletion. That’s excellent awareness and recognition of the situation to make an adjustment and fight against a natural tendency. Part of what makes the Arkansas State product an intriguing UDFA signing is that he’s coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons and could have been even more productive this last season if he and the Red Wolves’ quarterback connected on a few open deep passes. To be fair, part of the issue was that the wideout has suspect hands, and he did drop a few opportunities for explosive plays last season. But he also had a lot
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