Veteran defensive tackle Benito Jones has found a home for the 2026 season.
The Raiders announced that they have signed Jones on Wednesday. They waived defensive tackle Brodric Martin with an injury designation in a corresponding move.
Jones had 15 tackles and a sack in 14 games for the Dolphins last season. He entered the NFL with Miami as an undrafted free agent in 2020 and played 34 games for the Lions in 2022 and 2023 before returning to Miami for the last two seasons.
Jones has 83 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks for his entire career.
Martin played in one game for the Steelers last year and was claimed off of waivers by Las Vegas in December.
Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza skipped Indiana’s visit to the White House on Monday. President Donald Trump made a point of mentioning Mendoza’s absence.
“The reason he’s not here — he was so nice, he called because he has actually . . . he’s a big fan of ours,” Trump said. “You wouldn’t believe it, because he didn’t show up. I’m not happy, but that’s OK. The reason he didn’t, because he’s at spring training, right? . . .
“And he’s at spring training, like his first day or something. I said, ‘You better go there.’ But he became Indiana’s first — otherwise, if he didn’t do that, believe me, I wouldn’t have even talked about him. I would have not. If he was not here for other reasons, like he didn’t like Trump or he didn’t want to come, I wouldn’t have even mentioned him. I’d go through the whole [speech] — I’d talk about how great [the team was], I wouldn’t even mention the quarterback’s name.”
It’s a well-known page from the Commander-in-Chief’s playbook. He likes those who like him. He dislikes those who dislike him — or who are perceived to disagree with his policies or his general approach to holding the highest office in the land and are willing to say so.
The attitude has created a culture of extreme sensitivity from sea to shining sea. Anyone who has a legitimate dispute is labeled a certain way, without regard to the merits of their position. To borrow a line from Trump, it’s “sad!” More accurately, it’s exhausting.
It also makes it impossible for people of reasonable minds to resolve their differences reasonably. Instead of addressing the merits, a person who doesn’t kiss the ring and/or toe the party line is labeled a certain way. Which allows the party articulating fair scrutiny to have their honest and authentic beliefs ignored, while the party with the power gravitates toward those who will say publicly whatever they need to say.
Regardless of whether they truly believe the things they say.
True beliefs no longer matter. To get along is to go along. To say all the right things, at all the right times. And if anyone steps out of line, they’re attacked and diminished and possibly threatened, subtly or otherwise.
Some will resist the bullying. Some won’t. In the end, we all have to find a way to sleep every night, and to be greeted every morning by the man or woman in the mirror.
The Raiders signed linebacker Cameron McGrone, the team announced Monday.
Las Vegas cut wide receiver Brenden Rice in a corresponding move.
McGrone, who turns 26 next month, played four games for the Colts and one for the Browns last season. In the five combined games, he played 43 defensive snaps and 68 on special teams and totaled two tackles.
The Patriots made him a fifth-round pick in 2021, but he never appeared in a regular-season game before he joined the Colts in December 2022. He played one game that season and has played in 27 games in his career.
Rice, the son of Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, signed a futures deal with the Raiders in January after spending time on their practice squad late last season.
The Chargers selected Rice in the seventh round of the 2024 draft, and he has also spent time with the Patriots and Seahawks.
Rice, 24, has appeared in three games, all with the Chargers and all in his rookie season.
The Bears confirmed their signing of wide receiver Scotty Miller on Monday and they also announced three other new additions to the roster.
Linebacker Jon Rhattigan is the most experienced member of that group. He joined Miller as a veteran tryout player at the team’s rookie minicamp over the weekend.
Rhattigan had six tackles on special teams in 12 games for the Raiders last season. He also played in one game for the Steelers and was a regular in the kicking game for the Panthers in 2024. He spent his first three seasons with the Seahawks and has 50 career tackles.
Wide receiver Kyron Hudson and linebacker Wayne Matthews also signed with the team. Both players went undrafted last month.
The only corresponding move saw the Bears place wide receiver Squirrel White on the reserve/retired list. White had signed with the team as an undrafted free agent ahead of the minicamp.
Offensive lineman Layden Robinson took part in the Falcons’ rookie minicamp on a tryout basis and he is set to stick around Atlanta for a little while longer.
Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that the Falcons will be signing Robinson to their 90-man roster. There’s no word of any other roster moves at the moment.
Robinson was a 2024 fourth-round pick by the Patriots and he started 11 games at guard during his rookie season in New England. Robinson landed on injured reserve last summer, however, and he was waived during the season. The Raiders added him to their practice squad and signed him to a future contract before waiving him earlier this month.
The Falcons have Chris Lindstrom and Matthew Bergeron back as their starting guards, so Robinson will likely be competing for a reserve role over the rest of the offseason.
