Cardinals LT Jared Veldheer denies he no longer wanted to play for the Raiders
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Oakland Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie said on Tuesday that losing left tackle Jared Veldheer to the Arizona Cardinals in free agency was difficult to deal with.
McKenzie believed Veldheer no longer wanted to play for the Raiders, but on Wednesday, the Hillsdale product told a different story.
He spoke to Arizona Sports radio and said leaving wasn't because he wanted out of Oakland.
"I appreciate everything that Oakland did for me over the last four years, we just couldn't get (a contract) done. It wasn't that I didn't want to be there, because I know that's been said recently," he said. "That just wasn't the case. Things were unable to get done at the table and that led to free agency and now I'm looking forward to Arizona and looking to what the future has here."
If what Veldheer says is accurate, letting him go becomes all the more puzzling. He's an emerging talent and the Raiders could have opted to use the franchise tag on him to give them more time to work out a long-term deal.
[H/T to NFL.com]