{"id":102601,"date":"2021-03-18T14:39:33","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T18:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=102601"},"modified":"2021-03-18T14:39:33","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T18:39:33","slug":"kenyan-drake-signs-with-las-vegas-raiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021\/03\/18\/kenyan-drake-signs-with-las-vegas-raiders\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenyan Drake Signs With Las Vegas Raiders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Longtime NFL veteran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/D\/DrakKe00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Kenyan Drake <\/strong><\/a>signed a two-year, $11 million contract with the Las Vegas Raiders. Drake spent the 2020 season with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/cardinals\/\" target=\"_self\">Arizona Cardinals<\/a> and has also played for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/dolphins\/\" target=\"_self\">Miami Dolphins<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It&#39;s a two-year, $11 million deal with the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Raiders?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Raiders<\/a> for Kenyan Drake, who can earn up to $14.5 million with incentives, per source.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TomPelissero\/status\/1372617849496293377?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 18, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Kenyan Drake Signs With Las Vegas Raiders<\/h2>\n<p>Kenyan Drake entered 2020 expected to the Cardinals lead running back heading into the season. Playing on the transition tag, inconsistency saw Drake assume a diminishing role as the year progressed. Nevertheless, Drake ran to the precipice of his first 1000 yard season, finishing with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.co.uk\/nfl\/player\/gamelog\/_\/id\/2979843\/kenyan-drake\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">955 on the year<\/a>. The high watermark of Drake&#8217;s season was a 164 yard, two touchdown performance against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/cowboys\/\" target=\"_self\">Dallas Cowboys<\/a> in Week Six. He also recorded 100 yards against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/bills\/\" target=\"_self\">Buffalo Bills<\/a>, his only other 100 yard rushing performance. Overall, the former Alabama product contributed ten touchdowns, but an underwhelming 4.0 average yards per carry lead to some cause for concern.<\/p>\n<p>Drake&#8217;s emergence as as a potential starter in Arizona came after he arrived via trade from the Miami Dolphins. Although expected to just add depth at the position, he swiftly established himself as a contributor for the Cardinals. Starting quickly, he rushed for over 100 yards in his first game with Arizona against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/49ers\/\" target=\"_self\">San Francisco 49ers<\/a>. He then capped off his first season in Arizona with a 166 yard, two touchdown performance against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/seahawks\/\" target=\"_self\">Seattle Seahawks<\/a> in Week 16.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to his move to the desert, Drake spent the first three and a half seasons with the Dolphins. A notable moment during his tenure occurred when Drake scored the winning touchdown in a game against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/patriots\/\" target=\"_self\">New England Patriots<\/a> in 2018. This play came to be known as &#8216;The Miracle in Miami&#8217;. Drake played as the team&#8217;s starting running back throughout 2018, after injuries thrust him into the spot in 2017. Prior to starting, he had shared snaps with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WillDa05.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Damien Williams<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/A\/AjayJa00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jay Ajayi<\/a><\/strong>. His rookie season in 2016 saw him feature in all 16 games after being taken in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft. Before his NFL career, Drake played college football for Alabama, where he sat behind future NFL rushing champion <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/H\/HenrDe00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derrick Henry<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"cuex01rWShBhrdunn9XLvg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1294335295\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'cuex01rWShBhrdunn9XLvg',sig:'XU6rmlusIRs_6WObIxeZST0BRarUGKryWnZsqACzvVw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1294335295',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Longtime NFL running back Kenyan Drake is no longer a free agent. Drake spent the 2020 season with Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3679,"featured_media":102740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,33,6431],"tags":[279,61,3329,40,1608,246],"class_list":["post-102601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-cardinals","category-nfl-teams","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-football","tag-kenyan-drake","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-free-agency","tag-nfl-news"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3679"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}