The Raiders signed Jordy Nelson to a two-year, $15 million deal on Thursday. The move allowed Oakland to jettison Michael Crabtree and clear $7.7 million in salary-cap space, though the 30-year-old likely won't be out of work long; Crabtree scores touchdowns -- he had 26 in three seasons with the Raiders, including eight last season -- and Spotrac.com pegs his calculated valuation at more than $10 million a year.

The Ravens are among the front runners for Crabtree's services but Nelson, who will turn 33 before the start of the season, is insistent he can still play, even after a disappointing 2017 campaign.

"If you look two years ago, the year I won NFL Comeback Player of the Year coming off my ACL, I was still productive – 1,200 yards, 14 touchdowns," Nelson said, via the East Bay Times. "I think we had a lot of different things going on last year that obviously affected that. I can still run. I can still catch. Football, at this level, a lot of people focus on speed, but I ran a 4.5 coming out of college so I wasn't blazing then either. It's different when you get helmet and shoulder pads on. I think I can do that. I can make plays."

Nelson's right about "a lot of different things going on last year" after Aaron Rodgers was injured. In 15 games last season he had just 53 catches for 482 yards, though the asterisk next to those numbers reminds you that playing with Brett Hundley at quarterback explains much of the drop in production. The good news is that in 2016, a year removed from an ACL injury, Nelson was as productive as ever. He had 97 catches for 1,257 yards and 14 touchdowns, and ranked third in total value among all receivers, behind only Julio Jones and Mike Thomas.

And while Nelson joins an offense that features Derek Carr and includes Amari Cooper and former teammate Jared Cook, the Packers didn't make much of an effort to keep him in Green Bay. Former Packers wide receiver James Jones offered the details.

"I'm not going to say what they offered [Nelson], but they really, really low-balled him," Jones told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Tom Silverstein . "It wasn't even anything you would consider. Even with all that, he was still considering taking it."

According to ESPN Wisconsin, the Packers asked Nelson to take a pay cut from his 2018 base salary of  $9.25 million down to the veteran minimum -- $1.1 million.

The Packers cleared $10.25 million in cap space by releasing Nelson and they promptly signed tight end Jimmy Graham and defensive lineman Muhammad Wilkerson. Jones felt Green Bay owed Nelson at least one more season before coming to the realization that sentimentality has no place in the NFL.

"But at the end of the day, it's a business," he said. "You should never be surprised. I've seen Peyton Manning and Charles Woodson and so many other people get released."