The Las Vegas Raiders signed former Tennessee wide receiver Dont’e Thornton Jr. on Friday, the team announced on its official website.
The Raiders drafted Thornton with the 108th overall pick in the fourth round of the 2025 NFL Draft in late April.
According to multiple reports over the weekend, Thornton signed a four-year deal worth $5.2 million with a signing bonus of $1,050,896. Spotrac reports that Thornton will make a base salary of $840,000 in 2025, $1,005,000 in 2026, $1,120,000 in 2027, and $1,235,000 in 2028.
Thornton is a vertical threat wide receiver as he showed with the Volunteers during a 26-reception, 661-yard season in 2024. While he has been classified as a one-trick pony in some circles, that trick is better than a whole lot of other people’s tricks. Thornton has breakaway speed and the ability to locate the ball down the field, which are two things that Vegas will look to do more of in the coming years.
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On the other side of things, though, the Raiders also waived a former Tennessee player on Monday, according to a report from ESPN Radio’s Qiant “Your Boy Q” Myers on X. The Raiders have waived former UT defensive tackle Matthew Butler after drafting him in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
Butler made his debut for the Raiders in 2022 against the Tennessee Titans and appeared in six games as a rookie. From there, it’s been a good bit of movement with the practice squad.
In his second year in the NFL, Butler was waived in late August but re-signed with Vegas’s practice squad, eventually leading to an active roster promotion in early January 2024.
The following season, his third in the league, Butler was again waived in late August and was again re-signed to the practice squad, where he was promoted to the active roster in mid-October. Butler re-signed with the Raiders in March 2025 but was waived on Monday.
The former 2022 draft pick played in 15 games over three seasons with the Raiders and recorded 15 tackles, one QB hit, and half a sack.
