Raiders get desperate to bring back Keelan Doss

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So, you actually can go home again. Even after getting kicked out of the house.

After Oakland cut local feel-good story Keelan Doss – the breakout star of this season’s “Hard Knocks” – they plucked him off the Jaguars’ practice squad and brought him back to California.

The Raiders — after star Antonio Brown orchestrated his own release — suddenly need all the receiver depth they can get. They kept their eye on Doss after releasing him last Monday, and tried to lure him back on Saturday. He said no, opting to stay with the Jaguars.

But apparently Doss read the terrain right. The Raiders went back to the 23-year-old Alameda native with a vastly improved deal. He got a $300,000 signing bonus and fully guaranteed $495,000 base salary, according to NFL Network. Those are contract guarantees that practice squad players do not get.

It’s a win for Doss, who’d been dumped by his hometown team just a week earlier.

“We have strong feelings about Keelan Doss,” Raiders GM Mike Mayock had said, according to the Mercury News. “Local kid, great story. That was a very difficult cut.”

Apparently not a permanent one.

This preseason, Doss had 17 catches for 162 yards and a touchdown — the first of the Raiders’ final campaign in Oakland. And his feel-good story resonated with viewers on the HBO show: An undrafted local free agent from UC Davis and Alameda High, just two miles from Oakland.

But the storyline apparently didn’t resonate with Raiders coach Jon Gruden, who kept receivers Marcel Ateman and Rico Gafford for the practice squad.

“That was your storyline. That wasn’t my storyline, just so we’re on the same page,” Gruden had told reporters. “He did a heck of a job. We tried to keep him on practice squad. He felt like he had a better opportunity to make the team in Jacksonville. You hate to see him go, but we’re happy for his future.”

Now Doss’ future includes a signing bonus, guaranteed money and a spot on the 53-man roster.

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