Photo by Sera King for Headline Surfer / TOP: Raheem Mostert, a graduating senior in 2010, with the New Smyrna Beach High School Cuda where he was a star running back. And a courtesy screenshot from Las Vegas of Raheem Mostert signing.
By HENRY FREDERICK / Headline Surfer
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Raheem Mostert, who starred as a running back at New Smyrna Beach High School way back when, has signed with the Las Vegas Raiders ahead of Thursday's NFL Draft.
He agreed to a one-year deal with the team in March 2025. He was previously with the Miami Dolphins for the past three seasons.
The Las Vegas Raiders announced Wednesday afternoon that they have signed Mostert, a 2010 graduate of New Smyrna Beach High School. Here's a look at the player and person set to join the Silver and Black's running backs room.
1. Dolphin to Raider
Mostert joins the Raiders after spending his last three seasons with the Miami Dolphins. He set career highs in carries and rushing yards in both 2022 and 2023. After starting 29 games in his first two years in Miami, Mostert battled nagging injuries in 2024 and made just one start in 13 games played.
Before taking on a reduced role last season, he was a focal point of a Miami team that finished 2022 with a top 10 offense (sixth, 364.5 yards per game).
In 2023, the Dolphins led the league in total offense (401.3 yards per game). Mostert was the team's leading rusher and helped the Dolphins finish sixth in rushing offense (135.8 yards per game) and first in yards per carry (5.1).
He'll be joining several former Dolphins teammates in Las Vegas, including defensive tackles Christian Wilkins and Adam Butler, and newly-signed linebacker Elandon Roberts.
2. Running wild
In addition to earning his first Pro Bowl nod in 2023, Mostert totaled a career-high 209 carries and recorded 1,012 rushing yards for the first 1,000-yard season of his career.
His 18 rushing touchdowns led the NFL and were the third most by an undrafted player in a single season in NFL history. He also set a new Dolphins single-season record, breaking Ricky Williams' mark (16) set in 2002. Ironically, Williams is Mostert's favorite player.
Mostert also tied for the NFL lead with 21 total touchdowns that season, breaking a Miami franchise record held by Mark Clayton (18) since 1984. Four of those scores came in a 70-20 blowout of the Denver Broncos, which tied the Dolphins' single-game touchdown record.
3. Beating the odds
In 2023, at 31 years old, Mostert became the second-oldest player in NFL history to have a 1,000-yard season. While production at the running back position is generally expected to decline as a player ages, Mostert has embraced the challenge and enjoyed a surge in opportunities and performance later in his career.
He credits that boom in production in part to a lack of playing time when he first entered the league.
"I'm truly blessed about it just because I didn't get that trend on me early on," Mostert said during the 2023 season. "So it actually saved me and I feel like it just helped prolong my career a little bit longer and I'm truly happy about that."
"I was just an undrafted guy just trying to make a roster and pretty much a special-teams guy, so I did get my opportunity. And one thing that I did learn when I was young was that when you do get that opportunity, don't look back. That's something that Darren Sproles taught me when I was a rookie for the Eagles."
Mostert overcame countless cuts when starting out, but if his career is any indication, he never looked back. After recording just 41 carries in his first four NFL seasons, he gained an increased role with the San Francisco 49ers in 2019 and has topped 100 rush attempts in four of the six seasons since.
4. Continuing his career with Chip
Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly was Mostert's first head coach in the NFL when the running back entered the league in 2015 as an undrafted free agent with the Philadelphia Eagles. Mostert never appeared in a game for Philadelphia, but he did make enough of an impression on Kelly to get a second chance the following year with the 49ers.
After spending time on six different teams in his first two seasons, Mostert signed to San Francisco's practice squad with five games remaining on the 2016 schedule. While that was Kelly's only season as the 49ers head coach, Mostert stuck on and embarked on a career-changing tenure in the Bay Area from 2016 to 2021. He solidified himself as a viable backfield option and put forth one of the best playoff performances in the history of the league.
In the 2019 NFC Championship, Mostert tallied 220 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns. The 220 rushing yards were the second most by a player in an NFL postseason game and the four touchdowns were tied for the second most rushing touchdowns in an NFL playoff game.
"I've been on seven different teams ... before every game I look at the cut dates."
Raheem Mostert reflects on his journey after a record-breaking NFC Championship performance 🙌 pic.twitter.com/ykezoDJbxX
— ESPN (@espn) January 20, 2020
Nine years later, Kelly and Mostert are back together and will look to help revitalize a Raiders run game that finished last in the NFL in rushing yards and yards per carry in 2024.
In addition to his familiarity with Kelly, Mostert faced off against the Seahawks' defense, led by Head Coach Pete Carroll, on seven different occasions. His best outing against Carroll came in Week 17 of 2019 when Mostert recorded 10 carries for 57 yards (5.7 avg.) and two touchdowns.
5. Waves of success
Mostert lettered in football and track and field at New Smyrna Beach High School in Florida, also known as the Shark Attack Capital of the World. Despite the obvious dangers, Mostert discovered a love for surfing and the escape it provided.
"The ocean is a metaphor for life," he said. "Sometimes it's calm, and all of a sudden, there's a hurricane. Hurricanes bring on waves. Being in the ocean, being in the waves, I excluded everything around me."
"Being on the surf, knowing that no matter what you got, your possessions or anything like that, your troubles, they all go away."
At 14 years old, Mostert was offered a contract to surf for Billabong, but he turned the opportunity down to pursue his goal of playing college football. At Purdue, he did more than just play football. He won a Big Ten title in four different track and field events and became the first member of his family to graduate from college.
Throughout his NFL career, Mostert's beach-bum background has remained close to his heart. On the field, he shows off his signature surf celebration after scoring touchdowns. Off the field, he and his wife, Devon, founded the Raheem Mostert Waves of Success Foundation, a nonprofit organization aimed at providing youth with the resources and mentorship needed to achieve their dreams.
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New Smyrna Beach's Raheem Mostert goes 80 yards for TD in 1st play from scrimmage for San Francisco 49ers before sitting out 2nd half with knee injury in win over NY Jets, 31-13 / Published: Sun, 09/20/2020 - 23:33
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