PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : RAIDERS : Deal’s Value Limited Early

Rob Fredrickson, the Raiders’ No. 1 draft choice, signed a lucrative long-term contract, but the deal is limited in its immediate value by the salary cap.

Fredrickson will receive $4.875 million over five years, an average of $975,000 a season. But he will get nearly $2.5 million in the final two years of the contract. And that money is not guaranteed.

The deal was agreed upon Tuesday, after a nine-day holdout.

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Offensive tackle Greg Skrepenak suffered a sprained ankle Wednesday.

That’s a cause for more concern than usual because it’s the same ankle he broke in the preseason last year, causing him to sit out the entire season.

“It’s unfortunate,” Coach Art Shell said, “but those things happen. Someone stepped on his foot, but he didn’t hear or feel anything pop.”

Skrepenak hopes to be back to work quickly.

“It (the ankle) has been taking a beating with the two-a-days (workouts),” he said, “but, until now, it’s been feeling really good.”

Another Raider who came up limping Wednesday was receiver Alexander Wright, who suffered a pulled calf muscle.

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Quarterback Jeff Hostetler has been taking it easy in workouts because of off-season surgery to remove bone chips from his right ankle.

The Raiders figure to use Hostetler sparingly in at least the early part of the preseason.

For one thing, they want to shield him as much as possible for as long as possible from the punishment he took last year, when he constantly struggled to his feet following one crushing blow after another.

For another thing, the Raiders want to take a long look at second-year man Billy Joe Hobert to see if he indeed can be their quarterback of the future.