Considering the paycut the Raiders want to give him (notice pay CUT, not restructure) I would not be surprised if he gets signed somewhere at the vet's minimum. Seriously in fact I would be remotely surprised if he got MORE than the vet's minimum. Try to remember that the Raiders want him to go from $2.5 million to $1 million. And if he gets released, especially this late in free agency, he will probably not even see that $1 million the Raiders wanted to give him. In general when a team wants to cut your pay down to a certain level, its higher than you would get as a free agent otherwise they wouldn't ask it because they'd have no ground to stand on. He's been in the league 7 years I'm not sure what that means his vet minimum is but I would not be surprised if thats all he's given, given the circumstances...
Comparing Biekert to Zach is hard because they are two different players who generally play in different systems. Can Biekert line up in our system and play as well as Zach? No because he doesn't have the instincts or range that Zach Thomas does...nor can he blitz or cover a receiver. But could Zach Thomas step into Greg Biekert's normal role down in Oakland and be just as effective as Biekert? Well, its arguable that Zach may not be able to. Biekert, (gasp) probably holds up better against the run blockers and makes harder hits than Zach Thomas. He'd be a great backup to Zach. This ALL of course assumes that Greg Biekert is every ounce of what he use to be when he did well in Oakland...which is actually not very likely given the fact that Oakland's trying to reduce his salary to $1 million.