First Clive Walford, then Jihad Ward. On Thursday, it was safety Obi Melifonwu’s turn to discover that first-year head coach Jon Gruden isn’t very fond of general manager Reggie McKenzie draft picks not named Derek Carr, Khalil Mack and Amari Cooper. At some point, McKenzie’s going to be the one shown the door by Gruden.
Reggie McKenzie didn’t want Jon Gruden hired as head coach when Mark Davis hired him in 2012
Raiders general manager's fear of being pushed aside by Gruden proved prescient in light of recent events
Yes, Gruden is not a fan of Reggie’s picks. However, I do think the relationship is amicable. Gruden has stated “if you can’t get along with Reggie, you can’t get along with anyone..” or something to that effect.
Gruden knows he can’t effectively run scouting and be the coach. He needs someone to run personnel to provide the options for him to choose from. How does this actually translate? Gruden states “find me a right tackle” and Reggie’s dept gives him the RT options to choose from. So Reggie has a role, it’s just not decision maker. Whether Reggie can stand being neutered is for him to decide.
I think it’s more likely Reggie leaves from his own volition than Gruden firing him.
Reggie is now effectively a contract guy. He has needed a coach to balance him out for some time. This is a great thing. Dude has missed on so many picks. I believe it will work well.
This is what I didn’t want with Gruden. He hasn’t proven anything his whole career with having all the power and say. as a Raider fan i’m still blessed Reggie came and without Reggie we wouldn’t have alot! Cork has always had it in for Reggie I’ve been reading the blog for years and I remember everything. Imagine if Mark would have listen to Gruden and took Manziel in first round! We wouldn’t have Mack or Derrick the over paid can’t stand still behind the pressure and deliver the ball. I knew we’d over pay Derrrick and the REAL MVP best player on the team would’t get his Big contract. The whole league messed up with ” you get a flag for PUSHING these weak Qbs in the league.
Don’t let Reggie into the draft room until after the 4th round. He’s been okay there and with UFA.
Have him take vacation during free agency too. Aside from Rodney Hudson, seems like he’s missed a lot there too.
The problem with Gruden’s strategy is that he relies on vets and to be a good team for a long time (see NE Pats) you need to bring players in through the draft. So, the focus should be on developing the younger players, not bringing in 30 year olds. That is the short term view and, if continued, will lead to another lengthy spell as the laughing stock of the NFL. I believe that while McKenzie seems to have missed quite a bit on his picks, some of that goes to the prior coaching staff not being able to develop the young talent and/or put them in good positions to succeed. How is it that between KNJ and JDR they could not develop a solid linebacking corps?
RM also has to take some blame for all the coaches he has hired.
You have to think that Mark got to the point of hiring Gruden partly because he felt RM was getting it wrong time after time with coaches.
Allen, Sporano and JDR. Those coaches, and all the assistants, gave us 1 great year. 1 playoff loss.
Do you think that Mark has not seen all the draft picks that have failed or are not on the field being productive?
All of this added to the NEED of bringing on the G2 era.
Mark is not blameless. He is the one that hired RM and gave him the keys to the kingdom too.
I don’t give a rats a$$ if RM is pleased or not.
If RM was dead set against the Gruden hiring, he should have resigned. He should have stuck to his principals and not gone to the presser when Gruden was hired.
One of the posters brought it up recently that maybe Louis Riddick could be brought in to work with Gruden and RM is shown the door.
Good plan if all of what Cork is reporting is true.
And why would it not be true?
Cork is one of the best in the business.
Like it or not Gruden is the man in charge and will be for quite a while.
Wow…
Hilarious about the continual juvenile hate in this juvenile blog about Reggie and Mark.
If Reggie can’t draft, why does he have salary cap problems? He drafted so well that he can’t sign his home runs after their rookie contracts? That, even when Reggie has been pretty good at keeping the cap numbers short term and the cap numbers as flexible as possible.
Funny how the Raiders are excoriated for not singing Mack. There has never been two $20 million guys on one team in the NFL. There’s a reason for that. Yet you don’t read this from the writers and readers of this blog who blindly gut Reggie and Mark.
Funny how Mark’s moving the Raiders to Vegas is HATED on constantly in this blog. Yet, staying in Oakland was not possible in any way, shape, or form. What would these yo-yo writers have done? That would rmake for comedy reading..
So, what does Mark do? He moves to Las Vegas of all places … ground breaking. Sneering in the face of the nay sayers and vision-less and owners – just like the old man. Moving the Raiders to the only other place on the planet where they could use their swagger and history. Regardless of the fact that there was zero opportunity to stay in Oakland, there is a bigger story: The Davis family never had much money (compared to most other owners). The value of the franchise sucked. The guaranteed payments on contracts (which have to be put in escrow) had to be excruciating to come up with and may be a big problem now. So, just what in the world are they supposed to do? Stay in Oakland? No possible way to do that. It spite of all experts that said it couldn’t be done, Mark moves then team to Vegas, which instantly and radically increases the value of the team. If that doesn’t happen, he gets farther and farther behind on the ability to escrow guaranteed money. Sounds like a chip off the old block to me – rather than an incompetent bumbler.
Mark’s job isn’t the micro details, it’s the big picture. And, the big picture is that he incredibly and quickly got the Raiders not just a new home – but a ground breaking, perhaps the coolest new home imaginable. And, he put the team on a track to have solid financial footings. And, he solved a persistent problem that NOBODY else, including the old man had been able to solve. AND, he did it after, in Los Angeles, picking himself up off the ground, dusting himself off, and moving on to an even better idea. Making the team worth more doesn’t instantly put the money in the bark. But, it creates a pathway to putting money in the bank.
This is the most juvenile, poorly written blog in the football world. Two of the three writers couldn’t pass a Freshman football writer’s course. The third sometimes writes better, but is incredibly blinded by hating Mark and Reggie.
Both Reggie and Mark, like all GM’s and owners, have plenty of defects to point out. But, in the big picture, how in the hell could you fault them? They are on the brink of being a very good team and maybe better than that. Already, they have taken the Raiders off the laughter list. Reggie has some busted draft picks for sure, but signing the good ones to post-rookie contracts is showing to be nearly impossible, so he must have done something right. And, forget about “luck” on Carr, Mack, or Jackson. Every one of his picks was passed on by the guy before him, and nobody traded up to get them. Some of his potentially great picks were injured. The comment about people being injury prone is asinine. This is an incredibly violent sport. It’s not the player’s fault, it’s not the trainer’s fault, and it’s not the “drafter’s” fault when someone is lost to injury.
And, he has whiffed on some FA signings. But, what about his center and left guard (who is also a pretty damned good left tackle), and the right tackle (assuming that is where Penn winds up, and his drafter, rookie left tackle, who may or may not play well – on what might become the best offensive lines in decades?
The results are there. Picking at individual components of the results – sure it’s possible. If all you want to do is hear yourself talk, or write nearly worthless articles. One after the other, after the other. You have to read 5 or 10 of them to get one worth reading. These writers are unemployed for a reason. I had hoped otherwise, because I love an entrepreneur and I love an underdog, and I love it when people put their balls on the line. So, I hate it to say that they simply aren’t very good, and that’s trying to be polite. They are big at evaluating and holding to high standards other people as a part of their trade. Even though I wish them success on a personal level, the fact is clear: They don’t measure up themselves.
Everything is well stated.
But
Nothing about drafting, signings, moving, stadiums, fan attendance or coaches.
Who many winning seasons have we had under Mark and RM?
Yes I understand it is a small sample size, but they are the ones in charge.
The answer……..1
If for nothing else, you are judged on wins and losses.
Hopefully SB wins and losses, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.
Sorry,
*How many winning seasons. And I always proof read too. Missed that one.
No need to apologize for the typo. They are hard to avoid even for meticulous writers.
Team performance and potential is incredibly better than before Reggie and Mark. Not even close. They are not a laughingstock any more. They were a two playoff win caliber team in 2016, and might be better than that in 2018. With salary caps, bad contracts, free agency … it is extremely difficult to substantially change the face of, the value of, and the success of, an NFL team. But, despite holes and warts all over their performance, Reggie and Mark unarguably have done exactly that. On top of that, they drafted more overall quality than they can get signed. Big picture trumps continual barking about many little blemishes. Bark away if you want to listen to yourself bark.
Continuing with nonsensical barking: how do you answer the question: How to sign Mack? Another ridiculous criticism of Reggie. i.e. “pay the man”. Idiotic statement. Sure, he’s worth it … to a team who is willing to put a third of their salary cap into two players, one of which is not a Quarterback. There is a reason that has never been done in the history of the game. Yet some barkers want to question that. It will be heartbreaking if he isn’t signed. Maybe they can figure out a way to do it without diminishing the overall TEAM situation. But, if he isn’t, you can’t argue with the fact that the team *might* be better without two guys, one a non-quarterback, soaking up a third of the salary cap. Besides that, they have a pathway to securing his services for far less for several years.
I’m not saying it can’t be done by someone smarter than I … but how do you make a TEAM better by giving two guys a third of the salary cap? Maybe Corkran can explain how to do it. He has been on the record for years and years that “salary caps weren’t problems … there are always ways to get around it”. And, he’s been dead wrong many times for many teams, including right now in Oakland.
Awesome article Cork!
I can see that being RM’s POV in 2012. At the time, RM’s mission was to clean up the salary cap mess and modernize the football operations. Gru doesn’t come across as the most “collaborative” or “patient” person in the world. So, I can’t imagine RM being successful at those two things if Gru was around back then.
But times have changed. RM cut the dead weight, cleared the cap, and had an awesome 2014 draft. But, there were also some misses. Gru + RM have the potential to take it to the next level — provided they both check their egos at the door (and by both, I mean RM because Gru seem incapable of that).
I’m so over hearing that lame argument; there’s a reason teams don’t have two $20 million dollar players. The fact it that salaries are just now escalating to make this a possibility. While I agree that the model has been to build your team while your QB is still on his rookie deal. There’s no doubt that we are going to see this becoming more prevalent, given recent drafts. It just so happens that the raiders are the first team to have to face this reality. If you look around the league the Jags are looking at this issue with Bortles and Fowler perhaps Ngokwhy (spelling). The Texans will be facing it with Clowny and Watson. One could also see it in our own division depending on how long Rivers continues to play with Bosa and Ingram. If the success rate given the number of picks is even 50% successful; the Browns are gonna have some tough choices to make, however; they will probably have more than one player making over $20 million. Carr is my Qb no doubt but you can not with all seriousness, say he’s outperformed his contract more than Mack. Rather Carr is the beneficiary of escalating value on QB contracts, and his potential to become an elite player. We are all hoping he gets there. Which brings us back to Mack. You can’t talk about Reggie’s misses without acknowledging his tremendous successes. Mack’s resume speaks for itself, couple that with the lack of support he’s had on the defensive side of the ball, only amplifies his talent. This is actually the first time in his career it looks like he may have help. The fact of the matter is if you franchise tag him the next two years you; are paying him upwards of $20 million dollars anyway. So why not extend your best player, and a generational talent in his words “BY ANY MEANS” !!! My humble 0.02 anyways.
Don’t completely disagree. But, it’s not fair to say it’s a “lame argument”. I hope they can do it. I’m just saying it’s not a trivial task. It’s probably true that it will be done in the future. Whether it’s smart from an overall team perspective is another question entirely. Doing it and hurting the team is what really can turn out to be lame. Teams have been “doing the impossible” with salary caps for a long time. I don’t think it has been a particularly successful path to the Super Bowl … or to being one of 4 in the Conference Championships, which I figure is a lot more realistic definition of a damned good year. Super Bowl wins take luck, talent, timing, absence of injuries, etc.
My point is that It’s not so simple as “why doesn’t the idiot just pay the man?”.
Salary caps are cruel, unforgiving sumbitches. And, the salary cap is the LEAST problematical issue. Guaranteed money is where the rubber meets the road. I won’t be rude enough to call it a lame argument to suggest that paying over $20 million via franchise tags is the end of the story. But, I will point out that $20 million per year with a franchise tag with $20 million guaranteed is not the same as $20 million per year with a $80 million (or whatever the cost will be for someone) guarantee, which has to be escrowed.
Von Miller appears to have the biggest guaranteed salary of a defensive player, but I might be corrected in that. In any event, there is more to “pay the man” than the “$20 million per year” issue. Miller got a contract with between $60 and $70 million guaranteed. That’s a couple years old, so I guess it’s expected that Donald and Mack are expecting more than that. Maybe they want $100 million guaranteed.
Carr got $40 million fully guaranteed, but I’ve also read the figure $70 million guaranteed. Matt Ryan $100 million guaranteed. I will freely admit that there is more than one definition of “guaranteed” and I’m to up to being an expert in the distinctions.
There have been whispers that Davis doesn’t have cash to put into escrow all the GUARANTEED money it takes to keep his draft success stories on the team … on top of salary cap problems. That is a problem that Mark has moved towards solving via the move to Vegas, where the team became worth more money. Staying in Oakland would have spelled financial disaster in the coming guaranteed money wars. I guess he could sell out to a multi-billionaire, but, I’m rooting him on as the David against the Goliaths.
Apology for not proof reading carefully enough. I meant to say that I am NOT an expert in distinctions between different definitions of “guaranteed’.