I was asked twice before 2 p.m. Saturday if this was the worst day in Oakland Raiders’ history. Yes, it’s been that kind of day. Look, I’m not so sure the day ranks up there with the Super Bowl loss to Tampa Bay and Jon Gruden (more about him in a moment) or the day
Pressure is on Jon Gruden amid wild day
Derek “Carr” not Derek Cook
Also to clarify the return, based on the draft pick points system, the net is Traded Mack and a 2020 3rd for 2 !st (2019,2020) and the Bears just broke the bank so the Bears net investment is huge, beyond huge.
Fixed. Thanks.
I can’t see McKenzie sticking around much longer after this. There’s no way he’d want his name associated with any of these moves. He needs to resign so that the Raiders can hire a cheaper figurehead GM to negotiate contracts and that Gruden can use as a scapegoat when trying to deflect questions and criticism.
What the h3ll is our personnel strategy? Subtract talent, make bad trades, add ancient talent.
– Gone by choice: Mack, Crabtree, Patterson, Janikowski, King, Walford (and Greg Papa)
– Failed trades: Bryant, Ward/Switzer
– Talented, but ancient: Nelson, Johnson, Martin
Who knows what’s true or not. But if Mack never even made an attempt to build any kind of relationship with the new staff, I can see why that would really piss off Gruden. That doesn’t make Gruden right, but if it were say, Goldman Sachs, and the firm hires a new managing director and the star trader who made the firm shitloads of money wouldn’t shake the new managing director’s hand or even make an attempt to build a relationship, Goldman would fire the trader no matter how much money he made for the firm.
It’s easy to bang on Chucky for his ego, but obviously Mack has a huge ego as well. Mack showed his loyalty is not to the Raiders, but rather to a paycheck. And that’s ok, who am I to diss a guy for wanting to get paid what he thinks he’s worth. Good for him.
And while I love Mack and respect his amazing skills as a player, teams have to decide what they think is best for today and tomorrow. And tying up that kind of money on one player who’s not a QB is tough. The Rams and Bears have cheap starting QBs who will stay cheap for 2-3 years. So they can afford it.
By signing Carr to that huge deal, which I’m glad they did, the Raiders tied their own hands. And Cooper has to be dealt with next year. So, I hate today and I feel like shit. But I’m not going to put all the blame on Gruden for how the Mack thing unraveled. I DO put all the blame on Gruden for the debacle in this year’s first round. And if that’s a harbinger of what’s in store on future draft days, then I guess the Raiders will continue to suck ass. Brutal.
The only cure is winning.
Immediately.
Fault on both sides as far as I am concerned.
I hope RM does leave today. He has had one strong draft. Plenty of busts and foolish picks.
Gruden needs a GM he can work with and trust. RM aint it.
The worst part of today for me is not Mack. The worst is that they cut Cowser!!??!!??
Wtf!!??!!??
Blame everyone –
For McKenzie for not extending Mack before Carr
For Gruden for shipping off Mack
For Mark Davis for not over ruling Gruden
For Mack not coming to any off season workouts and getting to know staff
Heard over and over: Reggie can’t draft. Especially second rounders (I agree with that statement).
Now comes: Gruden get rid of all said poor second round picks.
And, what????????????????????? That makes Gruden stupid and ruins the day?
Gimme a break.
A wild day it was, from WTF early this morning to trying to make sense of it all tonight. I’m still of the opinion that Mack should have at least made an effort to meet, in person, with Gruden and staff primarily to talk ball. At least once to get a flavor of the type of ball the Raiders would be playing.
From Paul Gutierrez at ESPN: Reggie McKenzie said he had hoped to get Khalil Mack back in the building to “work through it and see what would happen” and knew the franchise tag was available a year down the road. “It just wasn’t meshing with the two proposals,” McKenzie said. “The bottom line was, he couldn’t come in and by him not coming in it showed us we had to see what would happen if this continues…My whole thought process was to get Khalil in here…it was in the final hour it kind of just hit, and it hit hard and heavy. It was not the plan to trade him, at all.” On the decision to trade Khalil Mack: “We wanted, all of us, Gruden, myself, everybody in the organization wanted Khalil to be a Raider. That’s not an issue at all. We presented him with an offer and we got that counter back and talked about it with him…and it just, what they were demanding, it just wasn’t going to work at that time…it didn’t work out in the end…we weren’t close. We presented prior to the start of the league year…Khalil got a great deal.”
In the end, it’s unfortunate things could not be worked out. With so many positions in need of strengthening, it comes down to whether you commit a large amount of money to one player over the course of a contract and neglect other parts of the team. How this will pan in out in the end, none of us will know. The game is all about execution and imposing their will on the competition. We’ll see soon enough.
Gruden singlehandedly destroyed the Raiders today and made it virtually impossible for them
to be any good this season…and likely for the next few years as well. Anybody who thinks an extra first rounder next year will make any difference has been drinking too much black and silver whiskey. This team is basement bound for a looong time.
My prediction: the team is going to come out flat on Monday night and get embarrassed by the Rams (a team that has paid several players top dollar). Not a good way to get ready for the season. The team lacks depth and seems to not have an idea about whether it is a contender or rebuilding.
The “real” reason why mack was traded..
https://www.sacbee.com/sports/nfl/oakland-raiders/article217711610.html