Listen to head coach Jon Gruden and quarterback Derek Carr speak in the aftermath of a season gone up in flames, and they paint a picture of their supporting cast not stacking up. The key word they seem to have agreed upon is “pieces.” Carr said on the heels of a 4-12 season in which
Derek Carr, Jon Gruden not absolved of blame for Raiders forgettable season
Not absolved, they are both guilty as hell.
Like it or not, it starts and ends with Gruden. Blame is put right at his feet.
QBs get more praise for winning and more blame for losing. Its that way all around the league. Again, like it or not.
Totally agree, Cork. I don’t know if you saw it, but today someone tweeted during the first half of the Chiefs/Colts game at DC “I wish my QB would throw over 10 yards.” DC replied: “3rd and 8 screen . . . what [s]ay you now? [emojis] Again stick to your job. you will@lose this one” This tweet exchange epitomizes for me why DC is so frustrating. One, when he checks down on 3rd and 8, the team punts the next down (or he just throws the ball in the ground on a fourth down play when the team needs two scores and has less than 10 minutes left to score them). He does not have a Travis Kelce or Tyreek Hill to help him. Two, he has all of the physical tools, but just can’t play off script. He stubbornly sticks to his reads (again, I harken back to when he refused to give CWood a catch in the Pro Bowl a couple of years back because of the coverage–dude, the guy was retiring, let him have some fun it’s a f’n Pro Bowl game that means NOTHING!!) This whole “I need more pieces” thing is him trying to deflect from his shortcomings (IMO). Remember last year when he intimated in his pressers that “guys need to work harder.” He said it with a positive spin, but the implication was clear, he does not believe he is the problem.
As for Gruden, he keeps giving Carr a pass (at least to the outside world). Something tells me that he may not be as enamored with Carr as he was in his QB camp. Gruden weakened this team with his moves and will have to turnover a big part of the roster this off season as a result. A ton of turnover is not good if you want to build a perennial contender. Also, I can’t get out of my head that when Gruden took over personnel in Tampa, he made 61 picks in the draft–ONLY ONE of those picks made the Pro Bowl as a Buc, two others made it with other teams. That scares the dickens out of me and I am hopeful that Mayock can soften Gruden’s tendencies way from making poor personnel decisions.
Remember, there is a reason that free agents are free agents. There are not many who are game changers who become available.
All right, my apologies to everyone, I rambled but I feel passionately on this topic.
Plenty of blame to go around. It starts with both Carr and Gruden.
We’re so starved for wins at this point, we’ll forget all about this past season if we start out 2-0. The Raiders fan survival guide for the past 15+ years has been “short term memory” coupled with “hope for next year.”
Was there a point to this article? I believe this has all been discussed on this site previously. Didn’t need a refresher course. We all just watched this travesty of a season and were reminded of all the “pieces” during the playoffs: Mack, Cooper, Olawale, Autry, Hester, Melifonwu, Ward, CJ to name a few that were on playoff rosters. I’d rather read about things pertinent to the upcoming offseason because it makes me sick to think of what was sent packing for 35 year old has beens. Screw Cooper, though. I was happy to see Talib and Peters f’ing with him after the game.