Just two years ago, the Raiders were an AFC wild-card team at 12-4 that likely would have won its division had quarterback Derek Carr not broken his fibula in Week 16. That season was the culmination of years of astute drafting and free-agent signings by general manager Reggie McKenzie, and for his efforts, his peers voted him Sporting News executive of the year.
McKenzie may not have gotten the Raiders to the Super Bowl, but it appeared they were headed in that direction.
The football gods giveth to McKenzie, and then they taketh away.
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A 6-10 season in 2017 led to coach Jack Del Rio being fired and Jon Gruden being pried from the "Monday Night Football" booth by Raiders owner Mark Davis, ostensibly to begin creating excitement for the franchise's 2020 move to Las Vegas. As enticement, Davis handed Gruden the power to run the team.
So Gruden — reportedly against McKenzie's wishes — orchestrated a handful of absurd trades that negatively changed the team's fortunes this season. The latest domino to fall came Monday, when McKenzie was fired 20 months after receiving the aforementioned award.
And Jon Gruden has the gall to expect people to believe he did not know the ax was about to fall: "I really didn't have a sense of it. This is all somewhat surprising."
Sure, Jon.
Then he called McKenzie his "good friend."
Really, Jon?
I can relate, Reggie.
Back in 1998, I received the same exec of the year honor after our 15-1 season in Minnesota. I too had a power-hungry coach in Dennis Green and a new team owner in Red McCombs who would not extend my contract. So I left for the president/COO job in Tennessee.
I landed in a great situation. We made it to the Super Bowl in my first year with the Titans, and we were a playoff team for three of the next four years. The Vikings steadily declined under Green's control until he was fired three years later.
Now I hope McKenzie lands in a similar positive manner.
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McKenzie was a GM who brought a moribund Raider franchise back from a period in which it had nine consecutive losing seasons before he was hired. He purged a roster filled with overpaid, underperforming veterans and built a playoff team. Then he got undercut by the opportunistic Gruden and the ungrateful Davis, who was bewitched by his new coach.
Raiders founder Al Davis, Mark’s father, had some down years at the end of his overall successful tenure. (Mark took over upon Al’s passing.) But he never would have allowed his franchise to be dismantled the way Gruden has done it in just 11 months on the job.
Commitment to excellence was Al Davis' slogan. How does that commitment look when the Raiders allow their coach/quasi GM to trade Khalil Mack, the 2016 NFL defensive player of the year who had three straight double-digit sack seasons, to the Bears for a bunch of unproven draft picks?
In a passing-driven league, a dominant pass-rusher is the second most important player on a team (after franchise QB). Yet Gruden didn't think Mack was worthy of a $22 million-plus-per-year contract. Apparently he hadn't heard the rumblings that the salary cap was going to increase by another $10 million or so next season.
McKenzie knows how hard it is to find such players. His mentor Ron Wolf taught him that in Green Bay, where Wolf made Hall of Famer Reggie White the then-highest paid defensive player in the early 1990s, helping fuel a Super Bowl run.
Al Davis was a team owner/GM who loved big-play receivers, going back to the likes of Cliff Branch, Fred Biletnikoff and Tim Brown. Which brings us to Amari Cooper, who was traded to Dallas in October.
Think Al Davis would have let Cooper get away for a late first-round pick, and at just 24 with so many great seasons ahead of him? And that first-round pick Oakland acquired is getting worse by the week.
Cooper is coming off a monster game in the Cowboys' critical win over the Eagles. "He's made a huge impact on our team since we’ve gotten him … we're lucky to have him," said coach Jason Garrett, whose job might have been saved by Cooper's impact in the six games he has played for Dallas, which has seized control of the NFC East.
As for Mack with the Bears, he has 10 sacks and six forced fumbles in the 11 games he has played. He is the main reason Chicago will soon claim the NFC North title and will be a feared playoff team.
With two bad trades, Gruden single-handedly changed the balance of power in three divisions.
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Meanwhile, the Raiders without Mack have 11 sacks, worst in the league by a long shot, and have given up a league-high 31 TD passes. Offensively without Cooper, Oakland is averaging 18.8 points per game, fourth worst in the league and down from 26 points per game two years ago.
Just when it appeared the Raiders were back to being a well run team, they're in the tank. Does Vegas really want a team that has been so poorly managed? And don’t let Sunday’s win over the sleep-walking Steelers fool you — the Raiders are sitting at 3-10, tied for the NFL’s worst record.
Nice work, Mark Davis and Jon Gruden.
And Reggie McKenzie, you're probably being spared a lot of angst by getting away from the Raiders now.
Jeff Diamond is a former president of the Titans and former vice president/general manager of the Vikings. He was selected NFL Executive of the Year in 1998. Diamond is currently a business and sports consultant who also does broadcast and online media work. He makes speaking appearances to corporate/civic groups and college classes on negotiation and sports business/sports management. He is the former chairman and CEO of The Ingram Group. Follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffdiamondNFL.
