According to Raiders owner Mark Davis, the Raiders reached out to Khalil Mack shortly after signing Derek Carr and offered him a contract that would have made him the highest-paid defensive player in the NFL. But Mack didn’t want to do a deal at the time, with the understanding that he likely make more money by doing the deal a year later.
“Jon [Gruden] wanted him,” Davis told ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez. Everybody thinks that Jon’s the one who wanted to get rid of him. Jon wanted him badly. Why wouldn’t you want this guy? Reggie wanted him badly. And I wanted him badly, too. But, if in fact we were going to give the type of money that we were going to give to him, and we had Derek on that type of a [contract], how were we going to go ahead and build this football team, with all the holes that we had?”
“My thought was, ‘Listen, he signed a five-year contract, if he’s the type of guy that I think he is, he’s going to honor that contract,” Davis said. “And he’s going to come in and play for the $13 million for this year and then we’ll work for him during the year and get it. Word came back through certain players that know him and talk to him and know me as well, that he wasn’t going to come in. He was going to do the Le’Veon Bell (holdout). At that point, I said, ‘F it. The guy hasn’t talked to anybody. We’ve got to do something.'”
In hindsight, the Raiders probably should have kicked back and let Mack watch games from his couch for a year. His presence in Chicago has been no less a distraction than what would have occurred if he held out for a year with the Raiders.
If the Raiders held firm on their position with Mack, they would have likely received similar compensation for Mack after the season and been able to make a trade knowing what their draft picks would look like. As of now, the 2019 first-round pick the Raiders received from the Bears isn’t looking like a gem and it stings even more watching Mack dominate in another uniform.
Meanwhile in Oakland, veteran players are falling off the wagon every week and looking ahead, it’s hard to imagine anyone will want to sign with the Raiders for anything less than a premium. Who would want to sign up for this circus right now?
twitter: @raidersbeat
Yep! Said this from the second I heard he was being traded…. WHY NOW?! Let him sit out, which makes HIM look a greedy a-hole, then open up the trading frenzy in March when GM’s do crazy deals. The worst possible way to play it was trading him when they did. They can’t even get tanking right?!
Let’s not forget the moron McKenzie and all of his garbage draft picks since 2015. He’s been an absolute disaster! No wonder we have so many holes to fill and almost no game-changing talent on the roster.
I don’t care how awesome Mack is, you CANNOT give that kinda dough to a LB, however Chicago is currently paying their QB peanuts, so it’s possible. That being said, I STILL wouldn’t pay that much to a LB. nope. I personally love Mack, on and off field. But no.
Yep me neither, 26-36 was record with ACDC and Mack. Without Carr and Mack Raiders got trounced in playoffs. That said….if Raiders would have hit on just 2-3 draft picks they could had signed him but having to give 4-6$million to 3 vets that money could go to mack. We cant keep selling out for potential. The first round should be a guy that you know will be a starter. I had Leighton Vander esch as top ILB and Darius Leonard #2 and got killed on social media…
F*ck Mack!
The only number that matters is guaranteed money. Mack wanted and got $90M…Carr is getting $40M.
How is Mack worth 2.5 times more to a football franchise than Carr? Answer: He is not and never will be…no LB/DE can change a game more than a QB. A prime example is how Aaron Rodgers beat the Bears at the beginning of the season when the Bears had a 100% healthy Mack.
Mack disappeared in games while a Raider and had done the same for four games in Chicago thus far (2 he played and 2 he did not).
They did Mack a favor and players in the league need to pull their head out. They should hope and pray they get dealt the same way Oakland dealt Mack instead of the way Pittsburgh is dealing with Bell.
The Raiders have huge holes and Carr bailed them out countless times two years ago. Also, the locker room is full of quitters that are 1099 employees. Their lack of effort is glaring in games to the point Carr was not going to take another hit to throw up a ball in the end zone for lazy players to not make a play.
All these ‘professional’ athletes want to be treated with respect and like professionals but act like babies and show zero heart.
Clear out the locker room and rebuild with team first players.
Mack never tried this hard and this consistently in Oakland. I’m glad he is gone. He was a cancer and no one wants to say so.