Five Players Jon Gruden Needs To Not Trade Before The Deadline

The Raiders are reportedly willing to shop just about every player on the roster before the trade deadline (October 30), but there are a couple names that Jon Gruden should think twice about before making his next personnel blunder.

After looking long and hard, these are the five players that Gruden should think twice about before dumping their contracts on a modest return.

5 – Gabe Jackson was a player that made some sense to cut this summer (assuming his money would have gone to Khalil Mack) even though the decision would have carried some dead money. He hasn’t been bad this year, but Jackson has the third highest cap number on the team ($10.5M) and his value has been nowhere near that figure since his breakout year in 2016.

With that in mind, Jackson only counts $7 million against next year’s cap and the Raiders have a massive amount of cap room in 2019. No need to get cute and dump a 27 year-old guard with as much potential as Jackson for what would presumably be a late-round pick at best.

4 – Kelechi Osemele probably isn’t worth his $10.5M cap number, but after watching the offensive line without him, you could make the case that he is. Osemele is just 29 and has good years in front of him still. His $10.2M cap number in 2019 isn’t attractive, but look at how miserable life has been with Jon Feliciano. Just keep paying Osemele and let’s not find out what’s behind door no. 2.

3 – Not only should Gareon Conley not be on the trade block, he should be one of the untouchable players on the roster. Conley is far too talented to dump after just a handful of games.

Gruden is supposed to be one of the great communicators in the game. Why can’t he sit down and solve whatever the issue is with Conley?

2 – Gruden is going to tear the roster to the ground and it’s going to probably be a couple years before the Raiders are competitive again. Does he want to pay Carr $20 million per year while the roster is in shambles?

There’s a decent chance he won’t.

Derek Carr could fetch a couple first-round picks, but do the Raiders really want to spend another decade hunting for a quarterback? If Gruden can’t succeed with Carr (who finished third in the MVP vote in 2016), what confidence should we have that Gruden can win with anyone else?

1 – Rodney Hudson still isn’t 30 and he might be the best center in the game. Whether the Raiders quarterback is Carr or someone else next year, it’s important that the offensive line have a guy like Hudson in the middle.

Now watch Gruden go trade all five…

twitter: @raidersbeat

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13 thoughts on “Five Players Jon Gruden Needs To Not Trade Before The Deadline

  1. I totally disagree about the offensive line…have you watched them over the last several years? They are massively overrated. Jim Brown couldn’t run behind that line and Marshawn has had his struggles due to being before he can get to the line of scrimmage.

  2. Stop, just stop. Reggie got the Raiders **** together and put together a decent roster. You can find another Amari. Faster, better hands definitely. We need a homer in hitter at RB for sure. I like this list though.

  3. John Gruden was Mark Davis’ dream coach. At this point he’s Raider Nations nightmare who’s dismantled a team that only need tweaking. I was amazed Reggie McKenzie didn’t walk after they traded Mack. I’ll be stunned if he’s on board after the season. After all the grumbling about Reggie and his draft picks no one remembers his true brilliance for the Raiders was making the team solvent again. Millions in Al Davis horrid contract and dead money were eliminated and new contracts were structured that didn’t destroy the teams future for any one player.
    John Gruden will soon turn on his own coaching staff, heads will roll. When we’ve traded the five above and are back to being the foundation (bottom) of the AFC West maybe then Mark Davis will realize his mistake and wake up from the dream and see the light…..Gruden never was all that, and isn’t now either.

    1. No one takes a team with 28th ranked defense not much better offense and flips it to a playoff team
      Players play coaches don’t wake up
      Carr’s tossed three games away with terrible decisions
      Mack was on our 28th ranked defense
      Let’s see if the QB is Derek or David Carr

  4. ITS CLEAR WE ARE DEEP IN THE TOILET AT #32 IN RANKINGS. WITH A TEAM THAT MADE THE PLAYOFFS JUST 2 YEARS AGO. THIS IS CLEARLY ON GRUDEN WHO HAS CUT, TRADED OR JUST NOT PLAYED PLAYERS THAT GOT US BACK TO RELEVENT. THE TRUTH IS (AND YOU WONT HEAR THIS FROM THEM) MARK (MOE) IS LOOKING TO VEGAS TO START. FOR ME AND MY HARD EARNED MONEY IM OUT! UNTIL THERE IS SOME IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANAGEMENT OF THIS MESS. NO TICKETS, NO TRIPS, NO VEGAS FOR ME AND MINE.

  5. You Stop it Vince. It’s not that Amari cant catch. He has lapses I and drops balls. But overall he is a talent. And no you dont just find guys that are 6’1-215 to 220 w/ 4.43 speed and his route running ability. He like all of our players need continuity and stop all this fucking changing. This is the first year in the system for everyone. The impatience of some Raider fans are ridiculous. We didnt have a SB team before Gruden got here. Stop with the bullshit thinking we did. We had a team that would beat some teams and loose to others. I want to keep all our young talented players. Carr, Cooper, Jackson, Joseph, and Conley. Joseph is the only one I would be willing to part with. We need to develop a system to the strengths of those players and stop trying to make them fit in a system. That is Gruden’s job. Belichick does that with his players. When he has more LB’s he runs a 3-4 and when he has more D-linemen he runs a 4-3. That is what a coach do. Put his players in position to win and excel.

  6. I think so Raider fans had a unrealistic outlook for the season from jump. The Raiders weren’t going to make much noise this season even if they didn’t trade Mack. 2 winning seasons in 15 years is more Brownish, than Raider. Gruden will right the ship quit listening to all these hater’s who are just Mad they ain’t John Gruden. When he proves them all wrong and has this team built ” right way” a whole lotta folk gone be eating Crow. Now run and tell that

  7. Gruden is as knowledgeable as anyone in football. Everyone is upset about the Mack trade but I think one fact is eluding Raider Nation…. Mack is a great player but he wasn’t a team player holding out all off season and through pre-season. He even threatened to hold out like Pittsburgh’s Bell. Mack didn’t want to play for Gruden and that is fact. So trading him was the right call because it takes all 11 to win, not just 1. Proof of this is Chicago isn’t undefeated and they have Mack playing some of his best football. Trading away Jackson, Cooper, Conley, Osemele, or Hudson might seem like the wrong move I would definitely agree with that from an outside perspective but I also can’t say what is going on inside the team.
    Gruden is getting heat for doing the same thing any supervisor at any other company would have done if it were their employee not showing up for work.
    Our record isn’t all coaching ( some of it is). Carr has 8 interceptions this year and Gruden has not thrown a single pass. we are in the bottom % of the league in getting sacks and taking the ball away (as we were last year). Have have a lot of missed tackles as well. None of these problems can be handed directly to Gruden so lets give him a break.

  8. The team needed to be torn down. Reggie has had years to bring talent here and flat hasn’t. I am very confident in Jon and HIS personnel department that will take over in two months. The new era will begin in two years in the greatest stadium in the NFL in the greatest city in the country. The future is awesome!!!

  9. Gruden is far from the major problem. I see 5 things that far out weigh the Gruden issue:
    1. The first major mistake we made was firing Amy Trask! If she was still on board, we would have a shiny new stadium in Oakland. The loss of business sense has hurt us terribly.
    2. Regardless of blame, the loss of Mack has deflated the energy and enthusiasm of our team, which is stocked with exceptionally talented personnel, and as a result
    3. Derek is hearing footsteps, having back to back season ending injuries can do that to a guy. The offensive line has been horrible, I love everyone of them, but they need to get their sh*t together. A quarterback will never succeed with if he can’t trust his O-line to protect him.
    4. Paul Guenther may be a “defensive guru” but he calling the same defense that we’ve had for the last 16 year “SOFT”
    5. And Most Importantly, the team philosophy. Now it’s we will take what they give us. When we were strong it was”WE’ll TAKE WHAT WE WANT”
    I hope we can right the ship, but I see stormy seas ahead. Win, Lose or Tie, Raider tilI I Die

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