“Y’all are trying to get rid of all my players. I’ve got free agents. Y’all want to restructure everyone’s contract. You’re running everybody out of town.”
Those were the words of Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie last week at the combine.
The comments, of course, were directed at media who had been reporting the Raiders were wanting a handful of players to take paycuts.
As it turns out, McKenzie may have to direct those words to members of his own payroll.
According to Raiders play-by-play voice Greg Papa, the team does want Crabtree to take less money.
“Michael Crabtree is going to have to take a paycut here,” Papa said Wednesday on his 95.7 The Game program. “If he does not, then they may just move on from him.”
A previous report from The Athletic indicated that the Raiders plan to keep Crabtree (while acknowledging that a paycut could be coming), but it seems Crabtree’s future in Oakland is at the very least still uncertain.
For what it’s worth (nothing really), Papa is a big fan of Seahawks soon-to-be-free-agent wide receiver Paul Richardson.
Maybe the two-headed roster-building monster of McKenzie and Jon Gruden will be of similar mind?
twitter: @raidersbeat
I think it’s time for Greg Papa to retire. He is spreading fake news.
Amen brother!
This is the most patently absurd situation I’ve encountered in the NFL for, well, at LEAST a week! Seriously though, where are the Raiders going to find a free agent receiver of Crabtree’s pedestrian free and with his undeniable skill set who has led the team in receiving yardage and touchdowns for the past 3 years pulling in clutch receptions and game winner after game winner for $7 million per? If the Raiders think they can simply “move on” from Crabtree and replace him for that kind of money (based on this year’s crop of free agent wideouts, they can’t), they’re in for a rude awakening come March 12th when the “legal tampering” (Love that oxymoron!) period begins. Michael Crabtree has been the spark plug of this offense ever since he first arrived in town yet continues to get no respect from fickle members of that small but obnoxiously vocal faction of Raiders Derek Nation (the original and only true sports “nation” in the world of sports!) and the media who seem peculiarly eager to crucify the guy based on his comparatively (and erroneously) low numbers from last season; one in which the colossal buffoons Del Rio and Downing (a collective embarrassment to both the Raiders brand and the sport at large) inexplicably benched Crabs down the stretch, barely allowing him to even see the field over the final 3 games! (Effectively killing any hop3 my fantasy team had of making the playoffs in a crazy competitive annual league in which Crabtree was instrumental in my winning the trophy in 2016!).
If Oakland drops Crabtree because he refuses to take a completely unwarranted pay cut (in the last remaining major sports league that refuses to fully guarantee it’s player contracts!), I’m flying down there and punching either McKenzie’s or Gruden’s faces in!** (Whichever of the two I find first that is as I’ll almost certainly be arrested before I can get to the other guy!)
I’ve been an unwaveringly loyal fan of this once proud franchise for 40 years and I will likely continue to faithfully support the team notwithstanding the ultimate outcome of the Crabtree affair. But I have to say, these shortsighted, delusional bean counters are really beginning to try my patience!
Post script:
You needn’t notify the local authorities as I’m not actually planning on wasting a dime of my hard earned money on a flight to Oakland in the wake of such a colossally stupid decision!
Well said my brother! I’ve been preaching to the same choir. It makes no sense. Why would ANYONE with a brain want Lynch, Crabtree and Irvin gone?
After the whole chain thing, I thing we should move on from Crabtree. Leave your gold chains at home, stop dropping balls, and you get paid WAYYY too much to start fights on the field. I blame the NFL even more, Goodell is a clown and the NFL can’t do anything right, and they should have fined Talib and suspended him for COMMITTING ASSAULT ON CRABTREE DURING A GAME. I wish we could get rid of Cooper and get a new QB, until we do it doesn’t matter who we have at WR.
You sir are a moron
So BBB, Which is it, can’t have it both ways? First you cut Michael Crabtree for wearing jewelry dropping balls and getting paid to much. Next you turn around and cry about Goodell not charging Talib with assualt! Let me make sure I understand your argument! Talib commits assualt on Crabtree and in you’re world Crab should bow down and be a good little boy? And then of course your real expertise begins to show and you say, Cut Cooper and Carr! Can’t make this stuff up, Amazing! SMH
What! Crack kills
Do you think Coach Gruden and Reggie would be interested in Sherman. Surely Reggie will talk to his best bud, John Schneider, and get the prognosis for Sherman’s recovery…………..
Get rid of Carr!?! That’s absurd!!! Cooper I am still on the fence with.
seriously?…lol must be trolling bronco fan
Sherman has great abilities and experience awaiting any team that believes in him and brings him on
Carr and Crabtree have that chemistry together. He’s an inexpensive wr. Not gonna replace his production for less. If they don’t want him trade him to Chicago. They would love to get him for 7 mil a yr.