The Micah Parsons trade brought back bad memories for Raider fans, and the blockbuster deal led Jon Gruden down memory lane last week, as well.
Gruden was the head coach in Oakland when the Raiders traded Mack and based on Gruden’s comments after Parsons’ trade, the former head coach hasn’t changed his position on the Mack resolution in the last seven years.
“I went through this,” Gruden said of the Parsons situation on The Ronde Barber Show.”
“When I went back to coach the Raiders, Khalil Mack was on the team, and he would not return one of my calls. I kind of laugh about it now, but he never wanted to play for us unless we gave him $100 million or whatever it was the agent wanted, which was the highest contract in the history of defense. We didn’t have that kind of money at that time and we waited it out and waited it out and waited it out.”
Additionally, Gruden said he didn’t like the way Parsons handled his “hold in” on the sideline during the Cowboys’ third preseason game.
“I just watched Parsons in that preseason game against the Falcons. I didn’t like that at all,” Gruden said. “I mean, not even wearing his uniform, laying on the bench, that is a toxic look.”
Compared to the Mack trade, the Cowboys were able to get significantly more for Parsons as they added two first-round picks from the Packers, as well as Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark.
The Raiders were somehow duped into sending a second-round pick to Chicago along with Mack.
It has been said that Gruden has privately acknowledged that he regretted the Mack trade, and that rumor was possibly proven to be true by a report that Gruden reached out to the Bears in 2021 in an effort to bring Mack back to the Raiders by means of a trade.
For what it’s worth, these were the players that ultimately ended up in Oakland/LV and Chicago on account of the draft picks swapped in the Mack trade:
Bears: TE Cole Kmet and G Arlington Hambright.
Raiders: RB Josh Jacobs, CB Damon Arnette, and WR Bryan Edwards.
x: @raidersbeat
Please forget this guy, he’s irrelevant. What you should be talking about is how Spytek compares to Al Davis and Howie Roseman. Al Davis and Howie Roseman have something in common, they both knew and know, past and present, how to build a winning team. Discussing what Gruden thinks, thought or does doesn’t make the Raiders roster better.
Without smart managerial decisions, the Raiders are just setting themselves back from becoming relevant again. To their credit, the Green Bay Packers, Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens have, through smart decision making, built themselves into contenders for the NFL’s most coveted prize. Conversely, Raiders management has turned this team into perennial bottom feeders.
For those of us fans, who have been with this team through thick and thin, I say to ALL Raiders reporters and sportswriters, HOLD RAIDERS MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTABLE for it’s consistently bad decision making.
Good thoughts but NO Raider reporter really reports anything, EVER! Talentless hacks. Whatever the current administration tells them to say they will. To keep hyping a 74 yr old retread and GM that was/is a roommate, teammate, and friend of the minority owner (who IMHO hasn’t done anything for the Raiders except bark with no bite) is kinda ludicrous. The best we can say is they’re better than the last guys doesn’t cut it for me and shouldn’t for any other Raider fan. Mark ran to Vegas and gambled and in one way won and for every other way has lost.
Gruden never stops lying. His claim that Mack did not return his one phone call is a pile of s**t. Gruden never made a single call or attempted any communication to Mack. The fact that Gruden made several public statements of Mack being one of the reasons he came back to coach Raiders and his publicly assuring fans that Mack would be signed and back with team were further evidence of his lies. He tried to lie portraying Mack trade was a collective decision when in fact Gruden was calling all the shots.
The truth is that Gruden intended to trade Mack from the moment he came back (maybe sooner) and is exactly why he never contacted Mack waiting until last second after Aaron Donald set the market for the trade.
Lets not forget all the lies Gruden told about the emails. Gruden is a deceitful, prejudice, pos who sees himself as the person his strange and unwarranted reputation made him out to be all those years. Gruden has done nothing that supports his being some football genius, a QB developing wizard, or anything other than a mediocre coach who only won a superbowl because Al Davis knew who Gruden really was and traded him to a team with a great defense built by a coach better than him – Dungy.