According to an ESPN report on Monday morning, the Raiders new general manager will be former NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock. What the Raiders are getting in Mayock is exactly what Gruden everyone knew Gruden was looking for – a respected talent evaluator with no front office experience.
Gruden won’t be concerned about Mayock’s lack of executive experience because the head coach will still be calling the shots. Gruden now has a guy who knows what he is talking about in terms of personnel, but will have no trouble ceding the final decision-making authority to the one who hired him. For months there have been reports out of Oakland that while Gruden enjoyed working with former general manager Reggie McKenzie, he didn’t put a lot of stock in McKenzie’s personnel ideas. From free agency all the way through the draft, nothing about the Raiders offseason felt like McKenzie was calling the shots.
Given Mayock’s lack of experience, there will be another dynamic to keep an eye on, too. Of course Gruden will have final authority from underneath his general manager, but if the Raiders don’t soon start trending in the right direction, keep an eye on ownership potentially taking a more prominent personnel role. For what it’s worth, in McKenzie’s early years, Davis had a stronger voice in the personnel room than he’s generally given credit. McKenzie missed on his first head coach hire and was never given another opportunity to hire a head coach. It was owner Mark Davis who hired Jack Del Rio and Gruden.
Davis said he would take a back seat now that Gruden is in charge, but he offered the same sentiment when McKenzie was hired. McKenzie’s authority was slowly stripped away and it’s not hard to imagine a scenario where the Raiders power structure becomes muddled again. If the wins don’t come soon, Gruden won’t be able to keep his luster forever and Mayock probably won’t have the resume or experience to keep Davis from sneaking back into the mix. Furthermore, Davis has been involved enough over the past decade that he very well might feel qualified from a football standpoint to get more involved.
Is Mayock the right hire for the Raiders? It feels like the answer is “yes.”
The Raiders have an excellent salary cap team, and Mayock will provide them with a strong opinion when it comes to talent evaluation, which is exactly what they need.
— Michael Lombardi (@mlombardiNFL) December 31, 2018
Given the way Gruden is going to run things, a respected draft mind like Mayock’s is about the best-case scenario. After last year, it’s hard to get excited about any offseason news, but maybe Mayock’s hire will prove to be the right decision to get the Raiders personnel department back on the same page – or at least to a place where the building is all using the same draft board again.
twitter: @raidersbeat
This is one of those “thinking outside the box” moves that I LOVE! This guy knows talent and seems like a tireless worker, like Gruden. You know he’s going to nail the top end of the draft, but where I believe he’ll REALLY shine is the later rounds finding the diamonds in the rough. All Mike has to do is nail 1 or 2 drafts and he’s going to cement himself as a legit front office guy, so I’m sure he’s going to work extra hard to get it right from the get-go.
Lock Jon and Mike in the draft room and don’t let anyone else, especially Tom Cable, influence the picks. I think it’s going to be really, really good going forward!