Reggie McKenzie’s Role With Raiders Is About To Become More Complicated

The Raiders may be keeping Reggie McKenzie but his role as general manager will soon be in name only.

ESPN’s Jim Trotter reported on Friday that McKenzie’s role won’t be reduced and the Raiders GM even declined an interview request for the open GM position in Green Bay.

My understanding is that GM Reggie McKenzie’s role won’t be diminished with the arrival of Gruden. Proof: McKenzie declined a Green Bay request to interview for Packers GM job. #Raiders

— Jim Trotter (@JimTrotter_NFL) January 5, 2018

But here’s the problem.

McKenzie’s role has been slowly shrinking since Mark Davis took the lead in hiring Jack Del Rio… and then extended his contract… and then fired him… and then hired Jon Gruden.

And these aren’t the only areas Davis has become more involved.

McKenzie has gone from general manager (a darn good one at that) to essentially a special council to the owner – with jointly-held veto power on personnel decisions.

Davis trusts McKenzie and that’s one of the reasons Reggie will survive Gruden’s arrival, but with Gruden now counting $100 million against the Raiders payroll, there’s absolutely no way the head coach doesn’t have as much control over the roster as McKenzie.

It may work for a while, but McKenzie is about to be stuffed between the league’s highest-paid coach (by far) and an owner that’s becoming increasingly comfortable meddling in the team’s football affairs.

McKenzie is known to be one of the least difficult personnel men to work with so maybe he hangs in for a while, but his days as BMOC* have officially come to an end.

A room full of coordinators didn’t help the Raiders on defense this season and the three-headed general manager will also end with an odd man – probably sooner than later.

Credit to Reggie for wanting to see this thing through, but when the squeeze is coming from above and below, how long can he be expected to hang around?

twitter: @raidersbeat

*Big Man On Campus