Over the last 25 years, the Raiders have been no strangers to disfunction and the second Jon Gruden era from 2018 to 2021 was certainly no exception.
Gruden’s leaked emails and Henry Ruggs’ car accident that look the life of Tina Tinter were the most devastating headlines of the Gruden’s second stint with the Raiders, but the way he approached the draft over those four seasons was a fascinating story of its own.
It was no secret that Gruden had full control over the roster (including the draft) and a report from The Athletic’s Zak Keefer shed more light on how Gruden turned three first-round picks in 2019 into a relative disappointment.
According to Keefer, the Raiders utilized two different draft boards, and Gruden essentially did what he wanted in the first couple rounds of the draft before checking out and letting former GM Mike Mayock take over the mid and later rounds.
“The Raiders had a stash of premium picks ahead of the 2019 draft: three first-rounders and a fourth inside the top 40. It should have been the foundation of a rebuild. It wasn’t,” Keefer wrote on Thursday.
“The Raiders missed badly with their first selection, gambling on Clemson edge Clelin Ferrell fourth overall despite considerable pushback in the building,” Keefer continued. “The grades were all over the board on him, from the scouts to the coaches,” [former defensive coordinator Paul] Guenther said. The original plan had been to trade back and grab Ferrell later in the first round, but on the clock, the Raiders panicked. By August, the staff was starting to grow nervous. “We had this fourth-rounder out of Eastern Michigan outplaying the No. 4 pick in the draft every single day,” one source said. Indeed, that fourth-rounder, Crosby, remains the shrewdest pick the Raiders made in a decade.”
“Of those four picks inside the top 40, only running back Josh Jacobs — whom Mayock had to convince Gruden to come around on, according to some in the room — proved a hit. By the third day of the draft, the coach’s interest waned. “Gruden basically wasn’t even around for that part,” one source said. It’s when Mayock did some of his best work: Crosby in the fourth, tight end Foster Moreau 31 picks later, wideout Hunter Renfrow in the fifth.”
Another of Gruden’s disappointing first-round picks was Damon Arnette in 2020.
The Raiders desperately needed a cornerback out of the 2020 draft, and according to Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter in 2024, the Arnette pick was far more on Gruden than it was on Mayock.
“I know of, I’m going to guess close to 10 teams in which Damon Arnette was not even on their board,” Carpenter said Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast two years ago. “Mayock was not a big Arnette guy, but Gruden wanted him.”
Mayock hasn’t talked a lot (publicly at least) about who was responsible for the Raiders’ drafts while he was there, but he shared an interesting story on the Ross Tucker Football Podcast a while back about the biggest lesson he learned during his time as GM with the Raiders…
“There is more to that job than I ever knew and it 24-7 and it’s 365. Football is a tough business anyway, but what I think learned more than anything is even when I couldn’t wait to get out of that building and get to the Jersey shore for that two-week period in late-June, early July, before training camp, it was like I would be on the beach with my wife and my phone would ring and it was an agent, it was a player. It was ‘Hey we’ve got to work out Richie Incognito and you need to be there. You’ve got to fly back to Vegas to be there for that workout if you want to sign him...
You’ll love the story. I [flew] back to Vegas. [It was] Tom Cable, our O-line coach, and me and [Jon] Gruden, and Cable was going to put him through a workout. Incognito is in his 30’s, a former Pro Bowl lineman as you know, and Cable has this little square set up where it’s like a defensive backs drill where you’re back-pedaling and hopping. He’s checking flexibility and footwork. Richie does one circuit. Not even a minute. And Cable looks at me and Gruden and says’ I’ve seen enough. You guys good?’
Gruden and I go ‘Yeah, that looked pretty good’ and we signed him. I’m thinking in my head I just flew from the Jersey shore on the beach with my wife for a one-minute workout in Vegas to sign Richie Incognito. But that’s the life of a GM. It’s all day. It’s every day... and you either embrace it, which I did and I think everybody that job does, or it’s not for you. It gets exhausting and you’re more mentally tired... It’s so exhausting, but at the end of the day you love every second.”
x: @raidersbeat
Mayock would’ve been a top shelf GM as far as personnel goes if Gruden let him do his job.
As the saying goes, failure is an orphan. Even Jacobs wasn’t the type of RB you’d like to get from the first round, but Jonathan Abrams was only considered a “better” pick because he was taken in the late 20s. For his hitting abilities and ability to play the run…. In a league where big hits are 15 yard penalties, and he couldn’t take any better than he could cover.
If Mayock didn’t like Arnette, he sure did a good acting job, pretending that a 24 year old prospect with character questing had been subjected to more homework than any prospect, and waiving away his awful machine-timed 40 didn’t matter because Raiders scouts hand-timed at a faster speed lol.
Good to see Carpenter do some actual unflattering reporting on Raiders decision makers. It just takes 7 years for him to feel he can do it, though.
Just like Hondo to have breaking news 7 years late.
Cuz he’s lying
I love Gruden the coach. In fact the article even said he’s one of the best. But his personnel talent doesn’t exist. This is why Al said “no” to full control & why he traded him.
Once Gruden got control in Tampa from Rich McKay they went down the tube. McKay was the draft guru that built up those teams.
So yeah Gruden shouldn’t have had GM duties but there’s shots in the article about Gruden getting his “own guys”. That’s the same thing every GM & HC does, and it’s a big reason many fail…Mark screwed up my not keeping Mayock, he could have been like the Seattle GM
Spot on.
More or less agree, though I think it’s more about Gruden being an excellent offensive coach than Head Coach overall. He proved even after 10 years away, he could scheme up a top 10 offense without top 10 talent.
But game management, and the sport of executive thinking to be a great Head Coach seemed to be missing. The 2019 draft was a perfect example. Clelin Ferrell over superior prospects Hines-Allen and Burns because Guenther preferred bigger, 2-way ends than pure speed/bend guys. Assistant coach preference might matter on Day 3, but #4 overall? Insanity. But he wasn’t even consistent as Guenter was primarily a 2-High guy, and they used a 1st rounder on Abram who was not a viable deep safety. Turned out, he wasn’t a viable box safety or sub LBer either because he constantly took bad angles and missed tackles in the run game. Hell, as exciting as those big hits were on his film, being a big hitter is NOT a positive attribute these days as it leads to 15 yards and a first down for the offense. Much better to have a boring, but reliable tackler. Luckily, he didn’t deliver too many big hits that resulted in penalties for the Raiders because he whiffed so often or wasn’t in position.
Like Pete Carroll last year, it was a lot of incoherent strategy, trying to outsmart the league and failing. Though again, Gruden’s offense were still quite effective.
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Good take