The Raiders Weren’t Truthful About Mack’s Availability, Was There Any Truth To The Reports That They Could Afford Him?

There were a lot of strong reports in the days leading up to the Khalil Mack trade. The message coming out of the Raiders building (being fed to the media) was that the team was not going to trade their best player and rumors that the owner’s bank account couldn’t handle Mack’s signing bonus were bogus.

As it turned out, the ‘we’re not trading Khalil Mack’ stories were as real as the Easter bunny, so could the cash on hand have been a fictional story, too?

Could Mark Davis be so spread out financially that when the Raiders saw Aaron Donald’s deal they simply weren’t financially able to compete?

It at least makes you wonder.

If sticker shock was the issue for Mark Davis and Jon Gruden, it was their own fault because with the salary cap expected to rise to $190 million, Mack’s percentage of the cap with his new deal is consistent with what previous deals have looked like.

Assuming that the 2019 cap is $190M (the OverTheCap estimate), these are the percentages for edge rushers and Aaron Donald relative to cap signing at the time (Donald and Mack averages of new money kick in at 2019, so that's what's being used) pic.twitter.com/yHvyrYm4Pu

— Arif Hasan (@ArifHasanNFL) September 1, 2018

Giving the team the benefit of the doubt, let’s say the Raiders did have the money to afford Mack’s deal last week, it’s very possible they didn’t have it last year when Mack’s deal could have been done – long before Donald’s deal was even a thing. Remember, the Raiders spent a lot of money in 2017 and paid significant signing bonuses to Derek Carr and Gabe Jackson.

Whatever the case, it’s gong to be difficult to buy the stories coming out of the Raiders building in the days ahead. Team sources had poor Vic Tafur believing Mack was going to walk though the door in the next few days while they were giving permission to Mack’s agent to negotiate a deal with the Bears – one that was miraculously able to be completed (sarcasm font sadly still unavailable) from scratch in less than 24 hours, by the way.

twitter: @raidersbeat