A lot went on today in Indianapolis at the NFL combine. Actually to be more accurate, a lot was talked about at the NFL combine.
Some of what was talked about was surely fluff (Jon Gruden is the king of fluff), but it was at least nice to hear Gruden and Reggie McKenzie talking again.
Here are a few opinions and questions surrounding the topics of the day.
1 – Everyone wants to know what’s going to happen with Marshawn Lynch and both McKenzie and Gruden talked like ‘Beast Mode’ will be back in 2018.
Believe that when you see it.
The Raiders have no reason to make a decision on Lynch right now and if they stumble into a top running back in the draft, McKenzie can part ways with Marshawn at a relatively modest $1 million cost.
Until Lynch (among others) shows Gruden what he’s all about on the practice field, the Raiders can essentially be as patient as they want before going all-in on Lynch.
Also worth noting, it does sound like the Raiders don’t know exactly what Lynch wants to do next season.
2 – Neither Reggie McKenzie or Jon Gruden said Bruce Irvin will be back next year, but there was a headline from Profootballtalk.com suggesting someone did say that.
Not long after, Irvin took to social media to recruit free agent Muhammad Wilkerson – a maneuver he’s been known to do but hasn’t this year because he wasn’t sure if the Raiders were going to keep him around.
Did Irvin get word from the team or did he just see the headline like everyone else?
Reggie McKenzie says Bruce Irvin isn't going anywhere https://t.co/xoAQq5dvZQ
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) February 28, 2018
3 – McKenzie and Gruden are in an interesting place as the decision makers in the Raiders building.
As for who stays and who doesn’t, they don’t have to entirely agree on that right now.
Something about “in our plans” and “keep our good players” just doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement at this point.
McKenzie once said something to that effect about Jared Veldheer.
Hopefully, Crabtree, Lynch, and Irvin are all back next year and playing well, but there’s a lot of time between now and September.
Just a guess, but the order of likelihood for each coming back is probably: 1. Crabtree 2. Irvin 3. Lynch.
Why is Lynch the least likely?
He just seems to have the most opportunities to find the door.
The draft is rich at running back. No one really knows how Lynch would coexist with Gruden and I’m convinced there are still people in the Raiders building who want to move on from Lynch.
On top of all that, Lynch could very well wake up one morning and decide he wants to retire again.
As long as a player is still under contract with the Raiders, members of the organization (i.e. McKenzie, Gruden) are generally going to talk as though that player is part of the team’s plans.
4 – Vic Tafur reported today that the Raiders and Khalil Mack have begun working on a long-term deal.
No need to get worked up about if that deal is going to be signed before the season.
It’s going to happen.
twitter: @raidersbeat
Great read and I agree 100% Lynch is probably the most likely player that doesn’t comeback next season. I just can’t see him and Gruden getting along and the draft is deep. We could get Sony Michel in the 2nd, or John Kelly in the 3rd. Deep draft with RBS.
Yea…maybe Reggie was looking to the future anyway when he didn’t draft Mixon. It’s possible he was looking at the depth of this draft. I can see Lynch getting the invite to enjoy retirement.
He was gonna take Mixon, Bengals just struck earlier so we took obi I think that’s the story. I wanted Mixon too