Mark Davis doesn’t speak publicly very often, but now would be a great time because he has to be absolutely incensed by the state of the Raiders right now.
Since making a splash on Jon Gruden, the Raiders traded away one of the two faces of the organization (something Davis reportedly wasn’t very enthusiastic about) and the team has only won one game since. The Raiders are loaded with veterans and their general manager and head coach have one of the strangest working relationships of any HC/GM combination in the league.
There is another year and a half before their grand arrival in Las Vegas, but with the Raiders’ roster likely facing another purge, this could be as good as it gets for a while. Part of the justification for giving Gruden such a massive contract was the enthusiasm he would bring back to the organization, but right now there is practically none. Can you imagine if the Raiders pull into Vegas in 2020 playing the way they are now?
How much money does Davis stand to lose if the Raiders don’t turn things around in the next 14 months?
Assume what you will about loyal Vegas fans (they’ll be a fine fan base), but the masses aren’t paying a premium to fill up a stadium for a product like what the Raiders showcased on Sunday. Not in Vegas. Not in any city.
Davis loves Gruden, but wouldn’t you love to know how he feels about the way things are going? It’ll never happen because it’s of no benefit for Davis to go on a public rant, but he has to be seething. Remember, he once fired his public relations head over a Sports Illustrated article he didn’t enjoy reading.
Imagine how upset he’ll be if he has to read about the Raiders losing every week… while at the same time trying to charge a premium for personal seat licenses.
twitter: @raidersbeat
Starting to get tired of the excuses from gruden. Need results!
With the amount of talent they have on offense they should be looking A LOT better than they have this year. They don’t have an overwhelming amount of talent, but they should be ranked in the top 15 at the very least.
This is the very first time in Carr’s career that I’ve started to doubt his abilities a little bit. It’s hard to judge a guy when he’s been in a brand new offense every single year of his career, with new coaches, new philosophies, etc.
The question becomes: Do you let the losses pile up and keep the exact same personnel to build cohesion or do you make yet ANOTHER assistant coaching change to (hopefully) change things around quickly?
The problems on offense can be summed up in two words-Derek Carr.
The problems on defense can be summed up in two words-Khalil Mack.
The problems of the organization can be summed up in two words-Jon Gruden.
Jack all we need from you is Crickets, you had your chance and blew it.
If a change is made offensively, remove Greg Olsen from the equation. Gruden takes over as OC since he’s calling the plays. Also, Gruden talked about no huddle, up-tempo. DC can play that kind of game fairly well. Also, let him play from a spread formation more. Defensively, there are personnel issues, frankly a lack of talent. A lot of young guys. They simply need the reps. Find Navarro Bowman? Last season’s defense began to gel a bit when he became a Raider.
Other point, you simply can’t keep changing systems every year. You need to keep the staff if you want any kind of consistency down the road.
And, why is DC pressing? It seems he’s the only one wanting to win on the team. Other players talk about cleaning up their mistakes, but don’t mention the word. DC talks about cleaning up his mistakes with the aim of winning.
I agree with everything you said.. Especially Greg Olson, he wasn’t worth a S___ the first time around. I couldn’t believe it when I saw they hired him & let Musgrave go. I know a high school coach that would be better than him.. Aiso after watching the game against the Chargers, I’m afraid Derek Carr is not a franchise QB. He seems to have lose what he had in 2916. That’s very sad & hard for me to say, I’ve been behind him along. They should have given Mack that money and let Carr play out this year.Too late now. Thanks
I agree with Raiderman, Gruden and Carr suck.
Lloyd Christmas gets what he deserves. Giving Gruden a 10 year $100 million contract is evidence of his lack of qualifications to own an NFL franchise. He should do all Raider fan’s a big favor a sell the franchise
F*ck Gruden! He eff’g up the org! I woulda only paid him a 5 yr deal and 50 mill. The other 50 mill
would’ve went to Mack to and all we’d have to look for is the 40 mill for the guarantee. I’m an engineer
and from my point of view: I DON’T HAVE A CLUE AS TO WHAT THIS FOOL IS DOING AS H.C.
Even i can see that much from the basic logic. Davis gotta be an idiot if he don’t step in and demand
more from this eff’d up situation. C’mon Gruden, start fukn being smart.. ya idiot….Raider Nation out~!
Is it Smart to pay two players 35% to 45% of the total team salary. I don’t think that is wise, lets all look at the New England model take a deep breath and see how things pan out.
In reading these comments, I hear a lot of whining from whiners who expect immediate results. You hired a head coach with a defensive background and got a surprise good year out of him, the following year the bottom fell out. The whiners were out in droves. Hire an offensive minded coach, you did. Again they expect immediate results. New coaching staff, many new faces on the team veterans or not, new offense, new defense, and the whiners will not give the team a chance to gel. I can’t believe Jack Del Rio expects results that he couldn’t get, I really was surprised to see his comments. Jack you had one good year and then it fell apart, just like it did in Jacksonville. Bad move on your part to critisize your replacement.
I was the greatest thing to happen to the Raiders in over a decade! Oh well, at least I walked away with a boatload of money though! haha!
I legend in you own mine. At least your ego matches mouth Huge. Thanks for the Super Bowl win in Jacksonville oh wait that never happened. Crickets Coach that’s all we need from you after last years disaster.
Cant argue w/ you there on the lucky 2016 season only.. and the money hmm.. haha, ya eff’r you.. =) enjoy
Just an FYI, the coaches salary doesn’ count against the salary cap. They could pay Gruden $100m per year and it would have mattered. They just didn’t want to have to enormous cap hits on their books. At this point, however, they should have just done it and made other huge cap cuts next year. At least they’d have a true game-breaker on defense and a much happier fanbase. Oh well…… water under the bride…
That stupid trade though!!!!
Mack > idiot coach