Addressing the Khalil Mack trade for the first time, Jon Gruden said the Raiders’ salary cap situation indeed played into the choice to ship the team’s best player to Chicago. Particularly, Derek Carr‘s contract played a role.
While Gruden said (via the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Michael Gehlken, on Twitter) he was not involved in the daily communications between Mack’s agent and the team, he did indicate Carr’s $25MM-AAV contract — one the quarterback signed in hopes of leaving his team enough money to take care of teammates’ deals down the road — made it difficult to complete a Mack extension. And the Raiders weren’t particularly close on terms with their former superstar defender.
The Bears gave Mack a six-year, $141MM contract with $90MM in guarantees — raising the bar for defenders after Aaron Donald did so previously. Gruden confirmed (per Scott Bair of NBC Sports Bay Area, on Twitter) the Raiders made an offer, and it was “not anywhere close” to the terms Mack received from the Bears.
Gruden said the 27-year-old phenom was part of why he accepted Mark Davis‘ offer to return to coach the Raiders, per Tom Pelissero of NFL.com (on Twitter), but added the $90MM in guarantees was something the Raiders “could not do.” Rumors about the Raiders’ wherewithal to authorize such a guarantee surfaced late in the offseason, but nothing concrete emerged about Davis’ ability to construct a Mack extension. But it’s clear the Raiders were not willing to venture into the financial neighborhood the Bears were.
As for pulling the trigger on a trade now, when Mack was attached to a $13MM-plus fifth-year option and could have been franchise-tagged in the future, Gruden said he did not believe Mack was going to report and it was “time to move on.” Additionally, the Bears’ “unique” offer prompted the Raiders to make the deal, with the 55-year-old head coach adding there was no guarantee a proposal including two first-round picks would’ve been on the table in 2019 (Twitter links via The Athletic’s Vic Tafur).
The Raiders received interest from several teams on the Mack front — the Jets, 49ers and Browns are the known suitors who didn’t match the Bears’ haul — and ended up giving the Bears a second-round pick in the deal. Gruden said, via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link), he was not part of the discussion that sent a future Day 2 pick to the Bears.
With Gruden having cut or traded several of Reggie McKenzie‘s recent draft picks in recent weeks, and having criticized the 2015-17 classes during training camp — and on Sunday (Twitter link via Gehlken) — some understandable discord may be taking place in Oakland. Some around the NFL did not expect the Gruden-McKenzie partnership, one that featured Gruden siphoning much of the GM’s power, to last, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports tweets. However, Gruden said the Raiders came to this Mack decision “as an organization,” per Gehlken (on Twitter).
Gruden is right, it’s hard to field a competitive team w/ 2 players making north of $20m/season.
Cousins, Bradford, Tannehill, Bortles and plenty of other average QB’s are killing it salary wise, it’s going to effect the rest of the roster w/ those numbers.
The blame goes back on the teams. Teams are willing to offer that much for a guy, knowing it can potentially handicap them. Imo, if contracts became fully guaranteed salaries would then likely slide down. Teams would be less likely to offer some huge contracts (while renegotiating down the line to create cap room and build up dead cap in future years) while some players might be willing to take less knowing that they are guaranteed X amount of dollars over X amount of years. Players right now only seek a large guaranteed amount of money because their contracts aren’t fully guaranteed and they know teams hold most of the power when it comes to cutting a player loose. Cousins’ contract would be the obvious outlier, but he’s also an extreme case as an average to above average, somewhat proven franchise QB hitting free agency going to a team that had QB as its only significant hole and a QB away from being a legit Superbowl contender for the next 2-4 years.
Well- there’s nothing prohibiting a team from making the contract fully guaranteed. See Kirk Cousins.
So I don’t really see that being the issue.
It’s 100% an issue, yes teams can make a contract fully guaranteed and it took how long to get the first one aka Cousins.. but teams don’t want that in case of injury or decline in performance.
However if fully guaranteed salaries were the only way to go like the MLB then teams would offer less because they are risking decline in performance or injury. The 5 year 90 Mill would be for elite players whereas now if a player signs 5 year 90 Mill with 40 guaranteed but the guarantees are in first 3 years everyone knows it’s really a 3 year contract (this is how majority of contracts work now). Making fully guaranteed contracts the only way, contracts would decrease for almost everyone except the Rodgers of the world.
Before you say but MLB players make more money! Don’t forget MLB has no real salary cap and the NFL does and if they used the type of rules MLB does for going over the tax line most teams in NFL would be very cautious about going near the cap.
So I do really see that being the issue… use a little brain power
Raiders wont compete in Oakland but they do have the draft capital to build a nice core for Vegas. Have to hit on the picks tho
I agree, so why pay Carr $25m? That’s the problem the league is in, too many bad teams with expensive yet mediocre QB’s.
Why pay Carr $25 mil? I get that he underperformed in 2017, but did you see Oakland down the stretch in 2016 after he got hurt? They were unwatchable and had zero chance of winning. That’s why you pay QBs.
You have to realize that QBs aren’t compared against Brady or Rodgers. They’re compared against the legitimate options otherwise. There might be 20-25 guys in the world capable of playing QB at the NFL level. There are 32 teams. You pay Carr $25 million because you don’t want to be one of the 7-8 teams with truly incompetent quarterback play.
I feel like if coached would be more willing to play to a QBs strengths instead of trying to force fit them into their system, there would be more than enough QBs. I mean hell, look at Nick Foles!
My comment wasn’t clear, sorry. Everybody I read and watch on TV; plus the fans comments, pretty much guess Oak will be under 500 this season. I agree 5-7 wins.
To summarize, DB’s get burned, their pass rush just left the building, and a new DL to break in. A few picks were spent on it this draft. On O, old WR’s and RB’s; and a young line as well.
So why not get more picks and players for Carr? Carr is a fine QB, but has nothing to work with this year. Why waste a year on him w/ a real possibility of him getting hurt again (broken leg and back last 2 seasons) when he still has trade value?
Agreed. Every starting non-rookie QB is making $20+ million each year. It’s ridiculous. Brady is making just as much as his backup Garroppolo, a guy who hasn’t even played a full season.
McKenzie might as well resign and look for employment elsewhere because Gruden has effectively undermined him in the decision making process.
I wonder how Carr feels being blamed by Gruden as the reason a Mack deal couldn’t be done. That relationship seems destined to be a stormy one especially if the team doesn’t rebound.
To be fair, Gruden says the Carr contract would help down the line when they can rework it. It’s just not a benefit to the team in this current year.
Years back when Al was alive I told my fellow Raider fans things will change when AL is gone now we have a re-incarnation of Al Davis in Jon Gruden a guy that ships off or benches his best players! What gloom & doom we have to watch in oak town in the coming yrs! Was happy when Gruden was hired now I’m disgusted ! He won a super bowl not w his offense but w his defense in Tampa the moron must have forgotten that ! It been said for the longest defense wins championships ! It looks like I’m saving $ by not purchasing the nfl package or psl for new Vegas stadium not goin to pay to watch a
Sh tty product! Mark Davis should sell the team to someone who has the $ to run a nfl team!!!!!
Some would say it wasn’t even his defense
The best teams who consistently have winning records are the teams best in the draft year after year. Packers, NE, Steelers to name a few. If you don’t draft well you can’t buy out of it.