Mark Davis Eyed Vegas Back In 2014
A thorough ESPN.com piece regarding the Raiders‘ move to Las Vegas revealed that Mark Davis was considering a move to Sin City as far back as 2014. While Davis’ intentions with Vegas didn’t become public until 2016, a dinner with NFL executive VP — and stadium-financing point man — Eric Grubman he wanted to take the Raiders to the desert. But Grubman was far more skeptical at the time. “Mark, you’ll never get approved to Las Vegas,” Grubman said, via Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham of ESPN. “They’ll oppose it on principle. It’s not gonna happen.” Davis described it as a “good market” at the time and eventually won out, largely because of Oakland’s inability to craft a stadium plan the NFL viewed as viable.
Here’s more on the Raiders and the latest coming out of the AFC.
- Sheldon Adelson did attempt to force Davis into giving him a stake in the Raiders. Davis refused, and part of Adelson’s removal from the project stemmed from the NFL owners having doubts about the casino mogul’s involvement. Van Natta and Wickersham allude to Adelson being irate at the Raiders for their tactics during this relocation push. This could be something to monitor down the line, with Davis and Adelson set to operate as high-powered figures in the same city relatively soon.
- Dolphins owner Stephen Ross viewed the team’s exit of a top market as questionable. Miami’s top decision-maker wondered if the Raiders should be stripped from the NFL’s revenue-sharing program for a decade because of the team downsizing considerably in market size — going from No. 6 to No. 40 — and accepting $200MM via NFL loan, the ESPN reporters note. Ross was the lone dissenter among NFL owners regarding the Raiders’ move to Nevada.
NFL Helped Raiders Secure Vegas Funding?
When the Chargers announced in January they were taking the NFL up on its offer to join the Rams in Los Angeles, the NFL foresaw a possible route to San Diego for the Raiders. The league did not want that, so it shifted focus from helping the Raiders procure a new stadium in Oakland to making sure the Las Vegas deal didn’t fall though, Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr. of ESPN.com report in an expansive story chronicling the Raiders’ move to Sin City.
As the Raiders’ Vegas deal was flailing after the departures of Sheldon Adelson and Goldman Sachs in during the winter, league executives joined Raiders president Marc Badain in contacting Bank of America, according to Van Natta and Wickersham. The company soon replaced Adelson as a backer, injecting new life into the Raiders’ Vegas venture, and pledged a near-$1 billion line of credit to cover cost overruns from the impending stadium construction project.
Jerry Jones also played a role in this key chapter of the Raiders’ relocation process. Mark Davis said to Jones at one point last year, “you screwed me on L.A.” and Jones began to act feverishly to help the Raiders relocate. The Cowboys owner put his full support behind the project, something the league and the Raiders appreciated, according to the ESPN reporters, and attempted to procure financing for the endeavor. But some around the league are concerned with the fallout.
Jones’ push helped bring some owners off the fence, paving the way for the 31-1 relocation vote. But it irked another influential owner. Robert Kraft took exception to Jones’ stake in Legends Hospitality, a merchandise and concessions company that could stand to benefit from the $1.9 billion stadium deal.
Sources told Wickersham and Van Natta that Legends emerged as a contender to partner with the Raiders for nonfootball revenue. Kraft spoke to Adelson, a longtime friend who played a key role in helping secure the Raiders the record $750MM in public money before stepping aside due partially to a falling out with Davis, and told him “Jerry is running wild; I can’t believe this.” Adelson, according to the ESPN reporters, then said he would “kill” the Raiders’ deal in Vegas if Kraft wanted. But Kraft, who had been a backer of the Raiders’ effort, did not want to exercise that prospective option.
Kraft wasn’t the only high-powered NFL figure who was suspicious of Jones’ help here. The Dallas owner helping sway his peers while potentially factoring into the stadium’s finances would cause “a major conflict of interest,” a longtime aide to an NFL owner told ESPN, who added the question of “won’t Mark Davis always be beholden to Jerry Jones?” Bank of America has served as the Cowboys’ bank for 25 years, along with a team sponsor. It’s also the Raiders’ longtime bank.
Davis and NFL executive VP Eric Grubman were working toward different goals, with Davis concentrating solely with Vegas and Grubman working to keep the Raiders in Oakland. Grubman, who also attempted to work with St. Louis last year while Stan Kroenke set his sights on Los Angeles, concluded in December — according to ESPN — Oakland did not have a viable proposal. At that same December league meeting, Badain called Oakland’s proposal a “political, cover-your-ass joke” and said in October, per ESPN, “it would have been better if (Oakland) had offered nothing.”
“The stadium proposals received from Oakland are dependent on various contingencies and involve a number of significant uncertainties that membership concluded cannot be solved in a reasonable time,” the league’s statement on the Raiders’ relocation reads (via Scott Bair of CSNBayArea.com, on Twitter), also citing the lack of Oakland progress in a two-year period after the league denied relocation applications in 2015 and placed the Raiders behind the Rams and Chargers in the Los Angeles pecking order a year later. “The proposal to relocate to Las Vegas involves a clearly defined and well-financed proposal for a first-class stadium.”
Marshawn Lynch Updates: Friday
Marshawn Lynch has dominated headlines today, with the longtime Seahawks running back close to coming out of retirement to play for the Raiders. Despite a deal being reported earlier today, it doesn’t look to be finalized yet. And Seattle still holds the soon-to-be 31-year-old back’s rights.
Here’s the latest coming out of the Lynch-to-Oakland saga.
- A deal has yet to commence, with the report of such finality being “100 percent false,” per Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Gehlken adds that the contract length for the Raiders and Lynch is expected to carry over to the team’s Las Vegas years. The Raiders’ stay in Oakland could be limited to one year, based on how their lame-duck arrangement goes this season, but the team is not scheduled to venture to Vegas until at least the 2019 season. Lynch coming back and playing for at least three more seasons may take a bit of a leap of faith considering his recent retirement. He will turn 31 next weekend.
- Lynch himself, in a way few can, candidly dismissed notion a deal was done (Twitter link). Lynch’s agent, Doug Hendrickson, texted an Oakland-area radio show (per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, via Twitter) to say no agreement is yet in place. Florio adds (on Twitter) the deal is “not even close” to being done.
- The Raiders, though, are reportedly impressed with the kind of shape the retired back was in during his visit to team headquarters, Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com tweets. Breer adds the talks between the Raiders and Lynch on a deal remain “ongoing and positive.” Lynch played only seven games in 2015 for the Seahawks and saw a streak of four straight 1,000-yard seasons end.
- Lynch is not currently at the Raiders’ facility, according to Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle (on Twitter), who does not expect an accord to arrive today. Tafur tweets there isn’t much urgency on the Raiders’ part for this, but he believes the sides will agree and Lynch will be playing for his hometown team in 2017. Lynch would be in line to head up a backfield that also features promising complements DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard.
- Tafur expects Reggie McKenzie to land Lynch for cheaper than the Vikings paid previous Oakland starter Latavius Murray (Twitter link). Murray, whom the Raiders were open to re-signing before he latched on with the Vikes, signed with Minnesota on a three-year, $15MM deal. Although, that deal could void after one season. So, Tafur expects Lynch to sign with the Raiders for less than $5MM. The last time Lynch made less than $5MM in a season was 2011.
Marshawn Lynch, Raiders Nearing Deal
Beast Mode is back: Running back Marshawn Lynch has officially ended his retirement, agreeing to a contract with the Raiders, reports Michael Silver of NFL.com (Twitter link). Terms of the deal aren’t yet known, but it figures to be worth far less than the $9MM Lynch would have made on his previous pact.
Not so fast, report several outlets — including Tom Pelissero of USA Today. Pelissero tweets that Lynch and the Raiders don’t quite have a deal yet. Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com tweets the deal isn’t quite done but is expected to be completed soon.
Lynch is still under Seahawks control, meaning he can’t become a Raider until the two sides work out a trade. However, reaching a new contract was seemingly the only major obstacle blocking Lynch’s return. With that out of the way, Seahawks general manager John Schneider and Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie should be able to work quickly toward a trade, though talks haven’t yet occurred, tweets Silver. Schneider and McKenzie are friends stemming from their time together in Green Bay’s front office, which makes a painless swap all the more likely.
In Lynch, the Raiders will acquire one of the NFL’s best running backs in recent memory, albeit one who comes with obvious question marks. Lynch is a 30-year-old with over 2,100 carries under his belt, and he wasn’t particularly effective in his most recent action. The last time we saw Lynch, he averaged 3.8 yards per attempt on 111 carries during an injury-shortened, seven-game 2015 campaign.
Prior to 2015, Lynch posted four straight seasons of at least 1,200 rushing yards, including a 1,590-yard 2012, and averaged between 4.2 and 5.0 YPC each year. He also amassed between 11 and 13 rushing touchdowns in all of those seasons. Anything resembling that production would obviously be a boon for the Raiders, who lost their previous starting running back, Latavius Murray, to the Vikings in free agency.
Along with potentially providing the Raiders’ already potent offense with another high-end weapon, Lynch could give the franchise some much-needed positive PR in the Bay Area. Signing the Oakland native might make watching the Raiders a bit more palatable for their local fans as the organization counts down to its Las Vegas relocation in 2019. Regardless, Lynch is now poised to vie for his second Super Bowl ring as a member of one of the league’s elite teams.
Photo courtesy of Pro Football Rumors on Instagram.
Raiders, Marshawn Lynch In Negotiations
If the Seahawks are going to trade temporarily retired running back Marshawn Lynch to the Raiders, he’s first going to have to negotiate a new contract with Oakland. That process is underway, according to ESPN’s Ed Werder, who reports that Lynch and the Raiders are attempting to hammer out a “short-term, heavily incentivized” pact.
It would behoove Lynch, whose one-year hiatus from the NFL will soon end, to reach a new deal and avoid earning his release from the Seahawks. If Seattle cuts the 30-year-old, it would ask Lynch to pay back his $2.5MM signing bonus from last season, per Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle. Lynch, unsurprisingly, doesn’t want to do that. The Raiders, meanwhile, want no part of the $9MM Lynch would make on the contract he left behind when he stepped away from football last offseason.
Ultimately, it’s likely Lynch and the Raiders will work out a more palatable contract, thus leading to a trade. The Oakland native wants to play for the Raiders, and they’re in need of help at running back after losing Latavius Murray in free agency. With the Raiders’ time in Oakland winding down, the soon-to-be Las Vegas-based franchise could also use a public relations boost in the Bay Area, which Lynch would perhaps provide.
If Lynch and the Raiders do indeed find common ground, the general managers involved are unlikely to encounter much difficulty in trade talks. The Raiders’ Reggie McKenzie and the Seahawks’ John Schneider have a friendly relationship stemming from their time together in Green Bay’s front office, notes Tafur. Given his closeness with McKenzie, Schneider told 710 ESPN Radio last week that Lynch-related discussions between the teams should “go in a smooth manner.”
Photo via Pro Football Rumors on Instagram.
Raiders Notes: Awuzie, Foster
- The Raiders stand a “good chance” of bypassing one of their biggest needs — linebacker — in favor of defensive back help on Day 1, per Tony Pauline of DraftAnalyst.com. Both the Raiders and Titans have visited with Colorado cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, reports Pauline, and both clubs could seriously consider Awuzie in the first round (at picks No. 24 and No. 18, respectively). Oakland could use another player in the secondary next to Sean Smith and David Amerson, while Tennessee released veteran corner Jason McCourty today and are fielding one of the league’s worst corner depth charts. Dallas has also met with Awuzie, who posted one interception and four sacks last year.
- The Raiders had scheduled a meeting with Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster, but he won’t be able to attend due to a scheduling conflict, reports Adam Caplan of ESPN.com (Twitter links). Still, the proposed visit indicates a level of interest from Oakland, which clearly needs assistance at linebacker. If Foster falls to No. 24, the Raiders would likely run to turn in their card.
Raiders Re-Sign Gabe Holmes
- TE Gabe Holmes (Raiders)
Raiders Working On Short-Term Deal For Lynch
- The Raiders are working on short-term deal with heavy incentives for Marshawn Lynch in advance of his reinstatement, Ed Werder of ESPN.com tweets. After that, the Seahawks will either trade him to Oakland or release him to facilitate a deal.
Seahawks Expected To Trade Marshawn Lynch To Raiders
The Seahawks and Raiders are expected to work out a trade sending Marshawn Lynch to Oakland, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. The deal is contingent on first hammering out a reworked contract.
On Thursday morning, we learned that Lynch has begun the reinstatement process. According to Rapoport (on Twitter), Lynch technically does not have to file for reinstatement in order to allow for a trade. If and when a new contract is executed, however, he must request and be granted reinstatement in order to play (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Ed Werder).
Lynch was held back by injuries in 2015, but he had a strong 2014 with 4.7 yards per carry and a career-high 13 touchdowns on the ground. He’s still only 30 years old and, theoretically, would be returning to football with fresh legs.
After losing Latavius Murray to the Vikings in free agency, the Raiders are without a clear No. 1 running back for the coming year. Lynch could fill that void and be the team’s primary ball carrier ahead of Jalen Richard, DeAndre Washington, and Taiwan Jones. Some analysts have been expecting the Raiders to target a running back with the No. 27 pick in the draft, but acquiring Lynch could push them in a different direction.
Lynch has reportedly mulled the possibility of joining the Patriots or following Richard Sherman to his next team (if the cornerback is dealt), but his affinity for Oakland has been the league’s worst kept secret for the past year. When asked about the idea of returning with the Raiders, Lynch issued steadfast denials, but there was clearly fire beneath the smoke.
Photo via Pro Football Rumors on Instagram.
Marshawn Lynch Begins Reinstatement Process
Marshawn Lynch has begun the process of reinstatement, Ed Werder of ESPN.com tweets. The Seahawks running back is hoping to play for Raiders, of course, but Werder suggests that he could be interested in teaming with Richard Sherman elsewhere if the star Seahawks cornerback is traded. 
[RELATED: Marshawn Lynch Interested In Patriots]
Lynch would carry a $9MM cap hit for Seattle if reinstated and the team simply cannot afford him at that rate. The Seahawks also don’t really need Lynch from a football perspective after signing Eddie Lacy in free agency this offseason. Once Lynch formally returns to football, the team will be forced to trade or release him, which could pave the way for his long-expected union with the Raiders.
For a long time, it was Raiders-or-bust for Beast Mode, but he’s at least considering other options if he cannot work things out with Oakland. Lynch has interest in joining up with the Patriots and he’s now reportedly daydreaming about following Sherman out of Seattle. The Raiders are still the odds-on favorites to land Lynch, but it’s certainly a situation worth monitoring.