Khalil Mack says call from Jon Gruden might have kept him with Raiders

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If only Jon Gruden had used some of his rollover minutes, maybe Khalil Mack still would be a Raider.

During NBC's Sunday Night Football broadcast, analyst Cris Collinsworth shared a conversation he recently had with the new Bears edge rusher.

"I asked [Khalil Mack], if Jon Gruden had called you and said, 'Hey, you're our guy, no way in the world we're letting you get out of here, you're the best player we have,' would it have made a difference? And he said, 'Yeah, it would have,' " Collinsworth said near the end of the third quarter of the Bears-Packers broadcast.

Earlier in the quarter, Collinsworth dropped this nugget that seems to preface that conversation.

"[Mack was] definitely upset he didn't get more attention from Jon Gruden during the process," Collinsworth said.

That first Collinsworth quote caught the attention of Nick Wright on FS1's First Things First on Monday morning, and he had harsh words for Gruden for trading Mack.

"This is why you don't trade a player this good," Wright said. "And Cris Collinsworth slipped something in on the broadcast. Now, maybe Khalil Mack is re-creating history, but I'm going to take him at his word. ...

"Well, that's a phone call Gruden's going to regret [not making] for his 10 years in Oakland, but what might be his three or four years in Oakland because I don't know how much further he'll make it. You can't get rid of a player like that and get fair value. You just can't."

Yikes. Maybe Gruden should use some of that $100 million contract to buy a phone plan so he can call his players.

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