Raiders owner Mark Davis has seen a playoff contender disintegrate this year, thanks to the decisions to trade Khalil Mack and Amari Cooper. And, of course, Davis claims to have no regrets about the trades. Because what else is he going to say?
He said a few things at last week’s quarterly meetings to NFL Media, and the things he said continue to create a perception that, when it comes to giving up on the pass-rusher and pass-catcher, there’s still plenty of passing the buck.
“It was all Reggie doing those deals,” Davis said. “He seemed really happy about it.”
Yes, blame it on Reggie McKenzie, the guy who’s now no longer there. The guy who, from the moment Jon Gruden returned to coach the team, lost any and all juice that the former G.M. had.
They won’t be able to blame McKenzie (although they may try, since he surely did plenty of advance work on the next draft) for what comes next: Turning the three first-round picks the Raiders have in April into great players. It’s the first time the Raiders have had extra first-round picks since the trade that sent Gruden to the Buccaneers.
“And what did we do with that?” Davis said regarding the return on the Gruden deal. “You gotta get it right.”
But here’s the thing Davis still doesn’t seem to realize. If you get it right, you gotta pay the players. Davis previously admitted that Mack was traded because of the inability to sign him to a new contract, and that Cooper was traded at least in part because he and Mack have the same agent, and Davis didn’t want a repeat of the Mack mess in 2019, when Cooper potentially held out in order to get a new deal.
Those admissions amount to an invitation to play hardball with the Raiders, and if those three draft picks indeed become special players, the Raiders in three or four years will be right back in the middle of a financial conundrum. And then Davis can say he has no regrets about the decisions to trade them away, too.
