Oakland Raiders: Jon Gruden’s priorities are out of whack

The Oakland Raiders have seemingly made one mistake after another this offseason. Are Jon Gruden’s priorities in order? It doesn’t look like it.

Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden has clearly been away from the game for too long.

Gruden was fired from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2009, the same year defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth signed a massive contract with the Washington Redskins (seven years, $100 million) and the same year the Denver Broncos traded star quarterback Jay Cutler to the Chicago Bears for a bounty of draft picks.

What do those two things have anything to do with the Raiders, Jon Gruden, or his decision to trade Khalil Mack?

Possibly nothing, or possibly everything.

Gruden’s old-school approach has been discussed all offseason and Raiders fans have maintained a high level of optimism despite the approach, despite Khalil Mack’s contract holdout, and despite the fact that Gruden came in and dismantled the roster, rebuilding it his way.

The going rate for star players in the NFL was high back in 2009, but the numbers on Albert Haynesworth’s contract aren’t as ridiculous now as they were back then.

Does Gruden understand the inflation that has happened in the league? Do the Raiders as an organization realize you can’t rebrand a team in a new city without your best player?

Ironically, this situation feels very similar to the one involving former Denver Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels and star quarterback Jay Cutler. Cutler was nowhere near as established as Khalil Mack, but he looked like a franchise quarterback. Keeping him around for the long haul seemed like a no-brainer until it wasn’t.

Cutler was sent packing by an ego-maniacal head coach and the Broncos were not better for it until John Elway came in and set the team back on course.

Are the Raiders headed for a similar fate as the 2009-10 Broncos?

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to bring in players that fit your culture, but there are times when you have to be willing to flex your culture to fit certain players.

Gruden’s approach is that no player is above the team. That’s fine. But you make exceptions in today’s NFL for guys like Khalil Mack, who has never missed a game and has destroyed the competition he’s faced for four straight years.

Mack is entering his fifth NFL season. He’s 27-years old. He’s entering the prime of his career.

The Raiders decided they did not want to make him the highest paid defensive player in the NFL and accepted the best trade they were offered instead.

This is a really bad look for Oakland, especially after a highly questionable draft class in 2018. A team whose defense was already highly suspect is now without their best player, not only on that side of the ball, but overall.

Mack was the Raiders’ version of Von Miller, J.J. Watt, or Aaron Donald. He was the franchise cornerstone. And now he’s been traded for a couple of picks.

This is one of the worst moves Gruden could have decided to make, and there’s no way the guys in the front office were on the same page about this.

It wouldn’t shock me if Gruden and Reggie McKenzie were headed for a divorce in the near future after this move.

The Raiders are stuck with Gruden, as he hasn’t even coached the first regular season game of a 10-year contract.

His priorities are completely out of whack, and he’s sending the Raiders into a downward spiral.