Oakland Raiders defense will learn harsh lesson without Khalil Mack

Jon Gruden and the Oakland Raiders thanked Khalil Mack for everything he did with the organization but insisted the trade was inevitable.

They just weren’t willing to pay the money necessary to keep the star pass rusher around. The theory is that Gruden believes no player other than the quarterback should be making that kind of money. The rest of those dollars should be put towards keeping the depth of the team intact. Sure this is a sound enough theory when you have a guy like Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers. The Raiders have Derek Carr.

Don’t get that wrong. He’s a very good quarterback, but he’s not on the level of those guys or Drew Brees. Carr got the team to the playoffs in 2016 but he didn’t do that without Mack becoming Defensive Player of the Year. Gruden should also be reminded that Super Bowl ring didn’t arrive until he landed on a team loaded with talented and well-paid defensive greats in Tampa Bay.

So it’s hard to take this philosophy seriously. As for the poor Raiders defense, things don’t look good. They lost their captain and best player but also a guy who managed to cover up a lot of their flaws, and there were many. Frankly, the team has no standouts on the defensive depth chart that are worth mentioning. Worse still, nobody may yet understand what his loss means.

Teams that lose star pass rushers don’t typically handle it well

In order to get a feel for what might happen to the Raiders defense with Mack out of the picture, I went scoping out how other teams responded when they suddenly lost elite pass rushers. Specifically ones with similar situations to Mack. They were still in their prime and seeking new money but would get it elsewhere. The results were fairly consistent on most occasions.

• Philadelphia Eagles fell from 7th to 15th the year after losing Reggie White
• Carolina Panthers fell from 19th to 32nd the year after losing Julius Peppers
• Los Angeles Rams fell from 13th to 18th the year after losing Kevin Greene
• New York Jets fell from 12th to 20th the year after losing John Abraham
• San Francisco 49ers fell from 6th to 15th the year after losing Charles Haley

Keep in mind the Raiders defense was 23rd last season with Mack on the field. Defenses fell a minimum five spots in the rankings when the pass rusher left and as high as 13. In other words, things could end up getting a lot worse for Oakland before it gets better. They best hope that Arden Key, Maurice Hurst and others pan out because it could get ugly.