Mike Mayock should dump the Oakland Raiders for the Houston Texans

Oakland Raiders general manager Mike Mayock should dump the Oakland Raiders and see if the Houston Texans will take him in.

Oakland Raiders general manager Mike Mayock should step down and let Jon Gruden and Antonio Brown run what has clearly become their team.

Everyone knew, even with Mayock coming in, that Gruden was running the show primarily, but Mayock seemed to do a fine job in the 2019 NFL Draft (despite what many believe to be a reach with their top pick of Clelin Ferrell) and by the time May rolled around, it looked like he and Gruden had put a nice-looking team on paper.

Now, it seems like all they’ve done is set fire to the early stages of Jon Gruden’s 10-year project by trading third- and fifth-round draft picks for the former Steelers receiver Antonio Brown.

Brown’s repeated history of conduct detriment to his team is staggering at this point. And the things that have gone public are probably just the tips of what is likely a large colony of big, ugly icebergs under the surface.

I’m sure AB is a hard worker as Gruden has repeatedly given him credit for. We know he’s an unbelievably good football player. But this stuff is getting absolutely nuts.

Just 24 hours after Brown’s future with the team was in doubt, he showed up at practice and the team declared he would play on Monday Night Football against the Denver Broncos. It only took until Friday evening for Brown to release this video on his social platforms (some language is NSFW).

This comes just a couple of days after Brown posted a picture of a letter he got from Mike Mayock saying that Brown would be fined for missing practices. Brown didn’t like that much at all, and voiced it over social media.

That apparently resulted in a verbal argument at Raiders HQ with his GM.

Although it was initially reported that the exchange between Brown and Mayock was going to result in Brown being suspended, the Raiders apparently decided against that and Brown returned to the Raiders facility on Friday, issuing an apology and telling the media, “Enough talk…”

Then Brown went and posted that video after another report he was going to be fined for his argument with Mayock.

In the video Brown posted, he released audio of a private phone conversation which started off with his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, and his head coach. Gruden is passed the phone and goes on to talk about how — and I’m paraphrasing here — Brown is one of the most misunderstood human beings he’s ever met.

This is a clear undermining of Mike Mayock, in my opinion. Mayock is trying to treat Brown like another member of the team. Gruden is coddling him.

It seems Gruden is willing to do anything to keep Brown happy, and at this point, I’m guessing that would include losing Mayock.

Mayock has to be fed up. He has to feel like the odd man out. He’s trying to do his job, and neither Jon Gruden nor Antonio Brown will let him.

There’s nothing healthy about this situation for Mayock, and there’s at least one playoff contender looking for a GM in the NFL right now — the Houston Texans.

The Texans have been making bone-headed decisions all offseason, but somehow they’ve ended up with one of the best young quarterbacks in the league, one of the best young left tackles in the league, and maybe the best receiver in the league.

There are intriguing pieces in Houston, and quite frankly none of the distraction by comparison with Oakland.

Mayock should get out of Oakland and try to get a job with Houston as soon as possible. Not that better jobs will never come available to him, but Houston has a pretty good thing going as far as their current roster construction, and whoever their future GM is set up quite well to be active in free agency for a while.

It’s just a thought, but it’s something Mayock might want to think about doing.