I just cannot understand what Jon Gruden is doing with the Raiders.
Elite pass rush is arguably the #2 most important position on the team. Traded away a sure thing (Khalil Mack) for lottery tickets.
Elite #1 WR is among the top 5 most important positions on the team. Traded away a sure thing (Amari Cooper) for lottery tickets.
Now they pick up a >30 y/o WR for $16MM? That's about $3MM MORE than what the Cowboys are paying for Cooper!
I get trying to load up on draft picks, but what's the point of draft picks if not to acquire great talent? So why trade away great talent you already have, in exchange for the hope of getting great talent from the draft? It just boggles my mind trying to make sense of this.
John Gruden is turning out as bad as I feared. He may have been an offensive guru 15 years ago but its unclear his current thinking has kept up. Moreover, he's never been good at developing players or finding means to make them successful. And whereas the best coach's are flexible and change their philosophy to maximize available talent, Gruden believes that square players HAVE to be pounded into his round holes. Hence, constant player churn.
Let's face it, trading hard-working Mack was the biggest boneheaded decision of his first year. Essentially he traded Mack (a first round 5th pick) for a first round 24th pick, and gave up second round pick for a first round pick next year. And next year there is a good chance that a successful bears will have a 24th or worse first round position next year anyway, and the horrible raiders may find their swap will advance their draft order less than 10 spots.
Letting Cooper (a 4th round pick) go for Dallas's 27th first round pick isn't genius... its almost a second round pick. But what is especially disappointing is that, unlike Dallas, Gruden was unable to find a way to improve Cooper's play or reinvigorate his amazing talents. All it took was a new receivers coach and the guy was back to his old form.
So Gruden brings in his beloved veterans, "uses his phone", and he drafts two floundering OT's, and a bunch of question marks. But hey, he also gets Bryant and Nelson, each turning out to be a bust. (About the only thing he did right was letting Mario Edwards go).
You are right to ask what the hell is Gruden's strategy. It doesn't seem to be that of rebuilding for the future, nor of spreading the money around to get more depth. Instead, he pays and trades for an emotionally problematical, aging WR who best years are NOT likely ahead of him. And then to make up for his draft blunders, he has pay the highest salary in NFL history (for an OT) to Trent Brown, someone who excelled under NEngland coaching (who covered his weaknesses with chipping help) and who excels only in the power blocking, not on the outside plays.
So here we are: Oakland has cap space left but likely no cash left. It is clueless on whether or not it wants to rebuild through the draft, or add a could of celeb players for short-term results and at least a 8-8 record. It's defense still sucks and has no pass rusher, its primary running back (Lynch) is likely in his last year, and it has one good WR, OT, and TE.
The bottom line: Oakland has the worst combination of owner and coach-manager in the league. It doesn't know where its playing from year to year, and when it does play its difficult to think of it as serious football. When both the owner and coach-manager compliment each other's incompetence, this is what you get (FOR NINE MORE YEARS).
@Noahsyndergaard
