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If Raiders coach Jon Gruden is on good terms with general manager Reggie McKenzie, he definitely has an odd way of showing it.
Although Gruden has insisted over the past few months that he has a good relationship with McKenzie, the evidence seems to say otherwise. The latest indication that Gruden might not be a fan of McKenzie came on Wednesday while the Raiders coach was doing a teleconference with reporters who cover the Chargers. At some point, Gruden started talking about Chargers rookie safety Derwin James, and here’s what he had to say.
If Gruden’s goal was to take a subtle swipe at McKenzie, then he definitely accomplished that.
There’s always multiple players in the draft that coaches wish they had taken, but generally, most NFL coaches don’t do a re-draft during a conference call with reporters from another team.
The big issue with Gruden’s comment is that looks bad for the organization. First, it’s bad for Kolton Miller. Think about it: his head coach just said he didn’t really want him, but he had to take him because he wasn’t allowed to take the safety that he wanted.
It’s also bad for McKenzie, because in a way, Gruden is saying the Raiders general manager has no idea what he’s doing. Basically, Gruden is saying he would’ve taken a safety (Derwin James) if McKenzie didn’t waste two picks on safeties in each of the past two years.
If playing time this year is any indication, Gruden clearly didn’t like either pick. Karl Joseph, who was expected to start this year, has been coming off the bench behind a free agent that Gruden brought in, Marcus Gilchrist. As for Obi Melifonwu, he was released in August, although he’s now on injured reserve with the Raiders after clearing waivers.
McKenzie will probably be blindsided by Gruden’s latest comment, and that’s because he apparently thought the two men were on the same page going into April’s draft.
“I got a feel for coach [Jon] Gruden. We like the same type of players,” McKenzie said before the draft. “The characteristics of that is just being good football players. It’s not about height, weight, speed or where they come from. It’s about who they are as players.”
No matter how Gruden spins things, his relationship with McKenzie doesn’t seem to be working, and all you have to do is look at the past month. Besides his draft comment, there was also the entire situation with Khalil Mack. The press conference following the Mack trade was so odd that the Las Vegas Review-Journal ran a headline that said the two men clearly aren’t on the “same page.”
During the press conference, McKenzie said the Aaron Donald deal had nothing to do with the Mack trade, but Gruden said it had everything to do with the Mack trade because it was too much money to be paying one guy.
“That pretty much set the stage of what it was going to be,” Gruden said. “And $90 million guaranteed is an astronomical number. It’s phenomenal, I think, for the players. Great for him, obviously. But that was something we could not do.”
McKenzie also said Derek Carr’s monstrous contract had nothing to do with the Raiders’ decision, but Gruden said the opposite.
“It’s tough when you have two players that are the highest paid at their positions, so the economic part of it certainly weighs in,” Gruden said.
Oh, and let’s not forget about the fact that Gruden has spent some serious time purging the Raiders’ roster of McKenzie’s players.
Things have gotten so bad that CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora sees a split coming in early 2019. La Canfora reported back in September that a front office shake up would likely be coming at the end of the season.
If actions speak louder than words, then McKenzie might want to think about doing some quiet job hunting over the next few months because Gruden’s actions definitely seem to indicate that he doesn’t plan on keeping his GM around much longer.
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