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OAKLAND – In a major interview with ESPN after the Los Angeles Los Angeles Chargers' 20-6 defeat against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, owner Mark Davis has accepted responsibility for the team's departure against 1-8.
Davis also touched on topics ranging from Khalil Mack's trade in the hope that his team will play in 2019 by explaining how years of draft repetition have helped coach Jon Gruden believe and in the way whose chief executive Reggie McKenzie could sign up for the future. Davis also acknowledged that the Raiders went astray during the loss to Washington last season, a match in which the team could not agree on how to protest during the tournament. National anthem.
"I always look in the mirror, and the responsibility stops on me," said Davis during the 45-minute wait in a waterfront restaurant in Jack London. Square. "It's my fault at the current position of this team.We have not managed to build a list of 22. We have not managed to give this team a chance to win because reconstruction failed, we failed from 2014 to have a list now. "
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Philip Rivers took nearly 20 minutes to complete his first pass, the Los Angeles Chargers were injured with the help of a long fake ball and the offensive broke the season 's record.
While the deadly fire of northern California was raging just hours north and a lingering scent of charcoal in the air, the Raiders put on masks available to those who wished when they entered Oakland Coliseum.
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Davis was referring to his two-phase, four-year deconstruction / reconstruction project, which began in 2012, several months after the death of Al Davis, led by McKenzie. Davis said that a team should be able to have five players, three of the selection and two in autonomous status, each year, which would serve as a foundation for the future. McKenzie was initially paralyzed by trade with quarterback Carson Palmer in 2011 which cost Oakland his first game in 2012 and his second in 2013.
The Raiders drafted what Davis saw as a legitimate underpinnings in Khalil Mack, quarterback Derek Carr, offensive lineman Gabe Jackson and receiver Amari Cooper in 2014 and 2015, but no play of this type in 2012, 2013 , 2016 and 2017.
Mack's deal was a difficult decision to make, even though it offered Oakland a package of two first-round picks.
Davis said Oakland had contacted Mack's agent, Joel Segal, after the team signed a $ 125-million deal with Carr for a $ 125-million deal in June 2017, and he proposed an extension of the contract that would have made Mack the NFL's highest paid defensive player.
"But they decided that they did not want to do it so early," Davis said. "They would wait."
Mack played the 2017 season and then Gruden was hired in January of this year. Davis said that Gruden had called Mack and talked to him briefly.
"This is the last time Jon and Khalil have talked," Davis said, adding that the Raiders had again spoken to Segal, at harvest, of an extension that would make Mack still the highest paid defensive player in the league. Mack's representatives responded with an offer that "was not going to happen, it was not feasible for us," said Davis.
"From that point on, (Mack) would not speak to anyone in our organization," Davis said. "Not Reggie, not Jon, not anyone."
"Jon wanted it, everyone thinks it's Jon who wanted to get rid of it, Jon wanted it terribly, why would not you want that guy Reggie wanted it terribly, and I too wanted it too badly But if done, we were going to give him the kind of money we were going to give him, and Derek had this type of (contract), how were we going to go ahead to build this football team, with all the holes we have had?"
Still, trading Mack did not seem like a realistic possibility, according to Davis.
"I thought, listen, he's signed a five-year contract – he's the type I think he'll honor this contract," recalled Davis. "And he is going to play for the $ 13 million this year and then we will work for him over the course of the year and we will get him back.The news came back through some of the players who know, who speak to him and who also know me, that he would not go in. He was going to make the The & # 39; Veon Bell (incumbent). At that time, I said: "F. The guy did not talk to anyone. We must do something. "
Enter the Chicago Bears.
"It may not have been the right decision, but the other aspect of this issue is that Segal is also Amari Cooper's agent," said Davis. "And we knew that the same situation would happen next year.This was not just a layer of failures, it was two layers of failures.
"But to criticize Jon, the absence of Khalil Mack, is absolutely not the truth.It was a decision that was made and that was not made easily … I have no resentment (Mack) I would have liked him to talk to Jon and Reggie and that he wants to at least honor the fifth year of his contract. "
We also talked a lot about the Raiders, who are moving to Las Vegas in 2020, not having a lease for a house next year. And with the city of Oakland threatening to sue the team, the Raiders have been associated with San Diego as a potential temporary home.
But Davis said he'd prefer to stay in Oakland for one last season.
"Personally, I want to play Oakland," he said. "I absolutely want to play Oakland, we have a lease with the city council, all they have to do is accept it and we are here next year. . "
And what about the potential trial?
"Emotionally, I would say, why would I give them a rent of $ 3, $ 4 or $ 5 million that they will use to sue me?" he said. "But at the same time, if they have us, I can not attack the fans, I can not do it, and it's a terrible negotiation that I'm doing, I'm going to get killed." But that's how I am. But, if in fact it becomes ugly and can not be filled, we have options. "
Some sort of resolution should apparently be settled in early spring, before the NFL's 2019 calendar is completed.
Davis is also interested in seeing how a greater familiarity between Carr and Gruden could foster quarterback growth as Carr is in his fourth different system in five years.
"Derek is taking a lot of … right now," Davis said.
"He's the quarterback of the franchise.He's not Amari Cooper.He lost (Martavis) Bryant following a knee injury.Some guys hurt themselves.What is Jordy Nelson and Seth Roberts, who are good men But they do not put the fear of God in anyone The tight end (Jared Cook) gets excited You look at the quarterback and he plays behind a bruised offensive line … so I do not know what you can put Derek in and I do not think it's fair to blame him. "
After being approved by the league to settle in Las Vegas, Davis said he wanted to leave the Bay Area with the Super Bowl title before leaving. Now, however, the team is closer to an expansion team than a candidate. Davis stated that his goal of winning a title had been achieved before another preliminary class reported little, if anything, in terms of the building blocks of the foundation and before the team failed. Had imploded in Washington last year on TV in prime time.
"It's at this point that I've felt a big change in this organization," Davis said. "I do not know what happened, but we were destroyed in the match and it seemed to me that the team had never recovered.
"One day, the story may come out, I do not have any history."
As an owner, should not he know the story? Would not he want to know?
"Absolutely, because I've never seen a team change so quickly," he said. "And the Raiders defend social justice, so seeing any kind of division is really difficult for me."
Oakland fans are angry and Davis said he understood.
"I feel so bad for the fans because they want to win, and believe me, I do not want anything more than to win and Jon does not want to do anything other than win, Reggie wants to win. the world in this organization is built around winning. We do not have the tools to do it for the moment and it's nobody's fault but ours and, in the end, it's my fault. "
This may be a small consolation for fans wondering when Davis, McKenzie and Gruden decided that the current roster did not allow them to compete, but that exchanging Mack and Cooper for three future rounds of the first round was a better game than to block them. with extensions.
"It's all part of an evolution, but I think it's becoming increasingly clear to Jon that talent is just not there yet," Davis said.
"The projects did not help to complete what we were doing in the free agent market.If you look at our list now, it's a group of free agent types." who are mercenaries, and they are great and they're Raiders, once a Raider, always a Raider … but we just do not have the talent of a team of 22 players. "
Which, of course, evokes McKenzie, the 2016 NFL Executive, which has only 11 selections from the 50 nominations proposed from 2012 to 2017 on the current list of 53 people.
"Reggie and I need to sit down and discuss to determine how we are going to look after the future," Davis said. "We have to look in the mirror and understand: Where the hell did we go wrong trying to build this thing?
"We failed, I failed, but at the same time, we would not have been so well placed without the presence of Reggie McKenzie."
As McKenzie recently stated, his job is to get the players that Gruden wants for Gruden and Davis said that he had never felt that his composition just needed to be cleaned up after the shooting of Jack Del Rio last December.
"I thought it would be a lot of work, but Jon has a 10-year contract," said Davis, who also praised the contract and salary cap of Dan Ventrelle and Tom Delaney. "I know how hard Jon works, I know how much he wants to win, and how many days like today kill him.
"Having Jon Gruden here was the last game for me Jon is going to be stability here Jon is not going anywhere, it's like that."
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