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The Oakland Raiders are a mess right now. New head coach Jon Gruden has gone from trying to take this team back to the playoffs to hoping for the highest draft pick possible next year. It has been a drastic change of events filled with highly questionable trades involving Pro Bowlers Amari Cooper and Khalil Mack.
The mixed messages being sent in Oakland have rubbed the players in silver and black the wrong way. No one knows what is going on and trust in Gruden is waning as players are starting to think their new head coach can make moves without being accountable for them, according to Vic Tafur of The Athletic.
Many of the players I have talked to in the last couple of days question the coach’s “accountability.” While the trades of young Pro Bowlers Khalil Mack and Amari Cooper were jarring in and of themselves, it was the way they were handled that is bothering veteran players.
This is not the best way to start a second stint with the team, especially after signing a historic 10-year, $100 million deal in the offseason.
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The trades of Mack and Cooper have baffled players. One player, who wanted to remain nameless for obvious reasons, talked about the perplexing moves and the questionable motivation behind them, via Tafur.
“You have to wonder if we haven’t been playing for draft picks all along,” one said. “Despite everything the coaches told us at training camp.”
“The Mack trade was a real stiff jab,” another said. “But the Cooper one was like a knockout punch, especially because we had just walked back in the door from the bye. We didn’t want to believe it was coming, and Coach said we weren’t going to trade him.”
With Gruden under contract for a decade, it's safe to say he's not going anywhere anytime soon. Owner Mark Davis has backed Gruden the entire time, and that likely won't change even though these trades to send Cooper and Mack elsewhere haven't sat well with players and the fans in Oakland.
The real question moving forward is whether Gruden gets it right with the draft picks that he has traded for as it will almost certainly determine his success in his second time around with the Raiders.
