Khalil Mack is no longer a member of the Oakland Raiders after the team decided to trade away their star edge rusher to the Chicago Bears.
Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie fielded questions about that huge move among other topics in a conference call on Saturday night and admits that dealing their defensive superstar was not part of his plan.
Per Jerry McDonald of The Mercury News:
“My whole thought process was to get Khalil in here. Absolutely. It was here at the end, it was in the final hour, that it kind of just, it hit hard and heavy. It was not a plan to trade him at all,” McKenzie said.
While McKenzie claims it wasn’t the plan to trade Mack, the Raiders didn’t exactly look as if they did all they could to keep their star from the outsider’s perspective. McKenzie even admitted that the two sides did not come close to agreeing on a contract. It’s been reported that the Raiders’ last offer to Mack came way back in February.
No one knows exactly what part of the whole Mack situation McKenzie was responsible for, and what head coach Jon Gruden was responsible for. McKenzie reportedly didn’t want to trade Mack according to a team executive who spoke with him and may have only been working under orders from Gruden.
Regardless of what the Raiders did and didn’t plan on happening with Mack, the harsh reality is that he’s now gone. McKenzie, Gruden, and the Raiders must now find a way to fill that massive void Mack has left on their defense, particularly their pass rush.
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