MODS PLEASE LOCK

[mr jordan04]

Bringing Gruden back is just to sell PSL’s in LV smh. It’s always a ploy.

Makes sense. Get everybody hyped up and sell those seats

 

[sohi 23]

 

[The_Isomotion31]

Hasn't Gruden been outspoken about the team being in Oakland and not in Vegas. He gets a small stake in ownership can't he cause a stink?

I like Crabtree, he disappears sometimes. But seems to have good timing with Carr. No idea what was wrong with Seth and Holton's big plays are negated by the bad ones.

I'm hoping Bowman is signed and shows Khalil how to be THAT leader. Also hoping Conley and Obi comes back strong. Please just get us a coaching staff that knows what to do with the weapons on offense and a front 7 that has 51, 52, 53 putting fear in opposing teams again. I really believe that linebacker core can make the secondary pro-bowl caliber. lol.

 

[laker4lifeman]

Reggie has a lot of work this offseason. I expect Gruden to be announced coach next week after he calls Saturdays game.

 

[HNL HI]

Reggie has a lot of work this offseason. I expect Gruden to be announced coach next week after he calls Saturdays game.

really hope Reggie is still here, lots of people hating on him but name a GM that hits on every pick/move.

I don't believe our picks we're developed right with the staff we had either tbh.

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

Reggie might be an option for Green Bay to serve Thompson.

Anyway, our future MLB is playing a great game right now.

 

[kayzeezay]

If Gruden ends up being a bust Mark will just blame it on Reggie anyway

 

[HNL HI]

I remember seeing something about Eliot Wolf was basically promised that GM job, that's why he never left.

 

[sohi 23]

We need to win this coin toss and draft Roquan Smith at 9.

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

We need to win this coin toss and draft Roquan Smith at 9.

Niners wouldn't take him ahead of us anyway.

 

[HNL HI]

that o lineman from notre dame would be great too, dude got that osemele viciousness

 

[raider5]

If they do release Crabtree, all a sudden we need a WR too. Amari ain't a true #1.

Not that Crabs is, but they definitely compliment each other well.

 

[village1600]

I only worry the 9ers taking Roquan before us or Reggie not drafting him if he falls to us.

We also need a speedy slot receiver

 

[HNL HI]

either way we need receivers, Seth ain't it

 

[kayzeezay]

I'm not ready to count out Coop as a #1, we can blame his sh*tty season on Downing, better yet Del Rio

 

[raider5]

I'm not ready to count out Coop as a #1, we can blame his sh*tty season on Downing, better yet Del Rio

Regardless of routes, my dude had way too many drops.

 

[raider5]

Please plug us Johnny

 

[HNL HI]

I like that one receiver from Memphis

we also need o lineman and interior pass rushers

don't think we can pass on Saquon if he's there either

 

[raider5]

I feel like we've needed interior pass rushers and LB's for 4 years straight now

Need that interior rusher more now that Eddie is hurt.

 

[HNL HI]

we need someone disruptive up the middle so bad, Mack's sacks would be crazy if the QB can't climb the pocket

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

Please plug us Johnny

Surprise scene: Del Rio and Raiders players deal with his firing, as Mark Davis slips away

By Vic Tafur 23 hours ago

CARSON — Jack Del Rio heard the reports Saturday night. Ten months after he had been given a new, bigger coaching contract, the Raiders were pursuing Jon Gruden to take his job.

Del Rio asked general manager Reggie McKenzie about the reports on Sunday morning, and McKenzie told him he didn’t know anything. Because he didn’t.

Owner Mark Davis didn’t deny the reports when asked by reporters on Saturday night, and Sunday morning he had nothing more to offer than that to either Del Rio or McKenzie when they asked.

Davis and Del Rio had an awkward exchange on the field before the season finale, then Davis went up to his box, Del Rio to the sideline, and everybody went through the motions for three hours.

The Raiders lost, 30-10, to the Chargers, and then after Del Rio addressed his team, Davis pulled him aside and told him he was fired.

Davis left StubHub Center at that point and left Del Rio to immediately walk into a room and tell reporters he was done. For Davis, the Raiders' 6-10 record had erased all the good feeling from the 12-4 playoff season a year ago.

“I feel like today was a microcosm of our year,” Del Rio said. “The opportunities, lack of production, not good enough. … Disappointing. That’s what our year was, disappointing. I spoke with Mark Davis after the game and Mark let me know that he’s not going to be bringing me back.

“He told me he loved me and appreciated all that I did to kind of get this program going in the right direction, but that he felt the need to change.”

Del Rio said it was the first conversation he had with Davis concerning how the coach was doing or that his job may be on the line.

Del Rio then went back to his locker room and told the players the news, walking through and quickly shaking some hands. Some players were in the shower and didn’t hear what happened until told by reporters minutes later.

While the overall mood was somber, running back Marshawn Lynch and receivers Cordarrelle Patterson and Johnny Holton joked and laughed.

(Lynch did just cash in on a $600,000 bonus for rushing for more than 800 yards, so there is that excuse.)

Many players declined comment on the firing, while defensive end Khalil Mack and quarterback Derek Carr got dressed and went into Del Rio’s office for a final meeting. Some players were shocked, while others prepared themselves after hearing the reports about the Gruden pursuit on Saturday evening.

“There have been so many disappointing things about this season,” tight end Lee Smith said. “There is no way to pinpoint one that took the cake. … It’s a production-based business and we didn’t produce. We were 6-10 after being 12-4 and Mr. Davis is the boss of this whole deal, and he made a decision and that’s life in this business.

“When you lose, there are consequences.”

Linebacker NaVorro Bowman said he didn’t expect Del Rio's firing, while cornerback Sean Smith said Del Rio was a players' coach.

“He came to work with a smile everyday,” Smith said. “I definitely enjoyed playing for him. It sucks. He is a coach and he can’t be out there, and we as players, we didn’t play up to expectations.”

At that point, Carr and Mack came out of their final meeting with Del Rio. While Carr was heading to his postgame news conference, I talked to Mack, who was visibly sad and didn’t want to talk long.

“I was surprised … ,” Mack said. “I’m surprised at how this whole season went.”

The defense had a brief resurgence under new play-caller John Pagano, but that was flushed with a 387-yard, three-touchdown performance by the Chargers’ Philip Rivers on Sunday.

That came in front of a Raiders-dominated crowd at the soccer stadium that is housing the Chargers until their permanent Los Angeles digs are ready. (At one point in the fourth quarter, the Chargers defense forced a fumble from Carr and celebrated with a group pose for fans in the endzone … and the fans threw bottles.)

But no amount of cheers could get this offense going. Del Rio’s biggest mistake this season was replacing coordinator Bill Musgrave with Todd Downing even though the Raiders finished sixth in the league in offense last season. Whether it was Downing or Carr’s back injury, Carr and the offense were never the same the last 14 games this season.

Sunday was the sixth time in seven weeks the Raiders didn’t score in the first quarter, and the eighth time this season. That’s the worst it’s been since the JaMarcus Russell era.

When the Raiders could muster more than 17 points this season, they were 6-0.

Carr said he told Del Rio he loved him and how “the wound was fresh.”

“At the end of the day, we are family,” Carr said. “We are a family that needs to be better and we will.”

Carr also had a message for the new coach, and he acknowledged that he’s heard the reports it could be Gruden.

“We have a great group of guys,” Carr said. “They work hard, they compete their tail off. We have a bunch of dogs … a whole bunch of angry dudes that just want to fight and compete their tails off.”

I asked Carr if that fight was missing the last four weeks. The Raiders, after all, were 6-6 and had control of their destiny and then lost four straight.

“No, no, no, no,” Carr said. “We were definitely fighting and competing. You turn the film on and the effort was good, guys are running to the ball and making extra blocks. The physicality … all those things were there, it was the details of an assignment or the footwork of an assignment … or the eyes … that’s where we were missing.”

Speaking of details, it was more than an hour after the game before the owner finally put out a statement about firing his coach.

It was short, and Davis didn’t address how he had torn up Del Rio’s old contract in February or how, thanks to the pending Las Vegas move, he could now afford to pay him $14 million to go away so Davis could finalize a deal with Gruden.

“We appreciate Jack’s effort in building the foundation of this team for the future,” Davis said.

And then he wished him and his family all the best. That’s it.

Del Rio deserved more than he got from Davis on Sunday. He was the ninth coach in Oakland since Gruden left; Davis personally selected Del Rio three years ago, and McKenzie agreed.

But Davis has always had eyes for Gruden and has tried to lure him back before. ESPN reported that Davis was now set to offer Gruden an ownership stake but a league source said that was “ridiculous” and another agreed with that assessment.

Del Rio never saw any of it coming. Not until Saturday night, when he heard the reports.

“I do believe that we have established a solid nucleus,” Del Rio said, his eyes moist. “Whoever comes in here has a chance to take that nucleus and go to special places. And I’ll be pulling for them.”

 

[HNL HI]

Del Rio brought the organization up a level no doubt but he also hit his ceiling

 

[raider5]

Don't surprise me to hear how MD handled the firing of JDR

 

[njavier03]

LB in the first and WR in the second. Maybe another corner in the third. I’d like some veteran presence though. We need a leader on both sides.

 

[albooboo]

1rd. Smith Lb
2nd. Michel RB
3rd. Tate Wr or Cobb Wr

I think we should take a look at Payne DT from Alabama. Our DT lack talent and EV out. DT now becomes a bigger need.