Few if any doubt that Raiders coach Jon Gruden currently runs the show. Thus, few would expect Gruden to not personally hire the team’s next General Manager.
In his first press conference since G.M. Reggie McKenzie was relieved of his duties, however, Gruden tried to create the impression that he won’t be hiring McKenzie’s replacement.
Via Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Gruden said he doesn’t know whether he’ll participate in the coming interview process. He said that he expects to discuss the list of candidates with owner Mark Davis later in the week.
As to personnel decisions generally, Gruden said, “I would like to be involved for obvious reasons.” So why not be directly involved in hiring the G.M.?
It could be a not-so-subtle effort to retain the ability to complain about personnel decisions made by someone else, even if Gruden is the one making the personnel decisions. After all, McKenzie has just taken the fall for building a playoff-caliber roster that was gutted by both the mishandling of the Khalil Mack negotiations and fear that the Amari Cooper negotiations would have ended the same way.
if the Raiders are lucky enough (and luck has plenty to do with it) to parlay a looming slew of draft picks into great young players, the Raiders eventually will have to pay those players, too. It likely wasn’t McKenzie who decided not to make Mack the kind of offer that would have kept him in Oakland. And it definitely won’t be McKenzie the next time it happens.
And it definitely will happen a next time.