Why the recent blockbuster move may end up punishing the Oakland Raiders.
The Oakland Raiders are off to a 0-2 start and John Gruden’s honeymoon period seems to be coming to a screeching halt.
The new head coach’s recent comment regarding the lack of a Raiders’ pass-rush–“It’s hard to find a great pass-rusher”–has turned heads. That’s because Gruden had a pass rush in Khalil Mack. That was before he traded Mack to the Bears.
Yes, there were issues, primarily Mack’s holdout status and contract dispute, but the trade was questioned widely. After all, Mack was the 2016 NFL Defensive Player of the Year and a three-time Pro-Bowler. He also served as co-captain of the defensive unit.
How could a coach with Gruden’s experience trade away a player of Mack’s caliber?
Whatever the case may be, what’s done is done. And, now, Mack is flourishing in Chicago. In just three games, Mack has a pick-6, forced a fumble, and had two sacks. Mack’s two sacks in Chicago equal the total for the entire Raiders’ defense. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, though. Mack accounted for nearly half of the Raiders sack total last year–10.5 of 24 team sacks.
To get a better look, here are Mack’s highlights from his Bears’ debut.
Back to the Raiders.
Gruden has come up with a shift in his defensive unit in order to compensate for the loss of Mack. That’s in the way of moving LB Bruce Irvin to an edge rusher along with three, rookie DE sharing the playing time.
This schematical change hasn’t yielded to results.
Those players were meant to compliment Mack, not replace him.
In fairness to Gruden, Mack was in breach of his contract and was still set to earn $13.8 million this year. In exchange, Oakland received a bevy of Bears’ draft picks, including the Bears’ 1st and 6th Round picks in 2019 and 1st and 3rd Round picks in 2020.
That’s in the future. The problem is now.
The Raiders’ weak pass rush is affecting overall defensive performance. After two games, Oakland’s defense ranks near the bottom of the NFL.
— 24th – Points allowed (53)
— 22nd – Yards allowed/game (375)
— 27th – Yards allowed/play (6)
— 29th – Sacks (2)
— 26th – Opponent’s 3rd down conversion rate (44%).
Will things change? We’ll see. The Raiders are off to Miami this week to face the undefeated Dolphins. The challenge for DC Paul Guenther is figuring out a way to improve the Raiders’ pass rush. That might include calling more blitz packages and/or re-arranging personnel.
If Oakland’s defensive output doesn’t improve and Mack continues his stellar play, then John Gruden’s once-heralded return to the NFL will become something very different.
