OAK continues to be a joke in the NFL while CHI defense becomes very scary and Jordan Howard can count on even more carries...
if your assessment is that no single defensive player is worth that much of the cap, trading makes sense and this seems like at minimum fair value
You can't build a roster when you have a DE making quarterback money of over 22+m. Especially when your franchise quarterback is making 25+m already. That's not a recipe for success. There is a recipe for this to be successful, and that's when you have a young quarterback on the rookie scale which Chicago does. We seen it with Seattle around a young Wilson. While he was getting paid pennies, load up around him. I think it makes sense for both sides tbh, especially with reports saying it will be the biggest return of picks for a defensive player ever. Oakland could very well end up dominating this trade when we look back in a few years
I think the Donald deal sealed Mack's fate. That was too rich for Oakland.... especially when they gave Gruden 100 million.
Khalil Mack is very overrated, he's a really good defensive player, but he's not a game wrecker like the guys who deserve to be paid what he's looking to be paid.
Gruden's idiotic contact may be one reason the Raiders couldn't afford Mack. Gruden's huge ego may be the ultimate reason the trade happened.
Gruden isn't even the highest paid coach in the NFL. He just has a long contract. They don't have money because they play in Oakland.
What I meant was the Raiders were bidding against nobody when they guaranteed Gruden $100 million. If that isn't idiotic, nothing is. They would have been better off hiring a first-time coach with upside instead of an old retread who is known to have serious relationship issues with players. There was a reason no team gave him the time of day for so many years despite his stated desire to return to coaching.
So in the end, Oakland turned the #5 overall pick in 2014 into 4 years of superstar play for reasonable price and 2 more first round picks, possibly from a pretty shitty team. In theory, this is the ideal way to keep a team in contention. As someone earlier said, you probably can't pay your QB and DE a combined $45+MM and fill out a good roster.
