Jon Gruden’s trades of Khalil Mack and Amari Cooper netted two extra first-round picks for the Raiders later this month, and he’s bluntly letting first-year GM Mike Mayock know that he must deliver on those selections.
“Don’t mess it up, dude,” Gruden told him, according to Mayock, in an interview with ESPN. “I took a lot of slings to get you three first-round picks.”
Oakland will pick fourth overall due to its 4-12 record last season, plus 24th from the controversial trade of Mack, the star pass rusher, to Chicago and 27th from dealing Cooper, a former Pro Bowl wide receiver, to Dallas.
Only three other teams in the past three decades have entered the draft with three picks in the first round. Mayock — the former draft analyst for NFL Network – is confident he can deliver for the $100 million head coach.
“You always have to go back to trusting who you are as an evaluator,” Mayock said. “I’m a son of a coach and I know how coaches think, and coaches think need. And we’re a coach-driven building; our coaches are highly involved. That’s good. I embrace that. The flip side is, you can’t reach. You’ve got to use some common sense. And that’s what I preach.”
The Raiders totaled a league-low 13 sacks last season, just a half-sack more than Mack registered in 14 games for the Bears. There will be several highly rated pass rushers available on April 25, but Mayock insists he won’t necessarily deviate from his draft board to fill that need.
“If there’s a discount, a disparity between the two [players], let’s not reach for need because the more you do that, the more you dilute your roster. And that’s a conversation we’ve had a lot,” Mayock said. “The way I look at this thing from a how-do-people-perceive-me perspective is a lot of people doubted that anybody could come out of the media and go and be a GM for any team. I know that. I get that.
“But at the end of the day, here’s the deal — if we win, everything will be fine. And if we lose, I’ll get fired. And I’m perfectly fine with that.”