The Las Vegas Raiders have a lot of big decisions to make this offseason and perhaps the biggest one is what to do with general manager Mike Mayock. At this point, it’s pretty clear that interim head coach Rich Bisaccia shouldn’t keep the job going forward. However, things are more complicated with Mayock.
It’s not a secret that former head coach Jon Gruden had the final say on all personnel matters. Mayock’s opinion was certainly valued but Gruden called the shots. Over the last three years, the Raiders have made some highly questionable draft picks. The 2020 draft class will go down as one of the worst in history as only third-round pick Bryan Edwards and fourth-round pick Amik Robertson remain on the team.
Mayock was considered a draft expert when the Raiders hired him so the poor draft picks are certainly a bad look. That said, former New York Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum praised Mayock for recently deciding to extend kicker Daniel Carlson and punter A.J. Cole. He also believes it’s difficult to evaluate Mayock due to the situation with Gruden.
“[It] shows really smart strategic planning that’s not short-term in nature,” Tannenbaum said, via Paul Gutierrez of ESPN. “I think he deserves a lot of credit for that. And when you don’t have final say, sometimes your job is to execute the vision of the head coach. So, if you want to be honest about it, it’s sort of a grade of incomplete on some of these other decisions.
“It’s kind of hard to just evaluate one person’s performance when he didn’t have final say. Mike’s a hard-working, strong-willed guy who’s a company guy, so you don’t know where he may have disagreed [with Gruden]. And once you make a decision, you come out unified. So I just think it’s hard to extract one for the other but he’s a guy that’s well thought of, works hard, obviously has a big scouting background, so it’s really hard to isolate what he did compared to what maybe was done and he didn’t necessarily agree with.”
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Raiders More Talented Than Given Credit For?
With the Raiders having so many high-profile misses in the draft, it’s easy to focus on the negative in regards to Mayock. While the team whiffed on Clelin Ferrell, Damon Arnette and a number of other picks, they’ve also made some great picks. Maxx Crosby, Hunter Renfrow and Nate Hobbs were all found in the late rounds of the draft and all three should be NFL starters for a long time. Tannenbaum believes that people are making too much of his draft misses and that the Raiders do have talent.
“Look, they’ve missed on some picks there; so does everybody — but there is some talent there,” Tannenbaum said. “I just don’t think this is one of those situations where the cupboard is as bare as maybe people think.”
What Should Raiders Do With Mayock?
Mayock is not fully at fault for the Raiders’ recent struggles. Gruden was a strong personality and likely steamrolled his general manager in a lot of ways. That isn’t to say that Mayock doesn’t hold some of the blame. For example, he totally owned the Arnette pick after they released him. While Gruden made the decisions, Mayock definitely played a role in every draft pick.
The Raiders also haven’t done well in free agency as high profile free agents like Trent Brown, LaMarcus Joyner, Tyrell Williams and more quickly flamed out. Owner Mark Davis is likely to want a fresh start at general manager. Mayock is a hard worker but the results haven’t been good. It may not be the worst idea for Davis to give him a chance to see what he can do without Gruden but that seems unlikely.
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Ex-NFL GM Offers Telling Insight on Raiders’ Mike Mayock