The real problem is still being ignored

ALAMEDA – Jon Gruden is still skirting accountability.

He refuses to admit that he’s on an aggressive rebuilding campaign – tanking the team’s final years (or year) in Oakland for the sake of the team’s Las Vegas future.

He refuses to admit that he calls all the shots in Alameda, and that general manager Reggie Mckenzie is nothing more than a well-paid yes man.

He refuses to admit that, by trading two Pro Bowl players (ages 24 and 27) without remorse or much of an immediate explanation to his team, he has created natural discord among a locker room chock full of veteran players brought in to “win now”. (As laughable as that concept seems now, with the team at 1-5.)

And he refuses to admit that – along the same lines that led to Khalil Mack and Amari Cooper’s exit – he has been open to trading Derek Carr ahead of next week’s trade deadline. Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden reacts on the sideline in fourth quarter of their NFL game against the Los Angeles Rams at the Coliseum in Oakland on Sept. 10.

But Gruden can keep pushing selfserving nonsense and next-level cognitive dissonance about winning now while building for the future – he can keep playing us all for fools – because he doesn’t need to be accountable to the fans, the media, or even his players.

Gruden is only accountable to one person in the Raiders’ organization: team owner Mark Davis.