A week to ponder how they fell to 1-5
Three months ago, on the eve of training camp, Jon Gruden stood on a stage at Ricky’s in San Leandro and, in a loud, commanding voice, addressed a crowd of raucous Raiders fans gathered to celebrate his return as head coach.
“I don’t want to make a lot of promises,” Gruden said at one point, “but we have one hell of a quarterback in Derek Carr. The other thing I can promise you is our center and our two guards, they’re as good as there is in football. And we’re going to find a way to get Khalil Mack back, too. And just to make the Kansas City Chiefs real mad, we signed Derrick Johnson.”
Each sentence was punctuated with a roar. And though it’s easy to parse Gruden’s rallying words in hindsight, the scene now serves to underscore how little has gone well for the 1-5 Raiders over the first six weeks of their season, and how much the optimism that accompanied Gruden’s return seems to have dimmed.
Mack, of course, did not return, traded to Chicago on Sept. 1. Carr went into the team’s bye week ranked 21st among NFL quarterbacks in passer rating and was tied for the league lead in interceptions. Pro Bowl left guard Kelechi Osemele has missed the past two games with a
knee injury — the Raiders were fined $20,000 last week for failing to properly report his status for their Week 5 road game against the Chargers.
Trade rumors are swirling around first-round picks Amari Cooper and Karl Joseph. The Raiders’ last loss before their bye was a 27-3 drubbing by the Seahawks in London. Afterward, the website isgrudengoneyet.com surfaced — its content a large “NO” with a countdown of the time remaining on Gruden’s 10-year contract and the portion of his reported $100 million salary he has made to date.
How did things pivot so quickly? The trade of Mack, the Raiders’ best player, days before the season was divisive. Still, rather than become a contender with Gruden and the remaining nucleus of a team that won 12 games two years ago, the Raiders have more closely resembled Gruden’s description — oft repeated recently — of a team with “a ways to go.”
“We’re diagnosing everything,” Gruden said last week. “Not only the plays we’ve called, the players we’ve used, the situations we’ve had . ... We’re working hard to solidify this roster every day and improve ourselves and get the right people on the field. Those are decisions that we’re looking at. We’re going to continue to try to develop our young players. We’re going to stay on the gas pedal and go as hard as we can.”
Overhauled in the offseason, the Raiders’ personnel has stayed in flux. They are starting rookies Kolton Miller and Brandon Parker at the tackle positions. Their starting cornerbacks the first five weeks, Gareon Conley and Rashaan Melvin, have been effectively benched. Their Week 1 middle linebacker, Derrick Johnson, whom Gruden referenced at Ricky’s, was released. Running back Marshawn Lynch, arguably their best player this season, has a worrisome groin strain.
The Raiders selected 26 players in three drafts from 2015 through ’17. Of those, only one played more than 15 snaps on offense or defense in the loss to Seattle: linebacker Marquel Lee, who logged 49. Cooper and offensive lineman Jon Feliciano started the game but left early because of injuries. Conley, their first-round pick a year ago, played zero snaps on defense.
By contrast, the Raiders played nine rookies against Seattle, including six members of the 2018 draft class. That number could grow after the bye, with fourthround pick Nick Nelson expected to join the rotation at cornerback, after being delayed by a pre-draft knee injury, and undrafted linebacker Jason Cabinda signed this week to replace Johnson.
Experienced players acquired to complement the youth movement have largely underwhelmed. Missed tackles in the linebacker corps and secondary have contributed to a defense that came into the weekend allowing the second-most yards per play (6.7) in the league. Receiver Jordy Nelson had 173 of his 323 receiving yards in one game (against Miami). Running back Doug Martin has been buried behind Lynch in the backfield.
Following the loss to Seattle, Carr was asked whether it seems like the Raiders are going backward.
“I think, obviously, ’cause we’re losing,” Carr said. “When you’re losing. everything feels like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ It piles on, it does. Emotionally, right? But when you look at it, I mean, I can get into situations and those kinds of things. We got beat. They just physically beat us.”
Other players echoed Carr’s view of the loss. Defensive end Arden Key said the Raiders “got our ass whooped.” Running back Jalen Richard said the Seahawks “outplayed us across the board.”
“You sit there and you say, ‘Well, how do we fix that?’ ” Carr said. “I’m sure we’ll have some pretty physical practices. I’m pretty sure Coach will have a plan for those kinds of things.”
In a sparse locker room Tuesday, as players scattered for the bye week, the few who stopped to talk with reporters spoke in hopeful tones. Richard cited “a high focus on trying to turn this thing around.” Said rookie defensive tackle P.J. Hall: “Everybody’s still positive. We have a great mind-set going into this bye week, even though our record isn’t as great as we expected.”
In 11 previous seasons as a head coach, Gruden started 1-5 once — in 2004 in Tampa Bay. That team finished 5-11. Following the bye, the Raiders play three games in four weeks against teams that also started 1-5: the Colts, 49ers and Cardinals. That stretch could indicate where the rest of the season is headed.
On Tuesday, during his news conference at the Raiders’ facility, Gruden momentarily looked beyond the assembled reporters and directly at the cameras at the back of the room, and seemingly tried to rekindle some of the fervor so easily stoked a few months ago.
“I’ll just let the Raider fans know out there — we’re not very good in the (win-loss) column, and I don’t know how it’s going to go for the next 10 weeks,” he said. “But we’re working hard, we’ve got a good group of guys. And we’re going to be fun to watch.”
“We’re working hard to solidify this roster every day and improve ourselves and get the right people on the field . ... We’re going to stay on the gas pedal and go as hard as we can.” Jon Gruden, Raiders head coach