Offseason signings not exactly ‘Boy Scouts’
Jon Gruden’s Oakland Raiders are a playoff-contending team at 3-2, and on Sunday in Green Bay, they can cement that status with a road win over one of the
NFL’s best teams, the Packers.
Yes, the Raiders are on a nice run, one that’s even more remarkable when considering the absences the team has been forced to overcome and the team’s chaotic preseason.
It was fair to suggest that, coming off a bye week, the Raiders could receive closure from an absurd first two months — closure unconducive to a typical NFL work week and the team’s travel schedule.
That will not be happening. Starting right tackle Trent Brown’s domestic violence civil lawsuit — filed by the mother of his
child this week in Alameda County court — will make sure of that.
It’ll also put the spotlight back on Gruden.
Three of the Raiders’ biggest offseason acquisitions this past winter — arguably the three most important — are now embroiled in or have fallen into some sort of controversy.
Forgive the crassness, but that’s not good business.
I have no idea what happened between Brown and his partner and it’d be foolish to try to inject a standard of morality into a business that is, effectively, professional murderball, but the Raiders do need to be held culpable for signing players that — no matter how talented they are — have proven to be liabilities to the team.
And this very well might be the third strike on Gruden’s second offseason.
As much as culture is overhyped by teams, media, and fans alike, it does matter. And while the Raiders — led by Derek Carr — will be gung-ho about how great and tight the locker room is, that’s not the only defining factor: culture is defined by action.
In Year One of Gruden’s tenure, the culture was defined by losing, and on a micro-level, deflecting blame for losing.
The Raiders seem to be over that now that they’re winning some games and in second place in the AFC West.
But Year Two seems to be about extra-curricular activities — distractions.
For that, Gruden can only blame himself.
Remember, he was the one who spearheaded the move for Antonio Brown — the once-in-a-lifetime show that kicked this whole thing off.
In his zeal to sign an unquestioned marquee player, Gruden overlooked warning sign after warning sign. No one could have predicted the level of peculiarities that AB exhibited once he came to Oakland, but him quitting on the team and making a scene? You could have seen that coming from a mile away — he did the same thing in Pittsburgh, a far better-run organization. The Raiders stood little to no chance of taming him.
Then there was Vontaze Burfict. The fit was certainly justifiable: The Raiders have a defense filled with youngsters and had a glaring hole at middle linebacker, so they signed the guy who was defensive coordinator Paul Guenther’s ace in Cincinnati.
And while Burfict was a model citizen in the locker room and a team captain — he even reportedly played peacemaker in the spat between Antonio Brown and general manager Mike Mayock — you can’t change a Bengal’s stripes. Burfict is renowned as the NFL’s dirtiest player, and he didn’t change his on-field behavior, despite the league increasing penalties on or outlawing all of the things he did to earn that title.
Sure enough, his track record preceded him after his helmet-to-helmet hit on Colts tight end Jack Doyle in Indianapolis last month. He was suspended for the remainder of the 2019 season, a ruling that was upheld last week.
The Raiders might have sung Burfict’s praises during the appeal process, but it’s beyond reason to expect anyone to ignore his six prior suspensions and more than $4 million in fines when handing down punishment for that hit.
Burfict was a massive suspension waiting to happen — he was not reliable.
Gruden signed him anyway.
Then there’s Richie Incognito, whose actions in Miami should have seen him banned from the league. Nevertheless, he’s had steady work since “Bullygate” because he’s a hell of a guard.
Incognito was suspended by the league for the first two games of the season after he “threatened to shoot employees of a Scottsdale mortuary, punched caskets and asked workers to decapitate his father for research purposes” in August 2018, according to a Scottsdale, Arizona, police report. Incognito did not play the 2018 season.
But in his third game with the Raiders, he picked up fines for two personal fouls.
Does anyone really think those fines — innocuous as they might be — will be the last news Incognito makes this season?
Now, to be fair, Gruden’s Raiders did make some solid offseason acquisitions — Tyrell Williams, when healthy, has been a stud on the field and you won’t hear a foul word about him off of it; Jonathan Hankins has been solid, though his snap count has dwindled in recent weeks; and defensive back Lamarcus Joyner is an outstanding player with a positive temperament that you can’t help but believe will have positive effects for the team.
But the misses have been far more glaring than the hits, because, for two of them, Gruden should have seen them coming. Anyone who follows the NFL on even a cursory basis could have seen it.
And now, there’s the Trent Brown situation. It doesn’t fit into that category — the layman couldn’t read these tea leaves — but it nevertheless holds the potential to be damning to Gruden and the Raiders.
I’m not saying that the Raiders should have known of Brown’s alleged transgressions when they made him the richest NFL offensive lineman this past offseason either, but it’s fair to ask if the team did its full homework on Brown, who has played for three teams in five years, and if it did, if those background checks were thorough enough.
And it must be noted that, much like the Steelers getting rid of AB, the Patriots let TB walk this past offseason. Was money the only issue there?
And when was the last time a player went from a competent, winning organization to the Raiders and it was considered a win for Oakland?
Regardless, now that the allegations are out there, everyone will be watching to see how the team — namely Gruden — handles this tricky, sensitive situation. Offensive favoritism — like he showed by giving Antonio Brown opportunity after opportunity — won’t fly, and incredulousness, whether it be to the situation or an NFL punishment, won’t play either.
It might be apples to oranges, but Gruden — the unquestioned head honcho — needs to do better than he did with the AB and Burfict sagas, lest this turn into one too.
Brown did not practice Wednesday. Gruden said it was because of a calf strain he picked up Monday, the same day the civil suit was filed.
As for that suit: “We’re aware of it and we’re looking into it. I’m not going to say anything else,” Gruden said.
But I keep thinking back to another statement — this one from Mayock.
After signing Incognito this past spring, the Raiders’ general manager said: “You can’t have all Boy Scouts.”
That might be true. And at this moment, that statement — not the team’s successes or it’s strong standing — seems to define the 2019 Raiders.