Gruden can’t hide true thoughts on Raiders anymore

Not all is lost for the Raiders after they fell to 0-2 to start the season with a gutpunch loss to the Broncos on Sunday. No, seriously. A win in Miami this week and a victory at home over the Browns at the end of the month, and this Raiders’ team is back in back in business at 2-2.

In the modern playoff era, roughly one in 10 teams that start 0-2 make the playoffs, but a 2-2 team — particularly one in a deep division like the AFC West? A team like that has a puncher’s chance to make the postseason.

Is it a bit of a longshot? Of course. The Dolphins are 2-0 and teams traveling from the West to the East coast win roughly one-third of the time and the Browns are no pushover these days either — but after Derek Carr’s stellar performance against Denver, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the Raiders’ chances to get back into this thing.

But if you’re looking for a glass-half-full viewpoint, don’t go to Jon Gruden.

The Raiders’ old/new coach has pushed a more pessimistic narrative over the first two weeks of the season, and no matter what happens on the field — good or bad — over the next few weeks, it behooves everyone to listen to it.

When Gruden is optimistic, he’ll say damn near anything. Some of it might even be true.

But when he’s pushing a more cynical tone, his words are carefully selected.

And the words he’s using now make it very clear that Gruden is a few weeks into a multi-year rebuilding plan for the Raiders.

Now, Gruden hasn’t flat-out said the word “rebuild” yet, but two weeks into the season and he’s already deep into the thesaurus.

After the Raiders’ Week One loss, Gruden declared: “We’re going to build this football team back. It might not happen tonight, but we’re going to keep laying bricks.”

Monday, he said that he was going to “build the foundation of this football team” before adding that the Raiders are a “work in progress” with a “long way to go”. Tell us how you really feel, Jon. Then again, Gruden isn’t a guy you can necessarily take for his word. After all, if he’s really rebuilding, then he’s reneged on his promise to deliver “the best team (he) can for the people of Oakland” — a team that’s rebuilding is putting together the best possible product for Las Vegas.

Luckily, actions speak louder than words, and Gruden told us everything we needed to know when he traded away Khalil Mack.

Gruden has tried to push the narrative that Mack didn’t want to be in Oakland, but that’s false — Mack wanted to be in silver and black, but he wanted a new, fairmarket contract more, so he held out. You can’t fault him for that.

Gruden decided that Mack wasn’t worth the money the Bears eventually gave him — you can fault the Raiders’ head coach for that — but Gruden’s stance that Mack’s holdout — which was poised to last weeks — wasn’t worth the trouble was a large part of the calculus of trading him before the start of the season.

But you don’t trade a player like Mack — who was under contract for 2018 and under team control (via the franchise tag) for at least one year after that — if you plan on contending. Half a season of an irreplaceable player like Mack is worth the trouble if you’re going for a playoff spot.

Gruden didn’t even move Mack for a player who could help the Raiders in 2018 — he sold the defensive end for future draft picks.

That message came through loud and clear.

For Gruden, it’s all about Vegas, baby — but the Raiders will keep up appearances and avoid admitting to the fact of the matter while they squat in Oakland (for however long that might be).

One could argue that the Bay Area fans have been betrayed — honestly, it’s an easy case to make — but frankly, expectations shouldn’t have been high.

Gruden, as much as he says he loves the Bay Area, has a 10-year contract to coach the Raiders — wherever they might reside — that he needs to execute in good faith, and lest we forget, he took over a franchise that has one winning season in 15 years. Forgive the imagery, but the Raiders organization was begging for an enema — there are countless toxins in Alameda that need to be flushed out if this organization is ever to be healthy — and Gruden is one of the few people in football with the ego and drive necessary to take on that challenge and carry out such a procedure. (Though the money didn’t hurt, either.)

As such, everything Gruden has said and done since the regular season entered the horizon has been about the Raiders’ — and, by proxy, his — long-term interest.

And don’t expect that to change now that the team is 0-2.

“We’re going to keep building our football team. Whether that translates into one win or four wins or any wins, I’m not going to make any predictions,” Gruden said Monday.

Maybe Gruden is wrong about his team — maybe these Raiders, led by the Carr that showed up at Mile High, are capable of not only clawing their way back into contention, but going further than that. It’s a nice thought, for sure — one that can make the next 15 weeks a bit more enjoyable.

But I doubt that’s the case. Gruden might have been away from the sidelines for nine years, but he’s no dummy — he sees a team at the start of a long, but worthwhile, journey.

Will it work out? Beats me. If it does, it’ll happen across state lines. Which raises a bigger question: Should we even care?