Gruden elusive on filling GM spot
Will Raiders seek ‘similar qualities’ to McKenzie?
Head coach Jon Gruden said he did not want to reveal Monday the names of any candidates for the Raiders’ sudden frontoffice vacancy, “because I don’t know of any.”
Gruden said he hopes whomever the Raiders hire has “similar qualities” to Reggie McKenzie, who was fired near the end of his seventh season as the team’s general manager Monday morning.
“A guy that works hard, that loves football, that loves this organization, that will scratch and claw and fight with the rest of us,” Gruden said. “Obviously, expertise in personnel. Great leadership skills. A number of things go into this job. It’s a tough position in this league.”
Still undetermined is what exactly the position will be.
In a statement confirming McKenzie’s departure Monday, the Raiders said they would “immediately begin a search for a new front office executive,” opting not to specify that executive’s title.
Whoever is hired will come to the team under Gruden, who signed a 10-year contract in January and on Monday acknowledged his intent is to “rebuild the Raiders.” McKenzie’s firing came one day after the Raiders beat the Steelers to improve to 3-10.
Shaun Herock, the Raiders’ director of college scouting, will assume a larger role in the interim, Gruden said, with NFL Network reporting that Herock also is expected to formally interview for the vacancy.
Herock arrived in Oakland in 2012 along with McKenzie from Green Bay, where he had worked for 19 years — including 11 as the Packers’ assistant director of college scouting. With
the Raiders, Herock has managed draft preparations and evaluation of college prospects.
The Raiders have three firstround picks in next year’s draft: their own, currently slated to be a top-five pick, and those of the Bears and Cowboys, two firstplace teams whose picks would fall in the 20s. Gruden said Herock’s “leadership will be important” and said Monday that he intended to talk with the Raiders’ scouting department to “try to rally the troops” after McKenzie’s firing.
Herock’s father, Ken, played for the Raiders for four seasons and was a part of their personnel department under Al Davis. Shaun Herock served as a team ballboy.
Joey Clinkscales, the Raiders’ director of player personnel under McKenzie, is still with the team, Gruden said. Gruden also was asked about Dave Razzano, whom he hired as director of football research with extensive scouting experience, and described Razzano as “a personnel assistant.”
Though Gruden said he expects owner Mark Davis to generate a list of candidates — “I’m sure we’ll discuss those people later this week,” he said — names of possible candidates already were being suggested in reports.
One was Bruce Allen, the current Washington team president who has a history with Gruden. Allen was a senior executive with the Raiders from 1996 through 2003, a run that included Gruden’s first four seasons as head coach and the team’s Super Bowl appearance after the 2002 season.
Allen also served as Tampa Bay’s general manager during Gruden’s tenure there as head coach and the two were fired after the 2008 season. In Washington, Allen hired Gruden’s brother, Jay, as head coach in 2014.
NFL Network, which first reported McKenzie’s departure, also named Mark Dominik and Jimmy Raye III as potential replacements. Dominik worked in the Buccaneers’ scouting department while Gruden was head coach and replaced Allen as general manager. Raye is a senior personnel executive with the Lions and the son of Jimmy Raye II, the Raiders’ offensive coordinator from 2004 through ’05.
One potential candidate, Scot McCloughan, the former 49ers and Washington general manager whose father Kent played cornerback for the Raiders, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday that he is not interested in the team’s frontoffice vacancy. Roster moves: The Raiders on Tuesday signed guards Cameron Hunt and Denver Kirkland, put guard Jon Feliciano (calf ) on injured reserve and waived running back C.J. Anderson, the Vallejo native and Cal alum.