GM Mayock is dealing with more crisis management than he ever imagined
Mike Mayock should be locking himself in his office at the club facility, checking in with coach Jon Gruden, scouts and assistant coaches in between face-to-face interviews designed to help determine which draft prospects are worthy of being called Raiders and which are not.
Instead, the Raiders GM is facing a pivotal draft starting Thursday while sheltered in place at his East Bay home with five white boards and magnets everywhere highlighting different players. He’ll take his cue from the NFL on how to go about establishing communication necessary to execute his second draft class along with Gruden.
If Mayock were still doing analysis for NFL Network, life wouldn’t be all that different than it was when he ranked prospects for media purposes from 2004 through 2018. He’d look into a camera, and proceed with a meticulously organized set of rankings full of details and informed opinions on which players should go where and why.
“That’s a fancy way of saying I sat in my living room and watched a lot of film,” Mayock told Bay Area reporters by conference call.
Then he’d step back and see what happens and begin the process of doing it all over again the next year.
Now, as Mayock put it, at the scouting combine, he’s got “skin in the game.”
I sat next to Mayock once in the press box as he was working as an analyst and preparing for a Raiders preseason game. I have little use for exhibitions, which are mostly to sort through players who may not ever play a down in the NFL.
Mayock watched closely and intently, both polite and firm in his opinions as we exchanged a few ideas. He loved the minutiae, projecting where and how talent might fit. Pretty much what you saw on television.
But there are no gray areas when it comes to silver and black. Winning and/or losing brings on a whole different layer of emotion.
“I’m trying not to puke up in the box for three and a half hours,” Mayock said. “That’s really the truth.”
Mayock has had to learn on the job, but even a work ethic that’s enabled him to keep pace with Gruden could not prepare him for what he’s faced as a fledgling GM.
There is no manual for how to operate in a global pandemic. Far less important, but equally challenging, was figuring how to negotiate the unpredictable, bizarre terrain that came with trading for Antonio Brown. Throw in the fact that Mayock joined a lame duck franchise leaving Oakland for Las Vegas, and it’s been a unique baptism for someone who went from tele
vision analyst to NFL personnel executive.
For the most part, it seems to be working out. Mayock’s first draft with Gruden came with a surprise at No. 4 overall (plenty of people are still skeptical about defensive end Clelin Ferrell going that high) but put into place a number of players that could be foundation pieces as the club at some point plays its first season in Las Vegas.
And we haven’t even really seen safety Johnathan Abram, injured in last season’s opener and the third of three first-round picks to go along with Ferrell and bell cow running back Josh Jacobs.
Cornerback Trayvon
Mullen, defensive end Maxx Crosby, tight end Foster Moreau and wide receiver Hunter Renfrow all look like keepers, as does undrafted fullback Alec Ingold. Cornerback Isaiah Johnson will get to show what he’s about this season.
During Mayock’s first free agency, injuries cut short tackle Trent Brown’s first season, nickel corner Lamarcus Joyner struggled and wide receiver Tyrell Williams was injured.
But in all, Mayock helped preside over a three-game improvement to 7-9, and the exchange of departed free agents for a new crop looks favorable at first glance — especially on defense with the signings of end Carl Nassib, tackle Maliek Collins, linebackers Cory Littleton and Nick Kwiatkoski and safeties Damarious Randall and Jeff Heath.
The personnel department was where Mayock was expected to shine. It’s the rest of the job that brought the most challenges.
“Basically I was a lone ranger at the NFL Network,” Mayock said. “I had to be responsible for my own content, show up at the combine, do my podium and make sure I knew something about 337 players. Then I’d go home, do my individual thing again and get ready for the next hurdle.
“As a GM, you’re managing people. And I don’t think people really understand sometimes what a job that is.”
Besides reorganizing the scouting department, Mayock’s people management skills include Gruden, who can be Mount Everest in that regard given his propensity to push those in his charge farther than they’ve ever been pushed before.
After the Brown fiasco, which reportedly included the wide receiver going after Mayock in practice and calling him a “cracker,” the general manager retreated to a media shell for the rest of the season other than an interview with his NFL Network colleague Rich Eisen.
Mayock would politely respond to text messages, saying it was his job to stay in the background during the season. But given how good Mayock is with the press, and that he seems to enjoy the give and take, there seemed to be something else at work.
Was Mayock, who had the unfortunate role of trying to put the reins on a clearly unstable personality in Brown, miffed that Gruden didn’t back him publicly? Or was the entire training camp spectacle a “good cop, bad cop” charade with no hard feelings?
We’ll probably never have the answer. But Mayock sounded rejuvenated at the combine and was his old self last week talking to reporters. He’s old school, raised by a father and football coach who was harder on his son than the rest of the team to make sure there was no instances of favoritism. So it’s not surprising Mayock sees the Raiders’ glass as more than half empty instead of nearly half full after going 7-9. For answers, Mayock is looking in the mirror.
“I have to do a better job of managing our roster during the season at certain positions,” Mayock said. “We weren’t particularly good at linebacker. I think I made some mistakes there. We weren’t particularly good at wide out. I think I made some mistakes there. I just need to do a better job, bottom line.”
For time being, Mayock will do it behind closed doors as will every other general manager in the NFL. He admits to being a little behind in terms of technology, but Mayock will do as he’s always done. Figure it out as he goes along.