Raiders players push past ‘shock’ of Khalil Mack trade
ALAMEDA, Calif. — By Monday morning, the shock had faded.
The Raiders practiced as they have all offseason: without Khalil Mack. Only this time, players and coaches knew there was no chance tomorrow or the next day would be different. The All-Pro defensive end was traded Saturday to the Chicago Bears. He is gone.
Within the Bears organization, about 1,800 miles away, expectations for 2018 have been raised.
Within the Raiders organization, there is a defiant refusal to allow theirs to lower.
“Was it a little shocking? Was the locker room a little stunned?” tight end Lee Smith asked Monday. “Yes. Of course we were. We’d be lying if we said we weren’t. But does it make us feel like we’re stranded on an island all the sudden and can’t win football games? Absolutely not.”
In some sense, no NFL locker room was better equipped than the Raiders’ to handle the trade of a superstar nine days before a season opener. No roster in the league is older. The majority of this team, 29 of 53 players, did not join the organization before 2018; Mack isn’t a former teammate for most. And he hasn’t been around in months.
So, the group processed the blockbuster trade as well as could be expected.
This starts with Derek Carr.
The quarterback directly followed Mack into the league. Mack was the Raiders’ 2014 first-round pick. Carr went in the second round. One day and 30 selections separated them. Once becoming teammates, the two closed any pre-existing gaps.
“We planned the next 10 to 15 years of our life,” Carr said, “sitting in the same lockers.”
They sought to change the culture within an organization that carried a streak of 11 straight nonwinning seasons. They wanted to return the Raiders to being a franchise that attracted veterans in free agency. Carr, who often calls Mack his “brother,” believes they and the rest of their draft class achieved those goals. A Super Bowl was their last.
If Carr can move forward, the rest of the locker room can follow. He and the 52 others, for the most part, have trained together since April while Mack began his holdout for a contract extension.
“Obviously, when he got traded, it was a punch to the stomach because he’s your friend,” Carr said. “But all the work that we’ve put in and all the time, the reps that guys have gotten, you sit there and think, ‘Well, we put the work in. Let’s go. It’s time to play.’ My expectation never changes. I don’t care if I’m out there with my two sons, 5 and 2 years old, playing receiver. I expect us to be excellent. I expect them to know what to do. I expect us to do it.
“Thankfully, we have a really talented group and team of not only players but coaches as well. It’s going to be good.”
Financially, the Raiders concluded they and Mack were not a fit.
Carr knew before signing his five-year, $125 million contract extension in 2017 that Mack was scheduled for negotiations this year. Accordingly, the structure of Carr’s deal was designed to facilitate Mack one day signing the sort of six-term deal he secured in Chicago.
But the market for an elite pass rusher expanded greatly. In 2016, the Denver Broncos’ Von Miller signed a historic contract worth $19.1 million annually. Last Friday, Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald raised the bar to $22.5 million per year with $50 million guaranteed at signing. Mack’s is worth $23.5 million on average with $60 million guaranteed at signing.
The Rams and Bears both start a quarterback still on his rookie contract.
From the start, Carr and Mack aimed for an NFL future together. Their timing came at the expense of their coexistence.
“I think it goes without saying that everyone in this locker room has an extreme amount of respect for Khalil,” Smith said. “We all obviously wish No. 52 was still wearing silver and black and not blue and orange or whatever the hell they wear up there. But this is pro football, man. If you’ve been around this business long enough, you understand there’s a lot of big decisions that get made upstairs that, here in this locker room, aren’t in our control. …
“I’ve played against them all. (Mack) and Von are the two best. We had one of them, and now we don’t, and that sucks. But at the end of the day, it’s pro football. We get it, and we’re just going to keep grinding. …We’re going to win a lot of football games. I can promise you that.”
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Contact reporter Michael Gehlken at mgehlken@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GehlkenNFL on Twitter.
