Sep 30, 2014; Alameda, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie during a press conference to introduce Tony Sparano (not pictured) as Raiders interim coach at the Raiders practice facility. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Bottom Line
This article isn’t in any way to say that McKenzie should be fired but we can’t sit here and act like mistakes aren’t being made. Wanting to make everything all his has cost McKenzie and the Raiders, who were within a game of the playoffs before he showed up. Now, their 8-32 since he’s taken over as he took a Top-10 offense down to around the bottom of the NFL and made a bad defense worse.
The salary cap is no excuse because there were a lot of players that didn’t cost that much that he allowed out of Raider Nation. The roster could have been a mix of Davis’ and McKenzie’s best players and that would have been a good team. Let’s keep it 100, the team is actually worse now after McKenzie had over $60 million in cap space this past offseason.
During his time he has wasted $14 million on two broke-armed quarterbacks that could have been spent to keep Raiders. He drafted well this year but I can’t even give him all the credit for that as owner Mark Davis was adamant about picking Carr. We don’t know how McKenzie drafted in 2013 yet as I believe 2014 1st-round pick D.J. Hayden will be back soon to help prove it’s a good one.
In free agency, Donald Penn is the only thing worth anything at this point.
So maybe he’ll get the hang of free agency by this offseason.
I’m not giving up on McKenzie just yet but I have to see something soon.
I wonder if that’s what Mark Davis is thinking.