Bad news for Raiders fans who are angry and frustrated about the way things are going for their team and blame head coach Jon Gruden: Mark Davis says he’s happy with Gruden.
The Raiders owner says the team’s 1-8 record is on him, not Gruden.
“I always look in the mirror, and the buck stops with me,” Davis told Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com in wide-ranging remarks published Monday, a day after the Raiders lost 20-6 to the Los Angeles Chargers. “Where this team is right now is my fault. We haven’t been able to build a 22-man roster. We haven’t been able to give this team a chance to win because the reconstruction failed. We failed from 2014 on to have a roster right now.”
Davis pointed to the fact many of the team’s recent drafts didn’t produce the type of results the organization needed. He said that problem is the biggest the team faces in this downer of a season in which Gruden just doesn’t have the talent to compete. Davis told Gutierrez he has absolute faith in Gruden as the person who can ultimately build back the roster and get the Raiders on a winning track – even if it doesn’t seem like it in 2018.
Davis also said Gruden isn’t to blame for the trade of the team’s best player, Khalil Mack. Davis said Mack’s representatives refused to negotiate a new deal, so he had no choice but to get the best return he could for Mack and move on.
The bottom line: Davis is firmly behind his head coach.
“I understood it was going to be a lot of work, but Jon has a 10-year contract,” Davis said. “I know how hard Jon Gruden works. I know how much he wants to win. And how much days like today (the loss to the Chargers) are killing him.
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“Having Jon Gruden here was the end game for me. Jon’s going to be the stability here. Jon’s going nowhere. That’s just the way it is.”
As longtime Bay Area columnist Tim Kawakami noted, the tear-down of the franchise may get worse before things (maybe) get better.
“Mark Davis has made the decision,” Kawakami tweeted Monday. “Jon Gruden is the guy and if that means pushing every other significant figure away – Khalil Mack, Amari Cooper, Jack Del Rio, Reggie McKenzie, maybe Derek Carr – then that’s what’s going to happen.”
The Raiders will return to action this Sunday in Arizona against the Cardinals. Kickoff is set for 1:05 p.m.
