Jon Gruden using twist on Al Davis philosophy is signing of cast-off pass rushers
For nine years, Jon Gruden worked at ESPN, both as a Monday Night Football commentator and at the desk during the draft. Meanwhile, over at NFL Network, Mike Mayock was the preeminent draft expert.
In the past couple of years, the two have been with the Raiders, Gruden as the head coach and Mayock as General Manager. And they still remember the kind of grades and opinions they had of the draft prospects while they were paid to study and discuss them.
Two once highly regarded former first-round picks were available for them to sign, and they signed them.
Former 8th overall pick (2015) Vic Beasley was released by the Titans while former 26 overall pick (2017) Takkarist McKinley was waived by the 49ers — the third team to do so in the past week due to a groin issue caused by failed physicals.
Beasley was added to the practice squad and took the practice field on Wednesday.
“Obviously he’s had a history in the NFL,” Gruden said of Beasley. “He’s got some playing experience. We liked him coming out of Clemson. Gonna see if we can get him going. I’ll make no predictions.”
McKinley, like Beasley, put up great sack numbers early in their careers. McKinley had 13 sacks over his first two seasons while Beasley had 19.5. That would seem to confirm the opinion of those who had them highly rated in the draft.
Recently their stocks have fallen and they were cast out by their respective teams. That’s where Gruden sees an opportunity for a reclamation project. The way he sees it, if they liked these guys as prospects, it was for a reason and it’s worth a shot to see if he or Mayock was right.
“We’ve always looked at what we thought of the players coming out,” Gruden said of he and Mayock’s philosophy for adding potential talent. “When McKinley came out of UCLA, when Vic came out of Clemson, I know I liked them both, I know Mike liked them both. And when players are available that we liked, we want to bring them here as soon as possible. If everything is legitimate and it works out, financially and in all the other ways. That’s the biggest thing and I learned that from Al Davis when I was here. Learned that from Bill Walsh with the 49ers. Bring in Hacksaw Leonard, bring in Fred Dean, bring in some of these players. Matt Millen, Ronnie Lott, bring them in. If they’ve played great before, there’s a chance they can play great again and sometimes a change of scenery is what these guys need.”
The Raiders could sure use a successful reclamation project at edge rusher right about now. They currently have just 14 sacks this season, which is 27th in the league. Maxx Crosby has six of those sacks, and no one else has even two. The only other edge rusher with any sacks at all is Carl Nassib with 1.5 on the season.
So, yeah, shoot your shots on these guys. It’s definitely worth a shot for a team that needs something good to happen on defense as they make a run at the playoffs.
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