News » the Gruden deal. “You gotta get it right.”But

The glaring need at the wide receiver position has become painfully obvious over the first couple weeks of the Raiders season. What was seen as one of the better looking units in the league while Antonio Brown was expected to behave himself Bo Jackson Jersey , has been downright pathetic since then.Help is needed and the Raiders are trying to find it. Friday they hosted four wide receviers for workouts, including a familiar face to Oakland. The team’s former 7th round pick, Brice Butler.The man earned the nickname ‘DJ Duffle” in his first year with the Raiders, was a preseason standout for three seasons. But after his first two seasons still finding himself spending time on the practice squad, he had become a tad non-plussed by how his preseason performances were not leading to anything.“I can make plays,” Butler told me in 2015 training camp. “But this is my third preseason and typically the trend is to play good in the preseason and don’t really do much in the regular season, so my mindset’s a little different about preseason. I want to do well, of course, every time I step on the field I want to do well, but to me the preseason doesn’t really matter much.”The previous two seasons, it was Dennis Allen’s staff that watched how well he played and still waived him at the deadline. Though each time he was eventually called up to the roster and would spend 25 games with the team, catching 30 passes for 383 yards and 2 touchdowns. That season he had a new coaching staff in the building and the head coach was a USC alum https://www.raiderslockerroom.com/authentic-antonio-brown-jersey , just like him. And he wasn’t cut at the deadline...he was traded to the Cowboys.It was a fairly good deal as it netted the Raiders a 5th round pick. Butler was happy too because for the first time in his young career a team saw what he was doing on the field in preseason and wanted to give him a real chance from the start.In three seasons with the Cowboys, Butler caught 43 passes on 81 targets for 794 yards and 6 touchdowns. That offseason he signed a 2-year deal with the Cardinals but again found himself among the final roster cuts prior to the start of the season.He would spent six games with the Dolphins last season catching 6 passes for 60 yards and a touchdown.Now 29, he finds himself looking for a new team and with the Raiders situation at receiver, a return to Oakland could be his best chance to get back on an NFL field.Follow @LeviDamien Raiders owner Mark Davis has seen a playoff contender disintegrate this year, thanks to the decisions to trade 聽Khalil Mack and Amari Cooper. And, of course, Davis claims to have no regrets about the trades. Because what else is he going to say?He said a few things at last week’s quarterly meetings to NFL Media, and the things he said continue to create a perception that, when it comes to giving up on the pass-rusher and pass-catcher, there’s still plenty of passing the buck.“It was all Reggie doing those deals,” Davis said. “He seemed really happy about it.”Yes, blame it on Reggie McKenzie Womens Derek Carr Jersey , the guy who’s now no longer there. The guy who, from the moment Jon Gruden returned to coach the team, lost any and all juice that the former G.M. had.They won’t be able to blame McKenzie (although they may try, since he surely did plenty of advance work on the next draft) for what comes next: Turning the three first-round picks the Raiders have in April into great players. It’s the first time the Raiders have had extra first-round picks since the trade that sent Gruden to the Buccaneers.“And what did we do with that?” Davis said regarding the return on the Gruden deal. “You gotta get it right.”But here’s the thing Davis still doesn’t seem to realize. If you get it right, you gotta pay the players. Davis previously admitted that Mack was traded because of the inability to sign him to a new contract, and that Cooper was traded at least in part because he and Mack have the same agent, and Davis didn’t want a repeat of the Mack mess in 2019, when Cooper potentially held out in order to get a new deal.Those admissions amount to an invitation to play hardball with the Raiders, and if those three draft picks indeed become special players, the Raiders in three or four years will be right back in the middle of a financial conundrum. And then Davis can say he has no regrets about the decisions to trade them away, too.