An Open Letter to Mark Davis
Written late December. 2021
Last year just prior to the Raiders v. Chargers game I wrote this. The team did make the playoffs, but I still prefer my plan to the direction they went. I just wanted this to be seen as foresight and not hindsight.
No one on Medium is going to care about this, so unless a football fan maybe go read something else I’ve written.
Mr. Davis,
You don’t know me. And I’m sure you can throw a rock in Vegas, Oakland or Los Angeles and hit 2 of me. As a 53-year-old, long-suffering Raider fan I am not unique.
I’m sure every person you hit with that rock has all the answers to fix things. I don’t, but I have some thoughts.
Let me start by saying I was not a huge supporter when you took over the team. You hadn’t been involved like your father and didn’t seem to have the ‘Blood in, Blood out’ attitude your fan base does.
However, I was wrong about you. Mark McCormick in his book (What they don’t teach you in Harvard Business School) said, “Hire people smarter than yourself to do the things you can’t.”. What he meant was, “Don’t let your ego destroy things”. To your credit, you haven’t.
Much respect for the job you have done even given the circumstances.
Now my thoughts…..
Sniff around the league offices for someone smart and respected by the league. If you find a good prospect and he’s a senior-level guy, make him president. If he’s younger, make him director of operations or something. Point is, find someone with enough respect and or gravitas to go and quietly handle the league and the league’s BS prejudice towards the Raiders.
I don’t think I need to explain what I’m talking about. But the shit they have done to us since your dad got up there in years needs to stop or we will never win.
Although Gruden screwed himself, at least he had a voice and was willing to call out the league. Well, coaches need to coach and your new admin can have his back at the league level. Gruden had too many irons in the fire and (I’m not there and I can only guess) that deviated his focus a little. All that being said, he was a very smart hire.
I know you won’t do it, but if you brought Tracy back, she could make sense. I could see her, in a non-abrasive way, having firm conversations with the league and using the league diversity mandate against them. Her media relationships are extremely valuable. Mike Florio publically lobbied for her to take over for Roger to be league commissioner at one point. Imagine having his voice on the Raider’s side publically? She’s also respected enough that she could point things out publically and the media will have her back.
Sometimes a mom can nurture and discipline.
Keep Mayock, but tell him to play the game a little better with the draft. He knows the team very well and has done a lot of very good things. His scouting players in the later rounds has been fantastic. I wouldn’t turn the team over to him across the board, he’s smart, stable, and passionate.
Don’t try to hire a superstar coach. Don’t start over. You have a veteran QB who’s best three seasons should be his next three. All that time with Gruden made him better. Don’t let someone else benefit from those years of learning.
Otherwise, you have a very young team. We aren’t that far. We would have been in the playoffs this year had the league not pulled their surgical email attack. Also, I don’t think Ruggs is out behaving like that during the season if he had to see John the next morning. But that type of talk isn’t helping anyone.
Find a coach that Gus is ok with. Players play their ass off for him, as a D Coordinator his defenses are great. As a head coach, they lacked discipline. Of course, he’s going to want to interview and he should, but if you offer him the vision for all this, as well as his familiarity with the players and Mayock, he could have one hell of a defense next season. Perhaps making the new HC sit down with Gus at the end of the process. There are a lot of ways to do it and make people “buy in”.
End of the day, we win next year, he gets his own team and will be a hot commodity because everyone in the NFL will give him at least half the credit for our success. Sorta like Ditka and Buddy Ryan except hopefully, they will get along better.
Now, this only works if you are able to sell the people internally to buy in. The average fan will be all about the players you bring in and draft, but if you stabilize the organization you will be setting us up to succeed, perhaps dominate for years to come.
I’ve spent 30 years in the entertainment business (17 of which as a talent agent) and a respected producer said something to me once that applies to this situation and your part in it.
As we walked on the set of a film he was producing I asked him, ‘What he did on set’ once they start filming.
He said,
“If I’ve done my job correctly, no one needs me”.
