ALAMEDA Cheap Foster Moreau Jersey , Calif. (AP) — last season was a consistent and frustrating one.After trading away star pass rusher Khalil Mack following a contract holdout, the Raiders never were able to fill that void on defense and were the worst in the league when it came to pressuring the quarterback and shutting down opposing offenses.While the constant questions about the lack of a pass rush might have grown tiresome, the Raiders know they will only stop when the defense takes some steps toward truly replacing Mack.“We take all of it,” said second-year defensive tackle Maurice Hurst, who led Oakland with four sacks as a rookie. “Every single game we play they’re going to mention our pass rush. We control the narrative for that. Obviously, last year wasn’t good enough and we get all the criticism for it. There’s a lot of eyes on us to develop and be special this year and change that narrative, change what they say about us, change our attitude and how we’re approaching things.”Hurst was part of a trio of rookie defensive linemen in Oakland last year who were drafted to complement edge rushers Mack and Bruce Irvin but became the main pieces after Mack was traded before the start of the season and Irvin was released midway through the year after struggling as the main man.Hurst showed some signs but had little help. Third-round defensive end Arden Key finished with just one sack in 16 games and second-round defensive tackle P.J. Hall had no sacks in 14 games.Those three are now being counted on as a big part of a young group up front that also includes a pair of rookie defensive ends in No. 4 overall pick Clelin Ferrell and fourth-rounder Maxx Crosby.“Now it’s our time to take it over and start to develop our own identity,” Hurst said. “That’s something that we didn’t do last year, is to develop an identity, and I think that’s what we are going to try and accomplish early on and just set a tone and keep it rolling throughout the season.”The numbers for the Raiders on defense were downright awful last season. Their 95 total quarterback pressures, according to SportRadar, were 29 fewer than the next worst team in the league. Oakland also finished with a league-low 13 sacks. In fact, Miami, New England and the Giants were tied for the second-fewest sacks with 30 but were closer to seventh best in the league than the last place Raiders.With no pressure coming whatsoever from the front seven and a secondary that struggled to limit big plays with a league-worst 10 passes allowed of at least 50 yards, the results were predictably poor.The Raiders ranked last in the league with 6.27 yards allowed per play and gave up a league-high 29.2 points per game for the worst mark in franchise history in yards and second worst in points.It was an unfamiliar spot for coordinator Paul Guenther, whose defenses ranked in the top of the NFL in his four seasons running the show in Cincinnati.“It’s something that you don’t always want to go through, having a rough year like we did, but obviously you start to learn how to build these things,” he said. “How to build your lineup card and what it should look like and how you envisioned it. That was the positive for me. I always tell the players, if you don’t learn from failure, you’re making a mistake. You have to learn from what we did good and what we did bad and build off of that in the future.”Guenther should have more pieces at his disposal this year with the maturation of last year’s rookies; the additions of Ferrell, first-round safety Johnathan Abram and second-round cornerback Trayvon Mullen through the draft; and free agent acquisitions like safety Lamarcus Joyner and linebackers Vontaze Burfict and Brandon Marshall.Burfict was an especially important addition at middle linebacker for Guenther, having spent time with him in Cincinnati. Burfict’s knowledge of the defense will allow Guenther to have more variety on defense this season.“It’s like having a quarterback that you’ve coached in there so you can get in and out of calls at the line of scrimmage,” he said. “Last year we didn’t do that as much. We did it a few times and I just felt like it was a lot for the guys in the first year of the system to put that added weight on them. I wanted them to kind of go out and play. Now in year two Marshawn Lynch Jersey , add in a guy like him, and having another year under the system, the guys will pick it up a lot faster.” On a hazy Sunday afternoon in which fans at Oakland Coliseum were wearing respirator masks to avoid breathing in pollutants in the air from the Camp Fire, the Raiders got smoked on the field, losing 20-6 to the division rival Los Angeles Chargers. Mark Davis could only sit back and take in the scene, as the stadium filled with boos as the Silver & Black fell to 1-8 on the year. Soon thereafter Davis broke his silence sitting down with ESPN in a wide-ranging interview discussing the Raiders poor start, and accepting the blame for it. “I always look in the mirror, and the buck stops with me,” Davis said. “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.”After bringing in Reggie McKenzie in 2012 for a full deconstruction of the Raiders roster, Davis and his team found themselves in the playoffs four years later after finishing the 2016 regular season with a 12-4 record. While both Davis and McKenzie felt they built the team to last, Jon Gruden felt otherwise. Not long after claiming he wanted to win a Super Bowl for the city of Oakland before they leave for Las Vegas in two years, Gruden launched the Raiders into their second rebuild in just four years. Of course, the move that sparked the detonation of Oakland’s roster was the trade that sent All-Pro defensive end Khalil Mack to the Chicago Bears. But according to Davis, the Raiders head coach wanted Mack and never intended on trading him. “Jon wanted him,” Davis explained. “Everybody thinks that Jon’s the one who wanted to get rid of him. Jon wanted him badly. Why wouldn’t you want this guy? Reggie wanted him badly. And I wanted him badly, too. But, if in fact we were going to give the type of money that we were going to give to him, and we had Derek on that type of a (contract), how were we going to go ahead and build this football team, with all the holes that we had?”Following Derek Carr’s record contract extension in June of 2017, Davis said the Raiders reached out to Mack’s agent Joe Segal and offered a contract extension that would have made Mack the highest paid defensive player in NFL history. According to Davis, Mack and Segal wanted to wait until after the 2017 season to discuss an extension. When Gruden was hired in January of this year, Davis said the Raiders coach reached out to Mack and spoke to him briefly. “That’s the last time Jon and Khalil talked,” said Davis, adding that the Raiders again talked with Segal during the combine about an extension that would still make Mack the highest-paid defensive player in the league. Mack’s representatives countered with an offer that Gabe Jackson Jersey , according to Davis “was not going to happen, was not doable for us.”“From that point on, (Mack) would not talk to anyone in our organization,” Davis claimed. “Not Reggie, not Jon, not anybody.”Still, Davis felt the idea of trading Mack was unrealistic, and fully expected the defensive end to return for the 2018 season and continue contract discussions in the offseason. “My thought was, ‘Listen, he signed a five-year contract, if he’s the type of guy that I think he is, he’s going to honor that contract,’” Davis continued. “And he’s going to come in and play for the $13 million for this year and then we’ll work for him during the year and get it. Word came back through certain players that know him and talk to him and know me as well, that he wasn’t going to come in. He was going to do the Le’Veon Bell (holdout). At that point, I said, ‘F it. The guy hasn’t talked to anybody. We’ve got to do something.’”Mack was ultimately traded to the Chicago Bears in a deal that included two future first round picks. But he wasn’t the only star that would leave Oakland this year. Wide receiver Amari Cooper was also dealt to the Dallas Cowboys for a first round pick, a move in which Davis hinted was influenced by fact that Cooper is also represented by Segal. “The other point to this whole thing is that Segal is also the agent for Amari Cooper,” Davis said. “And we knew the same situation was coming up the next year. It wasn’t just one layer of chess; it was two layers of chess.”Even with the losses of Mack and Cooper, and with just one win to show through nine games, Davis hasn’t lost confidence in Gruden. “I understood it was going to be a lot of work, but Jon has a 10-year contract,” Davis added. “I know how hard Jon Gruden works. I know how much he wants to win. And how much days like today are killing him.”Having Jon Gruden here was the endgame for me. Jon’s going to be the stability here. Jon’s going nowhere. That’s just the way it is.”
