The Daily Briefing Thursday, October 14, 2021

NFC NORTH

MINNESOTA

Robert Mays of The Athletic on what makes WR JUSTIN JEFFERSON unique:

“I think that’s what makes it so difficult for guys to get a bead on him,” said Vikings cornerback Patrick Peterson. “Because his body can lie to you.”

As a rookie in 2020, Jefferson posted one of the best debut seasons for any receiver in NFL history. The Vikings’ first-round pick finished his rookie year with 1,400 receiving yards, the most for any receiver since the NFL-AFL merger and 87 more yards than Minnesota legend Randy Moss totaled in his first year. Jefferson wasn’t just the most productive rookie receiver in modern history, he was also one of the most efficient pass catchers in the entire league. Jefferson ranked third league-wide in receiving yards, and only Davante Adams (2.96) finished ahead of Jefferson (2.66) in PFF’s yards per route run metric.

Through five games this season, Jefferson has picked up right where he left off. He currently ranks sixth in the NFL with 426 receiving yards and has continued to torment opposing corners.

Jefferson has accomplished all of this as the fifth receiver drafted in a loaded 2020 class. Understanding what makes him such a threat can be tough to grasp at first. At 6-foot-1 and around 200 pounds, Jefferson isn’t particularly big. After running a 4.43 in the 40, he isn’t particularly fast either. Jefferson excels thanks to a rare understanding of both the position and how to use his unique body type to flummox corners. He’s unlike any other pass catcher in football, and defenses still aren’t sure what to do about it.

“A lot of people see my length, and they don’t think that I’m a very twitchy receiver, or that I’m able to be explosive,” Jefferson said. “To be explosive and have this type of body, it kind of gives me an advantage.”

Keenan McCardell first saw Jefferson up-close during the 2020 combine in Indianapolis. The longtime NFL wideout and current Vikings receivers coach was then serving in the same position for the Jaguars, and when he saw Jefferson in person, he couldn’t help but chuckle. “I just started laughing and said, ‘That’s Jalen Ramsey playing wide receiver,’” said McCardell. “They have the same type of body.”

Jefferson and Ramsey have almost identical measurements (6-foot-1, 200 pounds and change), but it’s the way they’re built that stands out. They don’t tower over opponents, but each has the limbs of a person several inches taller. Jefferson’s arms are 33 inches long, which ranks in the 78th percentile among receivers. And his legs might be even less proportionate to the rest of his frame. While meeting at the Vikings facility during training camp this summer, I asked Jefferson to stand next to me, just as a point of comparison. I’m about 5-foot-11, which means Jefferson only has me by about two inches. But his hip bone sits a good four to five inches higher than mine.

Jefferson’s unique proportions give him a distinct advantage as a receiver, even against the league’s most seasoned cornerbacks. Peterson says that he typically focuses on the lower half of a receiver’s body when in coverage. But against Jefferson, that approach can occasionally backfire. Because his legs are so long, the jumble of limbs can cause a corner to expect a movement one way only for Jefferson to break in the other direction. “He has route-running skills like Keenan Allen,” Peterson said. “If you watch the two, they’re very, very similar. They’re able to sell certain things where they can be long one way and then come back the other way. They’re definitely using (their length) to their advantage.”

It took time for Jefferson to harness that length as a young player. He moved from quarterback to wide receiver during his freshman season at Destrehan High School in Louisiana. The transition was anything but smooth. “My first time running routes, it was terrible,” Jefferson said. “When I switched over to receiver, I really didn’t know much about it. I didn’t know how to get off the line. I didn’t know how to run routes.”

To jump-start his education, Jefferson started studying older receivers he admired and imitating their movements in the backyard. At the time, nearby LSU had a pair of star receivers named Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry, who both provided plenty of material. Jefferson’s first year at receiver also coincided with Allen’s rookie year in San Diego, which served as a useful manual for a young player just getting started. “I needed to learn how to control my body,” Jefferson said. “The way I do now, the way I wiggle, I had to learn how to do that.”

Jefferson eventually followed Beckham and Landry to LSU, and after a solid sophomore season in 2018, broke out in a big way for the Tigers’ historically dominant 2019 national championship team. That year, Jefferson moved to the slot in passing game coordinator Joe Brady’s wide-open offense. The new role and the routes that Jefferson was asked to run from that alignment altered the way he understood the mechanics of defensive coverages.

Option routes — or Lucys, as they were called at LSU — were a staple of the passing game that Brady borrowed from Sean Payton’s offense in New Orleans. To run them properly, Jefferson needed to understand every aspect of a defense’s structure. “You have to know if they’re in man, zone, who’s coming down, who’s blitzing,” Jefferson said. “At LSU, we worked them a lot. Me being able to have an option route — being able to go outside, inside, sit down in zone. I started learning there, and ever since then, I’ve been killing it on option routes.”

Armed with a more complete understanding of defenses, Jefferson learned how to weaponize his length in ways that he never could before, and that has translated to his role as a primarily outside receiver in the NFL.

There are a few different ways that Jefferson consistently uses his leggy frame to dupe opposing corners. The first is with the series of quick movements at the line of scrimmage that comprise Jefferson’s array of releases. Release plans are where a receiver’s creativity can really shine, and Jefferson draws inspiration from some surprising places. Receivers often cite basketball crossovers as a useful comparison to certain releases, and Jefferson is no different. But he takes his cross-sport influences a step further. “It’s kind of hard to explain,” Jefferson said. “I kind of use basketball, I use soccer, I use all these different sports into one.”

Wait … soccer? “Yeah, soccer is just the movement of the ball,” Jefferson said. “If I’m running like an out route. Here, let me just show you …”

Jefferson stands up from a stone bench outside the Vikings’ practice facility and starts mimicking movements fit more for the Premier League than an NFL Sunday. Wearing a pair of Gucci flip-flops, he lifts his right foot in the air, swirls it over an imaginary ball, and puts it down in virtually the same spot. “Just a little eye candy,” Jefferson explains.

– – –

Along with the advantage at the line of scrimmage, Jefferson’s long legs also give him an edge down the field. His tape is littered with examples of defensive backs getting surprised about how much space Jefferson eats up in a short amount of time. His strides are much longer than anyone would assume for someone his height, and that disconnect leads to cornerbacks routinely misjudging how fast he’ll be on them.

– – –

The deceiving speed at which Jefferson chews up grass can startle cornerbacks, but his decisiveness in those moments is what leaves them truly helpless. As Peterson points out, unlike many receivers, Jefferson rarely chops his fit into breaks. His legs might resemble those of a 6-foot-4 wideout, but his relatively compact overall frame allows him to redirect without throttling down the way a taller receiver might have to. For cornerbacks that have to predict where Jefferson is going and when, that’s a frightening combination. “He’s always stepping into (his break),” Peterson said. “That’s another hard thing to read about him because you really never know when he’s breaking. You have to trust your instincts.”

The magic act that Jefferson can perform with legs is already challenging enough for most corners. But when he mixes in some other sneaky tricks with the rest of his body? That’s when the nightmare fuel comes.

McCardell noticed it right away when he started working with Jefferson this past spring. The same way that Jefferson’s legs can lie to defenders, so can his arms and shoulders. McCardell uses the word “slithery,” an apt descriptor for the slick, slippery movements Jefferson uses to create the last vital bit of separation.

In the final moment before completing a catch, Jefferson has a special talent for dipping around or swimming through a cornerback’s hands at exactly the right moment. “As you complete the move, you’ve got to be able to get out of it without being touched by the defender,” McCardell said. “And he has a knack for that.”

– – –

Listening to Jefferson articulate his plans on specific plays gives a window into his advanced understanding of the position, only a couple of months from his 22nd birthday. In August, Jefferson said his goals for this season were to further develop a Davante Adams-like bag of releases, which he has already put on display in the first month of the season. He has also honed his ability to threaten receivers vertically off the snap — ”with hella speed,” as Jefferson puts it — to give him even more room to work.

“If you press him vertically, then you get to your break point, you can do whatever you want, because now you got him,” McCardell said. “His fear is the go ball and now everything underneath is what you want. Then, like we always say in my room, ‘If they fear your go ball, your underneath game you should eat.’”

Stoking that fear in a cornerback is predicated on confidence, an assertiveness off the line that only grows as a receiver gets a better handle on his game. Now 20 starts into his NFL career, Jefferson has started to believe that he can put every opposing defensive back on a string, no matter how they play him. “If they’re off and have me in man, I feel like I’m gonna win a majority of the time,” Jefferson said. “If they’re playing me more press, of course I have to work them more, but I feel like I’m gonna win regardless.”

For someone like McCardell, who has dedicated more than two decades to playing and studying the position, it’s hard to spend time around Jefferson and not constantly grin. His unique build and advanced sense for the position have made him arguably the best young receiver in the entire NFL. And this is only the beginning.

“You see him run routes and you’re like, “That guy right there has a true feel for playing the position,’” McCardell said. “It makes you smile.”

NFC EAST

WASHINGTON

It’s hard to believe 14 years has passed since S SEAN TAYLOR was gunned down in his Miami home.  Sunday, his number will be retired.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

No one has worn No. 21 in Washington since Sean Taylor was murdered in November 2007 and no one will ever wear it again.

The Washington Football Team announced on Thursday that Taylor’s No. 21 will go from unofficially retired to officially retired. The team will hold a pregame ceremony with members of Taylor’s family before they face the Chiefs at FedEx Field.

 “I came into the NFL the same year as Sean Taylor and immediately his athletic ability, resilience, grit, and relentless work ethic set him apart. I and many others looked to him as a role model,” team president Jason Wright said in a statement. “The fact that he was tragically taken so early hurt our player community, but also our fans, coaches, and staff. We will continue to remember him and hold him up as an example of professionalism and excellence, and we will all strive to mirror his excellence in our own ways.”

Fans will receive a commemorative towel and Washington players will wear a helmet decal honoring Taylor.

Sammy Baugh and Bobby Mitchell are the only other Washington players to have their numbers retired by the organization. A number of other numbers have been taken out of circulation without being officially retired.

NFC SOUTH

TAMPA BAY

In a longer week, the Buccaneers might have had the services of TE ROB GRONKOWSKI tonight in the City of Brotherly Love.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians said earlier this week that it will be “very, very close,” when asked about tight end Rob Gronkowski playing this week after missing two weeks with injured ribs, but he turned out to be too far away to get on the field.

Gronkowski has been ruled out for the Bucs’ Thursday night game against the Eagles. The Bucs will have an extended break before facing the Bears in Week Seven and that may be the time for his return to the lineup.

The Buccaneers also ruled out linebacker Lavonte David and safety Antoine Winfield Jr. David hurt his ankle in last Sunday’s win over the Dolphins and Winfield missed that game with a concussion.

Center Ryan Jensen (hip), defensive lineman Pat O’Connor (calf) and edge rusher Jason Pierre-Paul (shoulder, hand) are listed as questionable. All three were listed as full participants in Wednesday’s practice.

The only Eagles player with an injury designation is right tackle Lane Johnson. He will miss a third straight game while dealing with a personal matter.

NFC WEST

LOS ANGELES RAMS

The Rams bolted St. Louis with impunity, but now a Missouri court is on the case as the team faces the possibility of paying some huge damages to the city for disregarding previously publicized NFL re-location guidelines.  Some NFL owners have disappointed the judge with their failure to let them know how much they are worth and stand in contempt.

On Wednesday, Judge Christopher McGraugh issued $24,000 in fines and imposed $25,000 in legal fees over the failure of multiple owners to fully disclose financial information, as previously ordered.

 “It does seem to me that your clients . . . are dragging their feet on this,” Judge McGraugh said, via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It seems like we’re in a three-card monte game.”

The judge fined Chiefs owner Clark Hunt $5,000, New York Giants co-owner John Mara $8,000, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones $6,000, and Patriots owner Robert Kraft $5,000 for not making complete disclosures in compliance with the court order. Judge McGraugh ruled in July that sufficient evidence existed as to those persons and Rams owner Stan Kroenke to support an award of punitive damages. That makes their financial situation relevant, and their financial information subject to disclosure.

Kroenke fully complied with the order.

As to the others, that’s not the end of it. On December 3, the lawyers for those four owners will return to court with an opportunity to “show cause” as to why they should not be held in contempt of court for failing to comply with the order to release the information.

The plaintiffs had tried for more than that. They wanted an order striking the pleadings and entering judgment against those owners, with the trial then focusing only on damages. The judge did not go that far, obviously.

Maybe, at some point, he will.

“This behavior just cannot go on,” Judge McGraugh said.

If it does, stronger sanctions could be coming.

At SI.com, Andrew Brandt has a thorough update, including the massive liability the Rams and NFL could/should face – and the moves their lawyers are making to try to get the case out of Missouri.

We are almost six years removed from the owners’ decision to relocate the St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles. The NFL, its owners, fans and media have all moved on from St. Louis, with the Rams now a Super Bowl contender in a gleaming new stadium in the country’s second-largest market. The city of St. Louis, however, has not moved on, as those left behind clearly feel they were unfairly and illegally abandoned by the NFL, according to the NFL’s own regulations and policy. And, you know what came next: There were lawyers.

At this point, the St. Louis lawyers are beating the NFL’s lawyers. But there are many rounds to go.

Background

I attended NFL owners’ meetings every year from 1999 to 2008. In several of those meetings, there was an agenda item about placing a team in Los Angeles. Although all stadium sites and financing plans vetted by league administration fell short during that time, the message was clear: There was a strong collective desire to place a team in L.A.; the owners just needed a workable stadium and financing plan.

Fast forward to 2015, and the NFL had not one but two L.A. stadium and financing plans, involving three NFL franchises. The contenders were 1) the Raiders and Chargers, who had joined forces with a stadium and financing plan in Carson, and 2) the Rams, going it alone with a stadium and (private) financing plan, as part of a larger entertainment complex in Inglewood. The issue reached a reckoning at the fateful NFL owners’ meeting in Houston in January ’16, one that I remember vividly, as I was on hand covering it for ESPN.

The key players regarding relocation at that time were the six NFL owners making up what was called the committee on Los Angeles opportunities: Robert Kraft, John Mara, Jerry Richardson, Robert McNair, Clark Hunt and Art Rooney. That group had met several times previously and came to Houston with a recommendation to move forward with the Chargers/Raiders proposal in Carson. There was league-wide empathy for the Chargers’ owners, the Spanos family, who were seen as loyal partners for decades. And despite indifference (and condescension) toward Raiders’ owner Mark Davis (who would later have the last laugh in Las Vegas) all signs pointed to Carson, complete with lobbying from Disney CEO and league partner Robert Iger.

In all my years around the NFL, I can rarely remember when the ownership did not accept the recommendations of the committee leading an issue, whether the competition committee, finance committee or, in this case, the committee on Los Angeles opportunities. Yet it happened with L.A.

As the meetings transpired, the room shifted. Jerry Jones, with his unabashed gusto and charm, became the advocate for reclusive Rams’ owner Stan Kroenke, who had 1) a net worth over $11 billion, and 2) prime real estate in downtown L.A., purchased years before in a transaction that raised eyebrows in St. Louis. When that happened, Kroenke, of course, wouldn’t comment, and Roger Goodell dismissed it saying, and I’m paraphrasing: Stan buys real estate all over the world; this is no big deal. Well, of course, it turned out to be a pretty big deal for the future of the Rams.

Jones sold a vision for “NFL West”—in downtown L.A., not suburban Carson—hosting not only NFL games but NFL offices, NFL Network, the draft, the combine, the Olympics and multiple other big events. The Rams won the L.A. sweepstakes, sending the Chargers and Raiders back to their local governments which, of course, neither of them would ever do business with again.

In covering those meetings, I was struck by the fact that there was little, if any, talk about whether the NFL’s established relocation policy was satisfied. The clear feeling from Goodell and ownership was that whatever St. Louis (or San Diego or Oakland) had done to keep their teams from moving was not enough to satisfy the policy. It was noted that in 2015, the St. Louis lease in the Edward Jones Dome had converted to a year-to-year proposition after it was not considered among the top 25% of NFL stadiums. This measure, which made St. Louis a free agent, could be interpreted as either St. Louis’s not doing what was necessary to keep the team there or—as St. Louis would later argue—Kroenke’s not putting in the effort to maintain the St. Louis facility, as he had his sights set on Inglewood. The NFL clearly feels it was the former.

The cities left behind left those Houston meetings with their tails between their legs, but they were not done. The city of Oakland later sued, albeit unsuccessfully. St. Louis sued as well, and to this point, it has had more success than Oakland. We are in Year 4 of that litigation, one that has seen recent successes against Kroenke and the NFL.

What the suit alleges

The city of St. Louis—along with St. Louis County, and the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority (I will refer to all of them here as “St. Louis”)—sued NFL owners in 2017 with a kitchen sink full of legal claims: breach of contract, fraud, illegal enrichment and tortious interference, all resulting in substantial financial losses for the city of St. Louis. The suit has been in the City of St. Louis Circuit Court (22nd judicial circuit).

The basis of the suit, from my reading, is that the NFL owners breached an enforceable contract among themselves in the relocation of the Rams to L.A., a breach to which St. Louis is a third-party beneficiary, by not complying with their own relocation policy guidelines (the “Policy”). The through line of the plaintiff’s argument is that despite the fact that St. Louis met the contractual guidelines and protocols of the Policy, the owners disregarded the Policy when it stood in their way of their desired result: getting the Rams to LA.

St. Louis alleges that the assurances from the NFL misled them into believing that the city had a chance to keep the Rams while it was, at the same time, facilitating the Rams’ relocation to L.A. St. Louis also argues that the NFL did not—as the Policy mandates—provide an adequate opportunity for interested parties to offer written and oral comments, scheduling a public hearing months before the Rams actually petitioned the NFL to relocate.

The NFL, of course, has denied these allegations and argued that its statements, both in public and private, are not legally binding. It has argued, and will argue, that its business practices, as unsavory as they may seem to some, are, well, how the business of football works. The owners argue that they did comply with the Policy and the law, even if it left a hurt and damaged St. Louis in its wake.

The damages claim

Not surprisingly, the two sides see potential damages from this case in completely different worlds.

St. Louis has requested “at least $1 billion” in damages. It claims that the lost tax revenue—hotel, property, sales, ticket, etc.—exceeds $100 million. Further, the city claims disgorgement: that the $550 million relocation fee the Rams paid to other owners should be disgorged and given to St. Louis. And it claims entitlement to a share of the increased valuation of the franchise since the move to L.A. (the Rams are now valued at $4.8 billion by Forbes, the fourth-highest valuation among NFL teams). St. Louis will present everything it can to a jury here—more on the jury issue below—including a request for punitive damages that could bring the total ask into the billions.

The NFL, of course, views disgorgement of the relocation fee and increased franchise value as legally unsupportable. The only damages that it seems the league would consider at this point—as a potential settlement—appear to be out-of-pocket expenditures in the $50–$100 million range.

Where the case stands

Over the past four years, the NFL has resorted to a familiar legal strategy for large corporations: Delay, delay, delay. In the midst of these delays, the owners have lost motion after motion, including a request to have the case moved to private arbitration and repeated requests to have the case moved out of St. Louis, where they can expect an unfriendly jury (again, more on this below).

The NFL also recently filed motion for summary judgement (to have the case thrown out). The judge overseeing the case, Judge Christopher McGraugh, denied the motion, opining that the NFL had treated the Policy as binding in the past, pointing to Commissioner Goodell’s previous deposition testimony that the league’s relocation guidelines were “mandatory.” McGraugh further noted that even though St. Louis was aware of Kroenke’s desire to relocate, the city still had reason to anticipate “a probable future business relationship that gives rise to a reasonable expectancy of financial benefit.”

The NFL has now filed another petition to move the case out of St. Louis, this with the Missouri Court of Appeals. That court has asked St. Louis to respond, giving the NFL a glimmer of hope about an important issue that could reappear on appeal again after jury selection begins. And just last week, according to sports lawyer Dan Wallach—who has done great work covering this case—the NFL filed a motion to bifurcate the upcoming trial. If granted, this would have the case go forward only on the issue of liability. Then, if St. Louis was successful on the liability issue, a second trial would be held on the issue of damages.

“Show us your books!” “No.”

We are in the discovery phase of the case now, as we approach a potential trial date of Jan. 10. And the discovery information in which St. Louis seems most interested is personal financial information from owners, especially a few—Clark Hunt, Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft and John Mara—who have been noncompliant with that request (it is unclear whether other owners have been forthcoming with such information or if it simply was not requested). Thus, last week St. Louis filed a motion for sanctions due to non-compliance, with a hearing to take place on that issue Wednesday.

The NFL’s decision to ignore the request for financial information is certainly on brand. Having covered multiple collective bargaining negotiations between the NFL and NFLPA, when asked to show their books, the consistent answer from ownership has been No and the union has been unable to force it. Indeed, the only information we have about team finances is that of my former team, the Packers, who must—as a public corporation—provide an annual financial report. As far as I know, there have been no successful litigation requests to have NFL owners show their books and—pardon the pun—the jury is still out on whether we will see that here.

Losing now but been here before

St. Louis is certainly winning the early stages of this four-year fight with the owners, and some covering this story—which notably does not include NFL Network nor ESPN—have suggested this case could 1) cost owners billions of dollars, suggesting the disgorgement and increase in valuation theories could succeed, and/or 2) perhaps even compel NFL owners to grant St. Louis an expansion franchise. To this I say: Let’s hold the phone.

The NFL has been in this position before (and will likely be here again): on the losing end of a court decision that could 1) change the way it does business, and 2) cost it, potentially, billions of dollars. But that has now happened thanks to the appellate courts. I point to three examples:

Draft eligibility

In 2013, Maurice Clarett challenged the NFL’s draft eligibility rule requiring a player to be three years removed from high school, a rule particularly disadvantageous to running backs like him. Amazingly, Clarett won at the lower court level, bringing panic to the NFL scouting community. I remember our scouts’ lining up at my door asking if we now had to scout college sophomores, freshmen and even high school players! I told them what the NFL lawyers were telling me: Relax, we’ll win at the next level. And they were right.

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, in an opinion written by future Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, overruled the lower court, and the NFL draft eligibility rules stayed intact.

Lockout bargaining

The NFL locked out its players in 2011, in order to gain leverage in negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement, knowing the NFLPA could not negotiate as firmly without checks coming in the door. The union litigated the matter and won in lower court. The NFL appealed, and won, as the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the lockout to continue, forcing the union to negotiate a harried, team-friendly CBA as training camps opened.

Commissioner power

Tom Brady took his four-game Deflategate suspension to court in 2015 and won. The NFL, of course, appealed, and won. The 2nd Circuit restored the suspension and affirmed commissioner power over the players.

The point of these three cases is that the NFL has been here before: lower court rulings that threatened hallmarks of NFL power: draft structure, labor negotiations and commissioner power. Through appellate courts and lawyers, owners have consistently restored order to their management-tilted business model.

Could this situation be different? Well, perhaps, but I don’t think owners are quaking in their boots over it.

Maybe discovery requests will show that the owners, so anxious to get to L.A. after a 20-year drought in that seductive market, cut corners, ignored protocols and breached their internal contract and Policy at the expense of St. Louis.

Maybe a biased St. Louis jury will award reams of money to the city of St. Louis, taking a small bite out of the net worth of Kroenke and/or perhaps other owners (although he will likely indemnify others for their losses).

If either of the above does happen in time, that time is not near. There are months before a scheduled trial date in January, assuming it is not delayed. And if there is a decision that goes against the league, the NFL will of course appeal to a friendlier forum, continuing to make the case of a biased jury along the way.

Through it all, the only constant here is my mantra: There will be (well-paid) lawyers.

Grab a Snickers bar; we’re going to be following the St. Louis litigation for a while.

AFC WEST

LAS VEGAS

Owner Mark Davis gives a short comment to ESPN that indicates he’s not happy with the NFL and its role in reaching out to destroy his coach and disrupt his team.  Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com:

Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis broke his silence Wednesday morning in the wake of Jon Gruden’s resignation as coach on Monday night.

“I have no comment. Ask the NFL. They have all the answers,” Davis told ESPN.

The Raiders, who had a scheduled off day Tuesday, returned to the practice field Wednesday under interim coach Rich Bisaccia, who will retain his special teams coordinator responsibilities.

Per Davis, general manager Mike Mayock will retain his title going forward but will now have 51% of the decision-making power on personnel moves, with Bisaccia at 49%. Before, it was Gruden 51%, Mayock 49%.

GM Mike Mayock spoke, somewhat eloquently we think, on the departure of Gruden, and where the 3-2 Raiders go from here (besides Denver on Sunday).

Las Vegas Raiders general manager Mike Mayock on Wednesday addressed the resignation of coach Jon Gruden, as well as its timing, given that Gruden coached his final game two days after an email from 2011 was made public in which Gruden used a racial trope in describing NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith, who is Black.

NFL Network’s Judy Battista reported the Raiders also had been made aware of additional emails from Gruden in which he used homophobic and misogynistic language — emails that became public in a Monday report from The New York Times — prior to their Week 5 game against the Chicago Bears, which further called into question the decision to allow Gruden to coach last Sunday.

Per Mayock, team owner Mark Davis had not completed his due diligence in gathering information by the time of Sunday’s game, which they went on to lose, 20-9.

“I think the reality of that is that Mark Davis really is the one that was dealing with that and I think he felt like, and I don’t want to speak for Mark, but there was an awful lot of due diligence that had to go on on his side of this,” said Mayock, who was the first member of the Raiders organization to address the media since Gruden’s resignation Monday night.

“All that I knew was a bombshell had been dropped, the players talked about it, we talked about it with the players, Jon dealt with it and then of course I didn’t even know. … Again, Mark was dealing with all the email stuff. We were trying to prepare for a football game. When we came out of the game and the rest of it came out, I think Mark was already in the middle of his due diligence. I think he was trying to figure it all out, and again I know what the guy stands for and I think he was trying to do the right thing.”

Reporting from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times detailed the use of racist, homophobic and misogynistic terms by Gruden while an employee of ESPN dating as far back as 2010. The leaked correspondence was with former Washington Football Team president Bruce Allen, and was among 650,000 emails collected as part of the NFL’s investigation into workplace conditions within the Washington franchise. The NFL Players Association plans to petition the league to release all emails related to the investigation.

“The way I grew up, the Raiders always stood for diversity,” Mayock said. “They had the first Latino quarterback, Tom Flores, he also became the second Latino head coach. The first African-American head coach was Art Shell, the first female CEO was Amy Trask. Obviously, all of that was under Al Davis’ watch. This week his son, Mark Davis, I think had a tough time, he had a tough week.”

Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib, the NFL’s first openly gay active player, requested and was granted a personal day Wednesday, per Mayock. Asked if any of the team’s Black players have requested personal time as well, Mayock said he’s spoken to several Black players about the situation.

“I’ve talked to several of the Black players. We’ve reached out to a bunch of players, Black and white,” Mayock said. “Everybody’s got emotions and feelings. I’ve talked to some of the people in my department that are Black. My director of pro scouting [Dwayne Joseph], and I just said, ‘DJ, I can’t put myself in your shoes. Help me.’ So we’ve spent a pretty good amount of time trying to help these guys and talk with these guys and not talk at them, but with them.

“The other thing I would say is for Carl, let’s be honest, he’s a community of one that’s openly gay. We do have a large community of African-American players and I’m trying to, we’re trying to do everything we can for that community as well obviously. It started there. Nobody’s forgetting that. I’m trying to work with everyone, and we’re going to continue to do that.”

Following Gruden’s resignation, assistant coach Rich Bisaccia was elevated to interim head coach. Mayock offered a full-throated endorsement of Bisaccia, who had been the Raiders’ special teams coordinator.

“Look, I’ve known this guy for a lot of years. Since he’s the special teams coach, he’s involved with more players on our team than any other coach in our building. He’s involved with the offensive guys, he’s involved with the defensive guys,” Mayock said of Bisaccia. “The irony is I’ve endorsed him for a lot of head coaching jobs over the years, both in college and the NFL, back when I had a different job. He’s got as much respect in the locker room, in our locker room, as any coach I’ve ever seen in my life.”

The Raiders face the Broncos on Sunday in Denver.

QB DEREK CARR also tries to hit the right note.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

A number of Raiders players had their first chance to publicly comment on former head coach Jon Gruden’s resignation on Wednesday, including quarterback Derek Carr.

Carr said there’s no book on how to respond to the revelations about what Gruden said in his emails and that he felt “angry, sick, upset, mad, frustrated” about what’s happened. He said he also feels “empathy” for a coach he has grown close to over the last few years.

 “Don’t get me wrong, I love the man, and you hate the sin,” Carr said, via Paul Gutierrez ofESPN.com. “Like for anybody, no one is perfect. If we just started opening up everybody’s private emails and texts, people will start sweating a little bit. Hopefully not too many, but maybe that’s what they should do for all coaches and GMs and owners from now on. You got to open up everything and see what happens. But you hate the action, you hate it. You’re not supposed to like it, but you love the person. And I love the person. I’ve grown to love him so much.”

While Carr is processing those feelings, he’s also cognizant that the team still has 12 games left in their season and “everything out in front of us that we’ve wanted from the beginning.” He said the team needs a leader “more than ever” and that it is his job to be that kind of leader in hopes of making sure that the team can move forward from the Gruden tumult without sinking their season.

– – –

Bill Barnwell of ESPN.com spends a huge amount of space to lay out the claim that Gruden was a failure with the Raiders (it’s mainly a look at the personnel side of things and he presumes everything the Raiders did was all Gruden, and not some sort of Gruden-Mike Mayock cooperative venture):

As you’ve surely heard by now, the Las Vegas Raiders and Jon Gruden parted ways on Monday. It goes without saying that the emails uncovered as part of the NFL’s investigation into Daniel Snyder and the Washington Football Team were abhorrent and unbecoming of a leader. My colleagues have addressed Gruden’s resignation, and what’s now left in the wake of his absence is a suddenly rudderless Raiders organization.

The franchise was rebuilt to Gruden’s specifications after he took over as coach and de facto football czar in 2018, and while general manager Mike Mayock and the rest of the staff remain, there’s no doubt that things will change without him in charge. Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia has been given the interim job, and team owner Mark Davis suggested Wednesday that the arrangement of power has moved from a split of 51% Gruden, 49% Mayock, to 51% Mayock, 49% Bisaccia.

By the time we hit next offseason, the Raiders might be in a new arrangement altogether. As the only coach with a 10-year contract, the one sure thing for the organization seemed to be that Gruden would be in charge. Now, on the fly, everything is changing.

Let’s evaluate the lasting effects of Gruden’s second run with the Raiders in terms of player personnel and where Mayock and Bisaccia — or whomever takes over in 2022 — sit with the current roster. Gruden took over a 6-10 team that was one year removed from a 12-4 season and a trip to the postseason. The Raiders were 22-31 in Gruden’s second tenure, and I’m not sure they’re much closer to a title than they were before he was hired. Let’s see where the Raiders stand with 12 games to go this season.

Gruden’s big trades

Gruden’s most significant personnel moves came early in his run, as he tore apart the young core of former general manager Reggie McKenzie’s teams. With two trades, Gruden dealt away cornerstones on both sides of the football in edge rusher Khalil Mack and wide receiver Amari Cooper. In return, he netted four high draft picks, including three first-rounders. Those selections became running back Josh Jacobs, cornerback Damon Arnette, safety Johnathan Abram and wide receiver Bryan Edwards.

These moves set back the franchise significantly. Jacobs has struggled with injuries and doesn’t have a role in the passing game at a position in which two-down backs are readily available for the veterans minimum. Arnette was responsible for the coverage breakdown on Ryan Fitzpatrick’s big play at the end of the crucial Week 16 loss to the Dolphins last season; he lost his starting job in camp and has been the subject of trade rumors. Abram missed all of his rookie season with an injury and was a mess in coverage in Year 2. He has been better this season, but his most notable moment has been getting stiff-armed by Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris. Edwards, the only one of the four not to be drafted in the first round, looks to be the most promising player among them.

Gruden repeatedly traded for veterans over the course of his tenure, and those moves almost universally failed. The most notable came when the team sent third- and fifth-round picks to the Steelers for receiver Antonio Brown, which failed in ignominious fashion before Brown ever suited up for the team.

I couldn’t fault the Raiders for that deal at the time, but Gruden’s other deals for wide receivers looked bad at first glance and got worse quickly. The Raiders sent a third-rounder to the Steelers for Martavis Bryant and then cut him at the end of camp. Defensive end Jihad Ward was shipped off for Ryan Switzer, who was then dealt away for a swap of late-round picks without having played for the team. The Raiders sent a fifth-rounder to the Bills for Zay Jones and a sixth-rounder to the Packers for Trevor Davis, who was cut after two and a half months. The Packers used that pick on Jon Runyan, who is now starting for Green Bay at guard.

Receiver wasn’t the only spot in which the Raiders traded picks for players with limited success. Gruden shipped a fifth-round pick to the Bills for quarterback AJ McCarron, who threw a total of three passes before leaving. The seventh-rounder Gruden sent the Jets for QB Christian Hackenberg was a conditional pick, thankfully. Last year, the Raiders swapped midround picks with the Dolphins to acquire linebacker Raekwon McMillan; he played a total of 169 defensive snaps before leaving the team. McMillan served as a special-teamer, but that’s the sort of player organizations should be able to find with the late-round picks Gruden was shipping away in failed swaps.

Gruden’s track record of trading up and down in the draft was more mixed. He had success trading down in his first draft to acquire offensive tackle Kolton Miller, Gruden’s most successful first-round pick. He also moved up for wide receiver Hunter Renfrow, but trades up for defensive tackle Maurice Hurst, edge rusher Arden Key and offensive lineman Brandon Parker weren’t successful. It’s difficult to look at Gruden’s track record of trading as much more than a brutal failure.

Gruden’s draft record

Gruden oversaw four drafts, which means that we should be seeing his picks make up the core of the existing Vegas team and the teams we’ll see over the next couple of seasons. Let’s take a look at the picks he made over the first three rounds of the 2018, 2019 and 2020 drafts:

2018:

OT Kolton Miller (Round 1)

DT P.J. Hall (Round 2)

OT Brandon Parker (Round 3)

DE Arden Key (Round 3)

2019:

DE Clelin Ferrell (Round 1)

RB Josh Jacobs (Round 1)

S Johnathan Abram (Round 1)

CB Trayvon Mullen Jr. (Round 2)

2020:

WR Henry Ruggs III (Round 1)

CB Damon Arnette (Round 1)

WR Lynn Bowden Jr. (Round 3)

WR Bryan Edwards (Round 3)

LB Tanner Muse (Round 3)

We’ve already discussed some of these selections. Ferrell, the highest-drafted player of the Gruden era at No. 4 overall, was viewed as a significant overdraft at the time and hasn’t looked like an impact player at any point of his career. The former Clemson pass-rusher lost his starting job this offseason and was a healthy scratch in Week 1. He has played 18% of the defensive snaps this season. The next player selected in that first round was linebacker Devin White, who has become one of the league’s best players at his position for the Bucs.

The only first-rounder we haven’t discussed is Ruggs, who has flashed significant potential while struggling to command a significant target share. The hope is naturally that he takes a step forward in his second season, in which he’s on pace to rack up 1,113 receiving yards (although his average of 20.5 yards per reception will be tough to sustain). He was the first wideout taken in a draft that included CeeDee Lamb, Justin Jefferson, Brandon Aiyuk, Tee Higgins, Michael Pittman and Chase Claypool; he wouldn’t be the first wideout off the board in a redraft today.

It doesn’t get much better after the first round. Miller has been a solid tackle, but Parker was bad as a rookie and hasn’t been trusted as more than a swing tackle since. Hall and Key are no longer on the roster. Neither is Bowden, who was moved to a “Joker” role as a hybrid running back/wide receiver after being drafted. He was traded before ever playing with the Raiders, who sent him with a sixth-round pick to Miami for a fourth-round selection. Muse was also released without ever playing a snap for the Raiders. Two of the their three third-rounders from 2020 are no longer on their roster; of the other 39 players drafted, just one has been cut or traded (Jabari Zuniga of the Jets).

In all, while acknowledging that there’s plenty of time left on the clock for these young players, the only players the Raiders would take again at their same spots would probably be Miller, Mullen and Edwards. That’s a disaster for a team that had six first-round picks over this span.

It’s too early to say anything about the 2021 class, but as was the case with Ferrell and Jacobs, the Raiders used a first-round pick on offensive tackle Alex Leatherwood when most draft analysts pegged him as a midround selection. Leatherwood struggled enough at right tackle for the Raiders to move him to guard during their Week 5 loss to the Bears. Teams sometimes take prospects much higher than public perception and prove to be right, as the Cowboys did with center Travis Frederick in 2013. It’s too early to make any proclamations about Leatherwood, but if he doesn’t pan out, the Raiders will have repeatedly gone against the grain and been wrong about it every time.

The best pick Gruden made during his time in charge was likely someone taken outside the top 100: edge rusher Maxx Crosby, a 2019 fourth-round pick. The Eastern Michigan product racked up 10 sacks as a rookie, and while he has only two sacks in five games to start 2021, he has been a consistent disruptor and has 13 quarterback hits this season. Renfrow, taken a round later, has proved to be a valuable slot receiver. Those are nice finds, but the Raiders also used a fifth-round pick on punter Johnny Townsend, who lasted a season before being released.

Naturally, it’s difficult to parse the responsibility for these selections between Gruden and Mayock, whose primary work over the prior decade had been as a draft analyst for NFL Network before joining the Raiders in 2019. Given how poorly the top picks have performed and how long Gruden had left on his contract, it’s entirely possible that Mayock would have been the fall guy for a disappointing 2021 season. Now, that’s no longer the case.

The easy answer is to say that they both deserve some of the blame, because it’s impossible to know why the selections are failing. Are the Raiders struggling to bring through young talent because they’re picking the wrong players? Or are they picking useful players and struggling to develop them into viable starters? There’s one reason to think that the latter might be the bigger problem with Vegas …

Gruden in free agency

That reason? That just about every significant free agent who came to play for the Raiders looked much worse in silver and black than they had in their prior stop. Free agency isn’t the best way to build a roster, but it’s hard to think of a team that has gotten less out of its significant signings than the Raiders over the past several seasons. Here’s every free agent, with an average annual salary of $5 million or more, the Raiders added over the Gruden era, and what happened next:

2018:

WR Jordy Nelson (two years, $14.2 million): cut after one season

LB Tahir Whitehead (three years, $19 million): lost starting role in Year 2, cut

CB Rashaan Melvin (one year, $5.5 million): started seven games

2019:

OT Trent Brown (four years, $66 million): started 16 games over 2 seasons, salary dumped to NE

WR Tyrell Williams (four years, $44.3 million): started one game over two seasons, cut

S LaMarcus Joyner (four years, $42 million): moved to CB, benched in Year 2, cut

2020:

LB Cory Littleton (three years, $35.3 million): suffered drastic decline in play

LB Nick Kwiatkoski (three years, $21 million): lost starting job after one season

EDGE Carl Nassib (three years, $25.3 million): four sacks in 19 games

QB Marcus Mariota (two years, $17.6 million): 28 pass attempts with Raiders

DT Maliek Collins (one year, $6 million): one QB hit in 504 snaps

2021:

EDGE Yannick Ngakoue (two years, $26 million): two sacks in five games

RB Kenyan Drake (two years, $11 million): averaging 2.4 yards per carry

That’s a brutal list, and it might even undersell how dramatically these players dropped off. Whitehead, Nelson and Littleton went from being excellent in their prior spots to wildly disappointing with the Raiders. Williams might have been unlucky with injuries — and Mariota hasn’t been needed very often behind Derek Carr — but the franchise has nobody but itself to blame with someone such as Joyner. The 2014 second-rounder had bounced around the Rams’ defense before settling at free safety, where he emerged as a star. The Raiders promptly signed him and moved him back to slot corner, where he struggled wildly for two season before being released.

On the other hand, the best move the team made during the Gruden era was a much less notable free-agent signing. After Darren Waller dealt with substance abuse and moved to tight end, the Raiders signed him off Baltimore’s practice squad in 2018. He emerged as one of the most exciting tight ends in all of football in 2019. They quickly moved to sign him to a four-year, $29.8 million deal that October. At that price tag, he is one of the league’s most valuable non-quarterbacks on a veteran deal.

Owing to the missing draft picks and the disappointing top-100 selections, the Raiders have needed to be active in signing veterans to short-term, low-cost deals in free agency. The vast majority of those contracts are one-year pacts. The Raiders might be happy with players such as Casey Hayward Jr., Solomon Thomas and K.J. Wright, and their contracts are reasonable, but they’re all free agents after the season.

What’s left on the roster

The Raiders have one of the league’s least impressive cores. A coach or a general manager looking to build the organization would be looking at Miller and Crosby as the only under-25 players they can count on as above-average starters. A second tier might include players who have shown some promise but haven’t been consistently impactful, such as Edwards, Ruggs and Mullen, plus anyone who emerges from the 2021 class, with fifth-round corner Nate Hobbs off to a promising start. Waller just turned 29, and Carr is 30. Both will be looking for new deals after the season. So will Jacobs and Renfrow, who are useful, albeit at positions in which it’s often easy to find useful players. The Raiders simply aren’t in the same universe in terms of core talent as the other teams in the AFC West.

They have been able to approach league-average play by staying efficient and effective on offense. Gruden’s best asset as a coach was getting the most out of his offensive talent, especially in the passing game. Carr’s best seasons came in 2019 and 2020. Waller went from being a practice-squad player to a superstar. Every team passed on Renfrow multiple times. Receiver Nelson Agholor was essentially a meme before producing a career season with the Raiders in 2020.

These guys aren’t going to suddenly turn into afterthoughts without Gruden around, and the defense has been much better in 2021 than it was across the first three years of his regime, but the final game of his tenure was an example of how this team would look if the offense isn’t up to its prior level of play. In a 20-9 defeat to the Bears, the Raiders were buried with subpar field position, didn’t have a single play produce 30 yards or more and scored nine points on 10 possessions. Vegas’ 3-0 start marked the third year in a row in which it has enjoyed a three-game winning streak, but after the past two-plus weeks, it feels like another lifetime.

What’s next for the Raiders

ESPN’s Football Power Index gives the Raiders a 31.7% chance to make the playoffs. Making it to the postseason would probably encourage Davis to stick with the combination of Mayock and Bisaccia into 2022. If they fall short, they would presumably look to hire another coach, although Mayock’s future in that scenario would be unclear. Former head coaches such as Gus Bradley, Tom Cable and Rod Marinelli are also on staff, so it’s possible the Raiders could decide to promote one of their other assistants into the head role, as the Browns did when they named Freddie Kitchens head coach ahead of interim coach Gregg Williams before the 2019 season.

I’m not sure this will be a particularly appealing job. Vegas will be an exciting destination for free agents, but the talent gap between the Raiders and the rest of the division is apparent. Davis has been willing to spend on talent, and he’ll be saving money by not paying the remaining $60 million or so left on Gruden’s deal.

At the same time, consider what happened before Gruden arrived. Former general manager McKenzie took over a team that was in horrific salary-cap shape and missing draft picks after years of disastrous decisions by Al Davis and months of poor choices from former coach Hue Jackson. McKenzie’s Raiders ate nearly $77 million in dead money over 2012 and 2013 and began to work their way back. After drafting Mack and Cooper, they jumped from 3-13 in 2014 to 7-9 in 2015 and 12-4 in 2016. Their record was inflated by an unsustainable performance in one-score games, but for a team that hadn’t been to the playoffs or posted a winning record since 2002, 12-4 is 12-4.

A year later, Davis got distracted by shiny things and fired coach Jack Del Rio after a disappointing season to give Gruden full control of football operations (McKenzie was let go in December 2018). That example is going to be in the back of anyone’s mind if they get approached by the organization. The next guy probably isn’t getting a 10-year deal.

What we learned

Gruden’s second act with the Raiders was an unqualified failure. Focusing solely on his work over the past few years, it was a failure in exactly the ways we would have expected based on his time in Tampa Bay. He did a solid job of running the offense and got just about everything else wrong. Virtually every one of his significant personnel decisions turned out to be a mistake. He dismantled the organization and turned the core he inherited into pennies on the dollar.

Organizations should learn from the tenures of Gruden and Jacksonville’s Urban Meyer, the other coach who was in the spotlight before Gruden resigned. Both would qualify as offensive minds with success in their past. They were each charismatic on television and capable of convincing ownership that they were single-handedly capable of turning around their fallen franchises. They were each given control of football operations despite the fact that Meyer has never been involved with pro personnel and Gruden’s track record as football czar in Tampa, Florida, was spotty at best.

If you’re hiring a coach, giving him complete control of football operations and resting the entire organization on his shoulders, you better make sure he’s up to the task. Even before the revelations of the past few days, it was clear that Gruden was not.

AFC SOUTH

JACKSONVILLE

QB TREVOR LAWRENCE exhibits a strong sense of geography.  Myles Simmons ofProFootballTalk.com:

Trevor Lawrence is preparing for his first of presumably several London games as the Jaguars’ starting quarterback. He and the team are hoping to make the long flight home with a first victory of the 2021 season.

In his Wednesday press conference, Lawrence spoke of his excitement to  play internationally. Though he also noted it’s a bit of a scheduling oddity.

 “It’s kind of ironic we’re going all the way to London to play a team from Miami,” Lawrence said. “That’s the one thing I thought about, but we’re excited obviously. I haven’t been that many places, especially outside of the country, so it’s going to be really cool and to play a game over there is going to be really exciting. I’ve heard about the fan base over there and how whenever teams come to play, they’re always really excited and have a great showing and fill up the stadium. That’s going to be fun to be around that atmosphere, somewhere different. I know we’re excited. Obviously, the main thing is to go and get our first win, go win a game, but we are excited to go out there and play.”

Lawrence has shown flashes of the talent that made him the top pick of this year’s draft, but he hasn’t yet led the team to victory. Still, Lawrence said he feels like he’s playing a lot smarter as he continues to gain NFL experience.

“Obviously, the past two games have been my best as far as decisions go and completion percentage, accuracy, all those things. I think those are my two best games, so that says a lot,” Lawrence said. “I feel like I’m getting better every week and just trusting that that’s going to put us in situations to win games down the road. Obviously, up to this point, it hasn’t, but we’re going to keep getting better eventually if I keep doing my job.

“I’m going to make the plays. I have faith in my ability that when there’s a play to be made, I’ll make it.”

The Jaguars and Dolphins have been two of the league’s worst teams both on offense and defense this season, which adds to the toss-up nature of the contest. But if Lawrence and the rest of the Jags can find some success across the pond, they’ll at least have a more relaxing bye in store for Week Seven.

THIS AND THAT

THE CASE FOR JON GRUDEN

Paul Mirengoff, a lawyer writing at Powerline, makes the defense that Gruden did not deserve his fate:

Jon Gruden is out as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders because of what he wrote in private emails. The emails are described by the media as “racist,” “homophobic,” and “misogynist.”

From what I can tell, the racism consists of making fun of the lip size of the head of the players’ union who is Black. The homophobia consists of calling NFL commissioner Roger Goodell the other “f” word and criticizing the commissioner for allegedly pressuring an NFL team to draft an openly gay college player — a “queer” in Gruden’s lexicon.

The misogyny consists of emailing pictures of topless women. There may be other manifestations of one or more of these forms of bias, but these are the ones I’ve read about.

My analysis of this matter begins with the fact that Gruden did all of these things privately. It should also end there but, as you probably can guess, it won’t.

In my opinion, no one should ever lose one’s job over statements made in private unless the statements are criminal in nature (for example, planning a riot in private emails) or are correctly viewed as highly offensive by the person to whom they are made.

Neither condition is satisfied here. First, there’s nothing criminal about the emails.

Second, Gruden wrote them to his friend Bruce Allen, then the president of the Washington Redskins as the team was called at the time. The emails were discovered because of an investigation of alleged sexual harassment within the Redskins’ organization. They were made public because. . .I’m not sure. No other emails from the investigation have been. Maybe Goodell wanted them released because he was a target of some of the abuse.

In any event, there’s no indication that Allen was offended by what his buddy wrote to him.

Thus, Gruden shouldn’t be punished. (He resigned, but reportedly was about to be fired.) Punishing people for what they say in private is a hallmark of totalitarian societies.

It might be argued that, private or not, the comments in the emails were such that once they were reported Gruden could not effectively coach the Raiders’ players. This may be true, but I doubt it.

Only the racial remark might have posed a barrier. But the black players know Gruden. They have an understanding of whether he’s a racist. If they were satisfied based on their dealings with him that he’s not, he probably would have been able to keep coaching them effectively.

Had Gruden made his statements in public, I would understand punishing him and even firing him. In a calmer, less identity-obsessed society, the discipline would likely stop short of discharge. That would be fine and probably preferable, assuming a proper apology.

But discharging Gruden, had he made his comments publicly, wouldn’t be unreasonable given the absence of mitigating factors in his case. The coach certainly couldn’t plead youth. Nor would a “stray remarks” defense hold water. Apparently, Gruden’s salty comments to Bruce Allen were persistent.

It should be within Gruden’s rights to criticize (even publicly) pressuring a team to draft a player because he is gay. Teams should draft players based on football factors, not sexual preference. And the word “queer” (the “Q” in LBGTQ) isn’t beyond the pale.

But calling someone the other “f” word goes too far, I think, even if the word isn’t directed at someone who’s gay (which I think is the case with Goodell). So does ridiculing a black man for having large lips.

Again, though, Gruden’s writings were private and thus (1) shouldn’t have been released and (2) shouldn’t be a basis for disciplinary action or the threat of it.

One final note. Tampa Bay, the team Gruden guided to its first Super Bowl victory, is removing the coach from its Ring of Honor. Yet, as Ben Domenech points out, Warren Sapp, who pleaded guilty to domestic assault, continues to enjoy that honor.

An America in which bad words are considered a greater offense than bad actions is an America headed downhill fast.