mark davis
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Jon Gruden with Mark Davis.
The Las Vegas Raiders haven’t been consistently good for a very long time. A big reason for that has been bad coaching, poorly constructed front offices and baffling roster decisions.
However, the one constant has been ownership. The franchise started to decline under Al Davis as he got older, but things didn’t get any better when his son, Mark Davis, took over. The Raiders have just two winning seasons since he became the owner in 2011.
Davis likes to keep out of the spotlight, but that’s been hard to do considering he’s hired and fired more coaches than any other owner during his tenure. He’s also cycled through several general managers. The Athletic’s Zak Keefer put out a detailed report about some of the dysfunction that the Raiders have seen under Davis’ ownership.
“Davis, who declined to comment through a team spokesperson, could be both odd and indignant, former employees said,” Keefer wrote. “One remembers him screaming at his mother on the team plane when the Wi-Fi didn’t work; another time, he complained about play calls loudly enough for the offensive coordinator to hear but wouldn’t address the issue directly with the coach.”
Davis Thinks Like a Fan
Unlike other owners who have struggled to build winners, Davis doesn’t meddle with day-to-day football operations. However, that comes with its own set of problems. According to sources Keefer spoke to, there isn’t a lot of respect in the building for Davis’ football knowledge.
“Davis, the former employees said, was as hands-off as they come, sleeping in most mornings and never involving himself in personnel decisions. ‘He has no idea what he’s doing,’ one former staffer said. ‘He thinks just like a fan.’ Al Davis had worked his way up the coaching ranks and served as the commissioner of the American Football League before taking over the Raiders. His son was simply handed the team,” Keefer wrote.
Another problem with Davis is that he doesn’t seem to differentiate himself from what his father liked in a football team.
“In a way, he’s great to work for because he lets you do your thing,” one former employee told Keefer. “But he’s nothing like his dad. He doesn’t know anything football. ‘Oh, my dad liked fast guys? Where are all the fast guys?’ … It was all about The Raider Way. That thinking is so archaic. It’s not even relevant anymore. They gotta be good football players, too.”
Davis Doesn’t Respect GM Position?
Finding the right general manager is arguably as important as finding the right head coach. A good general manager can effectively run all of the football operations.
However, Davis doesn’t seem to fully buy into that notion.
“Antonio (Pierce) was given a (expletive) roster. Pete (Carroll) was given a (expletive) roster,” one source told Keefer. “The underlying issue is that Mark has never really respected the GM position. He let Gruden pick Mayock. Then he let Josh McDaniels pick his best friend as GM, Dave Ziegler. Now he lets Tom Brady do the same thing with Spytek.”
Just because John Spytek had a previous relationship with Brady doesn’t mean that he’s not qualified for the general manager job, but he has to hope that Davis doesn’t get impatient with him the way he has with previous general managers.