Khalil Mack’s situation with the Oakland Raiders remains an open question. A holdout from training camp, recent reports suggest that Mack will holdout through the team’s Week 1 opener.
We’ve also seen suggestions that the Raiders might be open to trading the former NFL Defensive Player of the Year. While that seems highly unlikely, no one really knows what Oakland is going to do under first-year head coach and de facto general manager Jon Gruden.
According to this one report from Ted Nguyen of The Athletic, multiple teams have made offers for Mack. Offers that were quickly turned down by the Raiders. More notably, the star is not on the “trade block.”
Teams have made offers and were quickly rejected. Raiders haven’t “put Khalil Mack on the trade block.” https://t.co/quWVzW8e3Z
— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) August 23, 2018
There’s a couple ways to look at this.
Oakland could be putting this out here as a way to increase Mack’s trade value. Though, the more likely scenario is that he is in fact not on the block.
At 27 years old, Mack is one of the best overall football players in the game. He’s recorded 36.5 sacks over the past three seasons, earning a Pro Bowl nod each year.
Unfortunately, things are not trending in the right direction between the star and his Raiders team. Should Mack not be on hand for Week 1, rumors about a trade will increase. Until then, it remains a pipe dream for the league’s 31 other teams.
For his part, Mack’s accumulative fines for holding out this preseason will top the $2 million mark once he misses this week’s game. That tells us how serious he is about an extension.