It’s no secret that the Oakland Raiders are taking phone calls about star pass rusher Khalil Mack as he continues to hold out for a long-term contract.
Now we have a sense about why nothing’s going on right now. The teams that are interested in potentially making a trade for Mack reportedly have gotten the impression it’ll cost at least two first-round picks, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.
The #Raiders have received a bunch of calls in recent days about trading Khalil Mack, but other teams have gotten the impression the price would be at least two first-round picks. No sense they‘re motivated to do a deal. @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/OUsqtMQyKu
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 29, 2018
This sounds an awful lot like what was coming out of the New York Giants’ front office back when there was a lot of chatter surrounding Odell Beckham Jr. possibly being moved in a trade. Essentially, the Raiders are making it darn-near impossible for a team to make a deal, but they also aren’t ruling out the possibility of saying yes to an outlandish trade proposal, either.
The latest reports surrounding Mack indicate he’s more than ready to sit out regular-season games this year if that’s what it takes to get the contract he seeks.
And quite honestly, that makes sense. While he would earn $13.86 million this year on the franchise tag (not counting any fines he’s incurred), that’s nothing compared to the type of guaranteed money he will land in a long-term deal.
So in the meantime, Oakland is smartly keeping its options open, just waiting for an aggressive offer to come in.