yes. That was my opinion based on the Gruden hiring, and how atrocious the results have been. At the time, myself and many others that I knew thought it was a terrible hiring for way too much money for a pretty overrated head coach, more personality than he was substance.
the text chain continues with another Raiders fan who agrees with you:
”Gruden was the worst talent evaluator for non QB positions. Hopefully Mayock can do better on his own.”
I agree with that, but there are still some issues…
In a vacuum, I will agree about Ruggs. However, he could have also had Lamb or Jefferson with that pick. In that light, it’s still a pretty bad pick, even if Ruggs didn’t have this epic downfall. I won’t speculate about Ruggs character, but part of drafting guys is vetting them to see if they’re mature enough to handle the money & pressure of playing in the NFL, but that’s definitely me using 20-20 hindsight so I won’t count that against Mayock.
But that’s looking at things in a vacuum. Big picture, some of those draft picks weren’t made on BPA or more importantly, team need. Watching the draft with Raiders fan friends, the sense of bewilderment when they failed to upgrade pass rush or secondary was palpable.
That said, Mayock was certainly an improvement over your last GM. Hopefully he’s better without Gruden’s influence, as my friend suggests.