Browns Expected To Inquire About Trade For Raiders DE Khalil Mack

Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the Browns are expected to inquire about trading for Raiders hold out DE Khalil Mack.

On Friday, Browns HC Hue Jackson was asked about the possibility of making a splash and he didn’t rule it out, but admitted it would be difficult for them to pull off.

“Oh, like a splash or something like that?” Jackson said.  “It’d be hard for us to do, but nothing’s out of the question. Nothing’s off the table. I think we’ll definitely look at everything, and if we think it fits for our organization and football team, we’ll certainly do it.”

Tom Pelissero of NFL Media recently reported that “a lot” of teams have contacted the Raiders about a potential trade for Mack in recent days. However, based on the GMs and personnel executives he’s spoken to, the interested teams came away with the impression that the Raiders have “no imminent interest” trading Mack.

According to Pelissero, the Raiders have received multiple offers for Mack including a first-round and another high selection. A separate team offered an unnamed player for Mack but none of these talks have gone anywhere.

Sources around the NFL have told Pelissero that they believe the Raiders would want at least two first-round picks in order to even start serious trade talks. This is on top of the massive contract extension it’s going to require to get Mack signed long term.

Mack is clearly a game-changing talent, but at that price and the fact that it would require a team to sign him to a massive contract extension, a trade seems highly unlikely at this point in time.

The Raiders officially placed Mack on the reserve/did not report list after he made the decision to hold out of training camp workouts.

Oakland will have their franchise tag available to use on Mack in 2019 if they don’t get a long-term extension done before the start of the season.

Mack, 27, is a former first-round pick of the Raiders back in 2014. Mack played out the final year of his four-year, $18,677,002, but the Raiders picked up his fifth-year option last April.

Mack is in line to be an unrestricted free agent int 2019.

In 2017, Mack appeared in all 16 games for the Raiders and recorded 78 tackles, 10.5 sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, and three pass defenses. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 6 edge defender out of 1086 qualifying players.

We have him featured in our Top 25 – 2019 NFL Free Agents list.