Jon Gruden & Khalil Mack Haven’t Spoken Since Gruden Was Hired

According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, Raiders HC Jon Gruden and franchise DE Khalil Mack have not spoken once since Gruden was hired by Oakland back in January.

Schefter adds that Gruden has tried to contact Mack, but just hasn’t succeeded up to this point.

Either way, it’s not ideal to hear that two of the most important figures for the Raiders have yet to speak one time just over a month before the start of the regular season.

Mack will not be in attendance for the start of training camp on Thursday and Schefter reported yesterday that this does not appear to be a case of Mack posturing.

This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, considering that Mack previously skipped mandatory minicamp and the two sides aren’t close to an agreement on a long-term extension.

Mack, 27, is a former first-round pick of the Raiders back in 2014. He was in the final year of his four-year, $18,677,002 contract and set to make a base salary of $690,000 to go along with a $2,276,865 roster bonus for the 2017 season when Oakland picked up his fifth-year option last year.

In 2017, Mack appeared in nine games for the Raiders and recorded 78 tackles, 10.5 sacks, a forced fumble, a recovery and three pass defenses.  Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 5 edge defender out of 106 qualifying players.

We’ll have more regarding Mack as the news is available.