Raiders letting Mike Mayock go gets new era off to right start

The Las Vegas Raiders fired general manager Mike Mayock on Monday and, while it does start another hiring search, it’s for the best of the franchise. 

It was so long ago that the Las Vegas Raiders fired head coach Jon Gruden that some people might’ve forgotten about it until we started hearing about their head coaching search as the silver and black took the field for their playoff matchup with the Bengals. But now there will be another hiring search for the franchise.

On Monday after the weekend Wild Card Round loss in Cincinnati, the Raiders announced that they were parting ways with general manager Mike Mayock.

The organization released a statement on the decision, thanking the former NFL Network draft analyst for his contributions and seemingly amicable fashion.

Raiders firing Mike Mayock gives franchise a clean slate for the future

Given the shortcoming of the Raiders when it’s come to the draft, it shouldn’t be surprising that Mayock was let go. But even beyond that, it’s a great move from Las Vegas to wipe the slate clean.

The shortcomings of the Gruden-Mayock combo left a stink on the franchise that they need to distance themselves from. Sure, the results on the field weren’t deplorable by any stretch, but the fact that the target was seemingly always moving and that they consistently misused or misevaluated draft resources was something that sets a team back for a long time.

While the problems with Gruden were more obvious, Mayock’s acumen as a general manager was simply not up to par — at least from the outside looking in.

Now that Mayock is gone, the Raiders can feel a sense of optimism with the hope that the organization will be able to find the right head coach-general manager pairing that can make the most out of this team and, more importantly, build a consistent contender.