The Raiders Reportedly Cut Marquette King Because Jon Gruden Didn't Like His Personality
PFT- The Raiders cut punter Marquette King last week, and that came as a surprise. King is a solid punter who had a career-best 42.7-yard net average last season, and he still had three years left on his contract. But new Raiders coach Jon Gruden apparently didn’t like King.
Veteran Raiders reporters Bill Williamson and Vic Tafur both reported that Gruden was the one who made the call to send King packing, and that Gruden had personality issues with King. What exactly those personality issues were is unclear, but King also drew the ire of former Raiders coach Jack Del Rio, who said in 2016 that he was growing tired of King’s antics after King picked up 15-yard personal foul penalties in back-to-back games.
What kind of a world are we living in where the RRRRRRRRAIDERS are cutting players that ball out on the field because they have a little bit of flair and may have racked up a few personal foul penalties? Al Davis must be doing somersaults in his grave right now. Next you are going to tell me that Jon Gruden is cutting everyone on the team with a Speed rating over 90 in Madden. The foundation of the Raiders franchise has always been to beat your dick in on the field and then rub your nose in said pulverized dick. Now they are cutting guys because the head coach doesn’t like a little bit of personality? I’ll tell you what man, I thought Jon Gruden liked everyone under the sun. It’s almost like everything he said in the Monday Night Football booth over the last decade was a bunch of bullshit because he didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes so the Grumors could link him to every team in the NFL.
I know Gruden’s not a dayta/dahta/analytics guy and all, but if he is planning on bringing back the 1998 Raiders, he may want a punter that was 2nd team All-Pro just two seasons ago. A quick look at the stats tell me that the 98 Raiders had the third most punts in the league. You don’t need any fancy sabermetrics to know that Leo Araguz was a busy man that season. Here I am referencing Leo Araguz on a Monday morning blog. That’s fucked up. But it’s the world we live in because the Raiders cut a dude with talent dripping out his ass because he may have had a little bit of swagger dripping out as well. If Pat McAfee says you are good #ForTheBrand, then you are good enough for all 32 NFL teams.
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First the Raiders get rid of Sebastian Janikowski and then they axe Marquette King. Yeah Khalil Mack is a beast and all. But is Sin City really going to embrace a team with Derek Carr as the face of its offense? Rocking permanent guy liner doesn’t make you as edgy in Vegas as it does in other cities. I’m pretty sure Criss Angel does the same exact thing. Any city could get behind a franchise with Seabass and Marquette booting balls, winning field position battles, and being awesome. But Las Vegas is probably going to send this boring ass Raiders team back to Oakland the minute they arrive in 2019. And the maniacs in the Black Hole will then send this sterilized Raiders squad to LA so they can have three teams in a city that doesn’t want one.
I’d implore the Giants to pick up King since they currently are in the market for a punter, but we know what happens when the Giants have a player that doesn’t act like a cliche clone machine.