Wrapping up Week 14 heading into Monday night …
1. In the end, the big blowup so many expected between Raiders coach Jon Gruden and GM Reggie McKenzie never came. I circled back with a couple Oakland staffers Monday afternoon—after McKenzie was fired—and got the same thing I have for a few months now. Gruden liked McKenzie personally. The relationship was cordial. It was never going to work long-term, not with how McKenzie’s authority had been curtailed, and not with how Gruden viewed the roster McKenzie built over his seven years as GM.