National Football League

Why stop now? Raiders should cut ties with McKenzie as well

Published Sep. 30, 2014 12:44 a.m. ET

Alex Marvez

Mark Davis fired Oakland Raiders head coach Dennis Allen on Monday night after his team's 0-4 start.

The team owner shouldn't stop there.

Not that canning Reggie McKenzie at this point of a disastrous 2014 season would make an immediate difference. But there is nothing from his two-plus seasons as general manager that would indicate McKenzie deserves to remain part of the franchise's never-ending rebuilding process when Davis decides to hire Allen's replacement.

Allen was canned in the aftermath of Oakland's embarrassing 38-14 overseas loss to Miami last Sunday that dropped his career record to 8-28. There is no question Allen made mistakes along the way that helped seal his fate. But whether he was truly ready to handle his first head coaching position is impossible to determine considering the lousy personnel decisions McKenzie has made since both arrived in Oakland together in 2012.

Allen never even had a pair of deuces to compete in the high-stakes world of NFL poker. The only Pro Bowl player Oakland fielded the past two seasons was fullback Marcel Reese, who is a forgotten part of the offense in 2014.

The biggest area of McKenzie's mismanagement came at the quarterback position. McKenzie struck out on two veterans acquired via trade as projected starters in Matt Flynn (2013) and Matt Schaub (2014) after making the ill-fated decision to send Carson Palmer packing to Arizona where he has since experienced a career revival.

While McKenzie may have finally gotten it right under center by selecting Derek Carr in the second round of this year's draft, that move came far too late to save Allen. The Raiders have scored a league-low 51 points as Carr takes his lumps as a rookie starter.

McKenzie apologists will point to the fact he inherited a roster decimated by the poor personnel and salary-cap decisions of late team owner Al Davis, who died in October 2011 having spent more than a decade in vain trying to resurrect the franchise he once built into a multiple Super Bowl winner.

Even considering that, the Raiders aren't in a much better position than when McKenzie and Allen came onboard.

McKenzie's first two Raiders drafts were brutal and compounded the problem. The 2012 class yielded one current starter (middle linebacker Miles Burris), a backup guard (Tony Bergstrom) and four picks no longer on the roster.

The 2013 class was slightly better but McKenzie's reach to use a first-round pick on cornerback D.J. Hayden after trading down nine spots from the No. 3 overall selection remains a disaster. Hayden's long injury history has grown in the NFL. He remains on the physically unable to perform list this season because of a foot problem. In the meantime, Oakland's defense is allowing opponents to complete passes at a 72.4-percent click.

McKenzie tried to compensate for his draft gaffes by signing a slew of veteran free agents in the 2014 offseason. Yet at the same time, McKenzie let some of the club's best young talent -- left tackle Jared Veldheer, defensive lineman Lamarr Houston and running back Rashad Jennings -- leave in free agency despite finally having the cap room available to negotiate contract extensions.

McKenzie's methodology has led to this double-whammy: The 2014 Raiders are old and bad as yet another season slips away.

Mark Davis initially said he would give McKenzie ample time to make the Raiders relevant once again. But just like when he ran out of patience with Allen, Davis can't be blamed for doing the same with McKenzie.

If there's any internal doubt, Davis should remember the "Just win, baby" mantra espoused by his father that exemplified Oakland's self-proclaimed "Commitment to Excellence." Like Allen, McKenzie hasn't won. And there is nothing excellent about the work McKenzie has done to change Oakland's status as an NFL laughingstock.