‘Heartbeat of this team’ Khalil Mack contract holdout has been ‘grueling’ for Raiders

We are officially exactly two weeks until the Raiders open the 2018 NFL season. And still no Khalil Mack. What once seemed like no big deal and no reason to panic has started to get a little more stressful. The Raiders coaches don’t absolutely need Mack to participate in the offseason program or minicamp or training camp or even the preseason. Hell Authentic Tahir Whitehead Jersey , Derek Carr has taken 13 snaps this preseason, so how much of a difference would having Khalil Mack make? Gruden thinks it would make a big difference.“His playmaking, his leadership, his presence,” Gruden says of what Mack brings to the team dynamic. “Great players like Mack have all those things going for them. They make people around them better. And they make offenses account for you. If you’re going to account for Khalil Mack, you probably got to double team the guy. Someone else is not going to have to deal with that. There’s a lot of things that a great player brings to your football team. Hopefully that’s sometime soon.”Yeah, sometime soon would be kind of a must at this point. And Gruden is not going to predict Mack will make it in time to start the season.“I don’t want to put any timetable on it,” Gruden continued. “This has obviously been a long process that’s been grueling for both parties, the fans, and me personally. We’re just hoping we can get him in here.”This is the second year in a row the Raiders have gone through this with one of their players. Donald Penn held out of camp and preseason looking for a new contract. He ended up returning to the team just prior to the start of the season despite not having a deal in place. And he eventually got the deal he was looking for. So, as you might expect, he doesn’t think having Mack here this offseason is a big deal.“It doesn’t impact us at all. It’s the next guy up. It’s part of the business game,” Penn said of Mack’s absence. “Every guy in that locker room — I know how it is, I’ve been through it three times already in my career —those guy know how the business side of this. They know as a professional athlete, when you’re not here, you have to take care of yourself and I know Khalil’s out there working his butt off just like I was when I was holding out.”In fact, Penn thinks Mack’s absence has actually been a good thing.“We want him here, but I don’t think it’s affecting us, I think it’s helping us,” said Penn. “We know what Khalil can do, everybody knows what Khalil can do. Now we got guys like [Arden] Key and all these guys getting reps out there. We got Fadol [Brown] who’s coming out here just balling, he’s having a great camp. My hat’s off to him and Key, they’re both having a great camp. Give these guys reps, give these guys time to grow. It kind of helped when I was hurting this offseason because Kolton [Miller] has been able to get all those reps and been able to grow and get better and help us as a team when Khalil does get here and we go full force.”Penn said he spoke to Mack prior to the team’s second preseason game against the Rams, and he said Mack was “In good spirits”. But if the next time the Raider face the Rams in the season opener, Mack isn’t back in uniform, there won’t be any cause for good spirits then.When the games start counting, this team absolutely cannot be without its best player. At least Penn understands that.“I hope and a pray it gets done real fast because he and Derek are the heartbeat of this team,” Penn added. He speaks for an entire organization and fan base with that statement.Follow @LeviDamienPredicting Raiders 53-man roster, practice squad for 2018 We’re midway through the preseason and approximately two weeks from when the Raiders and every other NFL team must trim their roster from 90 players down to 53 on the active roster and as many as 10 on the practice squad. Each team will be cutting 37 players from the roster. That’s a lot of decisions to make. Many of which won’t be easy. It certainly wasn’t easy to predict them.With some 1184 players who will not be on their team’s roster come the cutdown day, the Raiders will be scanning the waiver wire to make more moves. They will also likely be placing a few players on injured reserve. And if they hope to designate any of them for return, they must be placed on IR after the cutdown day, at which point they could then bring back any players they cut who cleared waivers should they choose to do so.Here is how I see the 53-man roster shaking out:Quarterbacks In: Derek Carr, EJ Manuel, Connor CookOut: N/ARunning backsIn: Marshawn Lynch, Doug Martin http://www.oaklandraidersteamonline.com/johnny-townsend-jersey , Jalen Richard, Keith Smith (FB)Out: Chris Warren III, DeAndre Washington, James Butler, Ryan Yurachek Wide receivers In: Amari Cooper, Jordy Nelson, Martavis Bryant, Ryan Switzer, Dwayne Harris, Marcell AtemanOut: Seth Roberts (trade?), Johnny Holton, Griff Whalen, Keon Hatcher, Isaac Whitney, Saeed BlacknallTight ends In: Lee Smith, Jared Cook, Derek Carrier Out: Paul Butler, Pharaoh Brown, Marcus BaughOffensive linemenIn: Donald Penn, Kelechi Osemele, Rodney Hudson, Gabe Jackson, Kolton Miller, Jon Feliciano, David Sharpe, Brandon Parker, Jordan SimmonsOut: Breno Giacomini (IR), Jylan Ware, Ian Silberman, Denver Kirkland, Oday Aboushi, James Stone, Cameron HuntDefensive linemenIn: Khalil Mack, Bruce Irvin, Mario Edwards Jr, Justin Ellis Womens Gabe Jackson Jersey , Maurice Hurst, PJ Hall, Arden Key, Tank Carradine, Shilique CalhounOut: Eddie Vanderdoes (IR), Treyvon Hester, Fadol Brown, Frostee Rucker, Gabe Wright, Shakir SotoLinebackersIn: Tahir Whitehead, Derrick Johnson, Emmanuel Lamur, Marquel Lee, Nicholas Morrow, Kyle WilberOut: James Cowser, Azeem Victor, Jason CabindaCornerbacksIn: Gareon Conley, Rashaan Melvin, Nick Nelson, Daryl Worley, Antonio HamiltonOut: Leon Hall, Shareece Wright, Dexter McDonald, Raysean Pringle, Antwuan DavisSafetiesIn: Reggie Nelson, Karl Joseph, Marcus Gilchrist, Erik Harris, Shalom LuaniOut: Obi Melifonwu (IR), Quincy Mauger, Dallin Leavitt, Special teamers In: Eddy Pineiro, Johnny Townsend, AndrewDaPaolo Out: Mike NugentPractice squadRB Chris Warren IIIWR Johnny HoltonTE Paul ButlerOL Ian SilbermanOL Denver KirklandDE Fadol BrownDT Treyvon HesterLB James CowserLB Azeem VictorS Dallin LeavittFollow @LeviDamien