Antonio Brown wanted to "call God" this season with the Raiders.
Now, he's calling other teams for a job.
The Raiders released the walking soap opera Saturday morning. The action came only days after he threatened to punch the general manager, a day after he posted a video that featured a no-consent recording of a phone call with his head coach, and mere hours after he posted "release me" on Instagram.
This was always a combustible situation. You could see that from up in a hot air balloon; Brown's mode of transportation on reporting day in Napa. But nobody could have predicted everything that has happened over the few weeks, few days, and few hours.
Brown never took a single snap or received a single dollar from the Raiders, but I doubt his tenure in Oakland will be forgotten anytime soon.
The release was inevitable and it was necessary. It leaves the Raiders without their best player two days before the season opener.
It also leaves their leadership exposed and, if they have any dignity at all, embarrassed.
Brown played the Raiders for fools, and Jon Gruden _ the man who calls all of the Raiders shots _ was willing to play along. It was a devil's bargain for the Raiders' coach: Brown would get to play by his own rules Monday through Saturday, but on Sundays, he'd be one of the best wide receivers the NFL has ever seen.
Gruden received the first part of that deal _ in spades _ but was never able to reap the reward.
But, man, he did everything he could to get Brown on the field for the season opener Monday night.
Gruden was willing to overlook the fact that Brown showed up to training camp with a fun surprise _ frostbitten feet that prevented him from participating in team practices. Gruden and the Raiders then stood by Brown while he deliriously challenged the NFL over the right to wear a helmet that was not approved by the league. Gruden was Brown's advocate when the receiver decided he wasn't going to show up to practice without telling anybody, and then, instead of suspending him for threatening to punch the general manager Wednesday, Gruden made sure to have Brown practicing on Friday. When Brown posted a video later Friday that featured a recording of a phone conversation with Gruden _ Brown recorded without consent from Gruden, which is illegal in California _ the coach brushed it off.
Gruden was willing to bend any way Brown wanted, so long as it got the wide receiver on the field for Monday night's game against the Denver Broncos. And it was wholly unbecoming.
It was only when Brown said that he wasn't going to play against Denver _ a response to general manager Mike Mayock finding him more than $215,000 for conduct detrimental to the team, in turn voiding the nearly $30 million in guaranteed money on his contract _ that Gruden finally cut him.
It was the only real solution to a problem that was only going to grow as the season progressed. But a competent team wouldn't have let it reach that point.
Brown is now free to sign with any team in the NFL. I doubt that he'll find the market hospitable.
The aftermath of Brown's exit is catastrophic.
My belief heading into the season was that the Raiders would be a 6-10 team. To many Raiders fans _ at least the segment that likes to yell online _ that would be a disappointing year. Forgive me for thinking defense matters.
But now, with Brown gone and the Raiders left wondering "what the hell just happened?", 6-10 would be one hell of an accomplishment.
That's how good Brown is as a player. The Raiders' offense was going to be built around him, and he was likely to receive upwards of 175 targets this season in Gruden's high-volume offense.
No Brown means that Tyrell Williams is the Raiders' No. 1 wide receiver. Williams is a rock-solid player, but a game-changer he is not. There's simply no one on this team that is capable of picking up the amount of slack Brown left, even in the aggregate. The Raiders' offense had a chance to be one of the best in the NFL in 2019. Now, they'd be lucky to be better than league average.
More importantly, though, this Brown saga has exposed that Gruden is still in charge. The Raiders had pushed a narrative of change since Mayock was hired as the team's general manager _ Gruden wanted everyone to believe that he was no longer in full control _ but that story crumbled under the pressure of Brown's drama.
Gruden proved that he's still the head honcho in Alameda, and as we enter year two of his tenure, it's hard to find anything that he has done well.
In the last 372 days, Gruden has traded away a generational talent in Khalil Mack, a stud wide receiver in Amari Cooper, a second-round pick, two third-round picks, and a fifth-round pick and in return has only rookies Josh Jacobs and Johnathan Abram and one first-round pick.
On the field, he's unremarkable, a fact that will be fully exposed when the Raiders' Brown-free offense takes the field Monday.
That has to be why Gruden let Brown use up all of his nine lives in the past few weeks. He was all-in on AB, chasing his losses from a disastrous year one.
The problem is that by refusing to suspend him following Wednesday's altercation, Gruden publicly undercut Mayock's authority with both the players and the public, and exposed himself as a pushover to players _ if they're good enough, that is.
If not for Brown's holdout threat (his second of the past month) and Mayock's competency (fining Brown for missing practice and conduct detrimental to the team; installing multiple trap doors on Brown's contract, making it easy to void the guaranteed money on the deal), Gruden would still be in Brown's corner, fighting to get him on the field.
I don't know how Gruden bounces back from this with any dignity, how his players can ever view him as a true disciplinarian again.
And I have little faith that his relationship with Mayock will ever be as strong as they once purported it to be.
Acquiring Brown was the advanced ropes course. Gruden tried it without a safety harness and almost immediately fell.
Gruden has proven to be a terrible general manager and a coach who is in over his head. Mayock has proven to be the only adult in the room, but he's merely a glorified spokesperson for Gruden's personnel department, the man who handles the dirty work.
The Raiders are once again the laughingstock of the NFL _ the franchise that every other one looks to feel better about themselves.
Meanwhile, the perpetually incompetent Mark Davis is holed up in his dad's entombed office, hoping this all works out.
It won't.
