Barber: With Khalil Mack gone, not much left for Raiders' pass rush

ALAMEDA - Update on Khalil Mack: He has been upgraded to a Category IV storm and is expected to make landfall again this Sunday. All NFL quarterbacks are advised to shelter in place until further notice.

What's that? Oh, sorry. Jon Gruden doesn't want to talk about Khalil Mack anymore. He and general manager Reggie McKenzie traded Mack, one of the three best defensive players in football, to the Chicago Bears on Sept. 2. And that's that.

“We made the trade,” Gruden said Monday. “We made the trade. There has got to be hindsight, 50-50, all that stuff. We would have loved to have him here and I'm not going to keep rehashing this. I would have loved to coach him, loved to have him here. But he's not here.”

No, Mack is wrecking offenses in Chicago, and the Raiders are 0-2 and searching for a pass rush with their 50-50 vision.

But Gruden has a point. We can't keep talking about this forever. New England traded Jimmy Garoppolo for a second-round draft pick last Halloween, and it doesn't look like such a great swap for the Patriots now. But it's not like Bill Belichick is still being asked about Garoppolo.

OK, actually he is, but whatever. Let's not live in the past. Let's live in the future, a glorious time when the Raiders will get an extra first-round draft pick in exchange for He Who Shall Not Be Named. (They're actually getting two first-round picks from the Bears, but had to give up a second-rounder in the deal.) Better yet, let's live in the present.

So … Raiders … whatcha got for us?

Not a whole lot, maybe. In two weeks of football, the entire Oakland defense has two sacks (the same number as Mack), seven hits on the quarterback (seven more than Mack!), one forced fumble (one less than Mack) and zero fumble recoveries (also one less than Mack). The pass rush has been somewhere between meh and nonexistent.

Now, let's be clear about something. Overall, the Raiders' defense hasn't been terrible thus far. It's true that the unit is ranked 22nd in yards allowed per game (375), 27th in yards per play (6.0) and 26th in third-down conversion percentage (44). But the Oakland D looked great at Denver in the first half on Sunday before wilting in the heat in the second half, and by some measures has clearly improved over last year. For example, as Josh Dubow of the Associated Press pointed out, the aggregate NFL passer rating after two weeks this season is 92.6; the Raiders' defensive passer rating is 79.0. Last year, the league rating was 89.9 and Oakland's defensive rating was 101.8.

I believe Paul Guenther can be the Raiders' best defensive coordinator since Willie Shaw, who coached under Gruden here in 1998-99. But I don't think Guenther has the players to prove it in 2018.

The Raiders have only three proven sackers along the defensive line - guys with double- digit takedowns in their careers: defensive ends Bruce Irvin and Frostee Rucker, and defensive tackle Clinton McDonald. And Rucker's are mostly ancient history; he has 1½ sacks since the start of the 2016 season. The rest of the front wall is built of youngsters like rookies Arden Key, P.J. Hall and Maurice Hurst, and third-year men Shilique Calhoun and Brian Price, plus fifth-year vet Tank Carradine, who has never been confused for Aldon Smith.

Key got fans fired up during the preseason, but has looked overwhelmed at times in the regular season. Hall, meanwhile, missed the Denver game with an ankle injury. He has ditched his walking boot and did some jogging on Tuesday, but did not practice Wednesday. The situation was so dire heading into Week 2 that the Raiders signed McDonald off the street that Wednesday; four days later, he logged 52 snaps, more than any other Oakland defensive lineman.

Basically, there isn't a Khalil Mack in sight. Irvin is a bona fide quarterback chaser, but he thrives in concert with other disrupters. No one can do it alone - not even Mack. He looks so devastating in Chicago because the Bears have a wealth of talent in their front seven.

So what are the Raiders supposed to do? Do they look for pressure in the Xs and Os, or does the talent need to rise to the occasion?

“I think it's a combination of those two things,” Gruden said Wednesday. “Honestly, we are hoping we can get the opponent behind in the down-and-distance. You can ask any team in the league, when you have a number of opportunities, at-bats, when its second-and-12, third-and-11 or third-and-eight, that certainly helps. Blitzing could be a part of it. Winning your one-on-one's is a big part of it. … Hopefully, we are much better in Miami.”

On Monday, Gruden had brought up the idea of blitzing more. Which leads to another question: Do they have the blitzers to get it done? Among the Raiders' linebackers, only middle linebacker Derrick Johnson has a real history of it, and he's another old-timer who has just one sack in his past 34 games.

I asked Gruden if he has the men for the job. “I think so,” he said. “You do what you have to do with the personnel you have to win a game.”

Here's the other thing to consider if you're picturing the Raiders turning into a fearsome blitz machine: Guenther, despite his reputation as an aggressive coach, doesn't do a lot of it. Last year, his Bengals rushed five or more guys on just 15.2 percent of their defensive snaps, according to Football Outsiders. Only the Jaguars (14.3 percent) brought an extra man less frequently.

Gruden insisted Guenther can adapt to the situation.

“There were years in Cincinnati when Mike Zimmer was there (as defensive coordinator, with Guenther serving as an assistant, and) they blitzed more than they did in other seasons,” Gruden said. “When you have (Carlos) Dunlap and you have Geno Atkins and others, sometimes you don't have to blitz. You can mix coverages. Sometimes the illusion of pressure - making the other quarterback thinking your blitzing, and not blitzing - is good. We were able to get Denver in some seven-man protections and just three-man routes.”

That's Gruden, ever confident. And in the long run, there is reason for optimism with Hall, Hurst and Key. But it's hard to picture 2018 as the Year of the Fractured Quarterback for the Raiders' defense. They might have neither the tools nor the scheme to make that happen.

Sorry to broach the taboo subject one more time, but Khalil Mack ain't walking in that door anytime soon. You know, the door he just walked out of.

You can reach columnist Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Skinny_Post.