Barber: Raiders' Reggie McKenzie riding shotgun as Jon Gruden drives

ALAMEDA - Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie subjected himself to a pre-draft media grilling on Friday, but offered up nothing of real substance. We might have predicted this, for a couple of reasons.

Reason One: Reggie McKenzie is an NFL GM, and this time of year, NFL GMs elevate blandness to an art form. As a group, they are notoriously close-lipped any time of year. But the minute they hear the Cleveland Browns are on the clock, the execs become downright paranoid. They leave the impression that if they were to divulge, for example, that this year's class of interior linemen is better than most, or that they need an outside linebacker slightly more than an inside linebacker, it would be akin to handing the Russians your nuclear codes.

Reason Two: Reggie McKenzie is Reggie McKenzie. Unflappable and placid to the point of sleepiness, he is always hard to read and never guilty of oversharing.

This year, though, there is another good explanation for McKenzie's secrecy. He may not be qualified to state the Raiders' intentions next Thursday, Friday and Saturday, because he is no longer the one making the ultimate decisions.

That would be Jon Gruden, the great white whale that Raiders team owner Mark Davis finally harpooned after years of pursuit.

McKenzie's world got a shakeup when Davis introduced Gruden as head coach in early January. Most of the talk since then has been about “collaboration.” But when the coach is set to make an unprecedented $100 million over 10 years, you can bet he'll get whatever toy he covets. Perhaps even a new general manager to work with, if it comes to that.

No one in Alameda has stated anything that extreme. But Davis confirmed Gruden's consolidation of power when he spoke at the NFL owners meetings in March.

“Jon's the head coach and he's going to be here a while, so it's important that he gets the players he wants and builds a team he wants to build,” Davis said, as quoted by NBC Sports Bay Area. “Reggie is there with his staff to find the players, and also to keep the cap and everything else in order.”

In other words, McKenzie used to be the guy with the bigger rubber stamp; no draft choice was made without his seal of approval. Now he's more or less Jon Gruden's waiter, bringing him a menu of potential players from which to order, than tallying the bill afterward.

Davis appears to have true affection for McKenzie, who lent dignity to the organization in the vacuum of Al Davis' death. But this wasn't the first step in the erosion of McKenzie's influence. He had full power over personnel when the Raiders hired - when he hired - Dennis Allen as head coach in 2012. But Davis had a much stronger hand in hiring Jack Del Rio in 2015, and McKenzie and Del Rio had more of a power-sharing arrangement.

Now McKenzie is clearly riding shotgun. And it makes you wonder about the answers he gave to draft questions on Friday.

Like when someone asked McKenzie what sort of player he and Gruden are looking for, and the general manager replied with a knowing smile: “Raiders. The characteristics of that is just being good football players. It's not about height, weight, speed or where they come from. It's about who they are as players. Do they love playing football?”

That answer was meaningless. But is that because McKenzie was playing it close to the vest, or because he hasn't yet figured out exactly what sort of athlete appeals to the new coach?

Or when someone mentioned that McKenzie has, in the past, claimed that he lets the draft board talk to him, and asked who will be doing the talking now that Gruden is in the “war room.” McKenzie's reply was, “The board will still be doing the talking. It really will.” Ah, but whose handwriting will the names be written in?

All in all, it was a bit of an awkward scene. The NFL mandates that all general managers address the media prior to the draft, and the Raiders complied. But the man they put before the cameras is more spokesman than decision maker at this point.

Which is not to say that this relationship can't work. McKenzie is accustomed to having the final word, and now he doesn't. But maybe he's OK with that. And even if he's uncomfortable in the role now, that could change if the Raiders win, and if he and Gruden do, in fact, discover that their player evaluations tend to jibe.

McKenzie certainly gave no hint of frustration Friday as he sat in front of a microphone in a Raiders polo shirt - not that he has ever publicly hinted at frustration.

“Guys, it's not rocket science. It really isn't,” McKenzie said when asked about working with the new coach. “It's just trying to get a feel for a new system, new coaches - what they like and what they don't like. That's the process.”

About working with Gruden personally, McKenzie said this: “He's great. I love the fire, I love the enthusiasm. We can talk football all day and watch film. I mean, it's been really good. I'm excited to watch him on the grass and get out there and watch practice. … It's fun being around him, and I like that.”

There's another reason not to mourn the shortening of McKenzie's reach. His recent draft history is checkered, to say the least. He was the 2016 NFL Executive of the Year, but that was based largely on what happened in 2014, when the Raiders drafted defensive end Khalil Mack and quarterback Derek Carr in Rounds 1 and 2. Those were pretty much back-to-back grand slams.

Before then, and since, McKenzie has had more draft-day misses - cornerback D.J. Hayden in the first round, defensive lineman Jihad Ward in the second, guard Tony Bergstrom, tight end Clive Walford and edge rusher Shilique Calhoun in the third, etc. - than hits like wide receiver Amari Cooper and running back Latavius Murray. And the jury is still out on last year's top picks, corner Gareon Conley and safety Obi Melifonwu, two good-looking young defenders who played a combined seven games last year as they couldn't shake their injuries.

Davis has been loyal to McKenzie, but his patience is not infinite. McKenzie's recent drafts and free-agent signings had thinned out the ice beneath his feet.

Perhaps this delegation of power to Gruden will take some heat off of the GM. Or maybe I'm being too optimistic on McKenzie's behalf.

Friday, he jocularly described the excitable Gruden as “a bowling ball of butcher knives.” Deep inside, McKenzie must be hoping that he's not the 1 pin.

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