The Oakland Raiders left many fans scratching their heads when they released one of the most entertaining punters in the NFL on Friday, but that might be part of the problem. Marquette King had signed a five-year extension in 2016 and the Raiders cleared about $3M of cap space but that wasn’t really the only factor.
There have been reports from around the league that new head coach Jon Gruden had some issues with King’s personality according to The Athletics Vic Tafur
There were whispers of King’s personality not clicking with Gruden’s. I should have listened better. Coach didn’t want to spend a lot of money on punter who gets personal fouls. #Raiders
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) March 30, 2018
In his article on the topic, Tafur states that this wasn’t a surprise to many in the building. Apparently, there had been some negative feelings about King’s antics as well as a Pro-Bowl pic with Aquib Talib tugging on his chain jokingly. The Broncos CB and Raiders chains have a bit of history.
Marquette King is a good punter who made a pro bowl and is still pretty young, he was in the second year of his deal with the raiders and making $2.9M this year. Many point to the fact that, that is a pretty steep price for a punter especially one with four personal fouls in the last two years.
It was, in fact, the Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie, not Gruden who delivered the message to Marquette King as he came to visit the facility this weekend. The Raiders also traded kick returner Cordarrelle Patterson to the Patriots, giving special teams coach Rich Bisaccia a fresh slate to start on.
