The Las Vegas Raiders caused plenty of people to scratch their heads when they executed a trade as part of their final roster cut-down on Saturday, sending rookie Lynn Bowden Jr. to the Miami Dolphins in a swap of 2021 draft picks. The Athletic reported shortly afterward that the Raiders were “happy to find a customer” for Bowden despite just spending the 80th overall pick on the Kentucky product, in large part because of perceived off-field concerns. But now general manager Mike Mayock has offered an explanation of his own.
“No. 1, it was a football decision only,” Mayock said Sunday, per The Athletic’s Tashan Reed. “Character, off the field, the kid did absolutely nothing wrong. We did all our homework on the kid off the field. He worked his tail off. He came to work every day. So this was completely a football decision. It had nothing to do with anything else.
“Quite frankly, I think the position change is a difficult one in any year, but it’s exaggerated in a COVID-19 year with no offseason,” Mayock continued, alluding to Bowden’s unofficial move from wide receiver to running back. “You’re taking a kid that was a slot receiver in ’18, a quarterback in ’19 and asking him to play running back in ’20. Really the only other thing I’m going to say about it is that it was my call. He was not able to play today at the level expected. Because of that, we felt like we had to make a move. Again, it’s 100 percent on me.”