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Raiders defensive end Khalil Mack didn’t show up on the first day of the 2018 Raiders season Monday, but fans of the Silver and Black shouldn’t read too far into the All-Pro’s absence.

Mack, who is in the fifth year of his rookie contract, skipped the first day of the Raiders’ voluntary workouts Monday as a response to slow-going negotiations over a new deal. No matter how many people use the term, it’s not a holdout — you have to skip something that’s mandatory for it to really be a holdout, (hence the quotation marks in the headline) — but the absence of the Raiders’ best player on the first day old/new coach Jon Gruden can spend with the team has led to some anxiousness in the Raiders’ fanbase.

That concern is misplaced. Mack is merely using the one tool at his disposal in the contract negotiation process — absence — as a means to speed up the extension talks.

Frankly, Mack’s absence Monday (and presumably beyond) should have been foreseen, because it should be no surprise that contract negotiations have been slow to progress.

Mack is likely to land the largest contract for a defensive end in NFL history, but unlike when a quarterback signs a new deal, there’s more ambiguity when valuing a defensive player — this is not a deal that can be hammered out in a day, week, or perhaps even a month, there are league-wide ramifications to Mack’s contract.

But there’s no reason to believe that Mack’s absence Monday was a precursor to him no longer being on the Raiders in 2019 and beyond.

For starters, the Raiders are well-equipped and willing to pay Mack more than Von Miller, who set the market for pass rushers when he signed a six-year deal that guaranteed $42 million at signing and $70 million “guaranteed” (that’s a false term, if you ask me) before the 2016 season. But the salary cap has gone up roughly 14 percent ($22 million) since Miller signed that deal — Mack can easily make the claim that he should be paid at least that much more than Miller.

And deal that large would reset the market for the only aspect of the contract that matters: guaranteed money.

That is if Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald doesn’t reset the defensive line market before Mack can.

Someone will have to make the first move, but for now, the Raiders, the Rams, Donald, and Mack are playing a game of chicken that the entire NFL is watching. Once one of the incredible defensive linemen signs, the other will no doubt follow in short order, because even though Donald is an interior lineman and Mack plays on the outside, their impacts are similar and both players can use the other as a corollary in their contract negotiations. (“Well, Donald just got this from the Rams, so that’s where we’ll start.”)

(You can add in the Texans’ Jadeveon Clowney to the fray as well — Clowney isn’t going to command as much money as Mack, but Mack and his agent, Joel Segal, can use that deal as a barometer too.)

Could Mack hold out of training camp in July and August? Perhaps — Donald held out last year and looks poised to do it again if he doesn’t get a new deal in the coming months, so the possibility must exist for Mack as well.

But there are still good vibes between the Raiders and Mack’s camp and there’s no reason to believe that those vibes will dissipate anytime soon. I’d be a surprise if a deal isn’t struck in the next four months.

For the sake of argument, let’s imagine the worst-case scenario happens; it isn’t all that frightening: Mack holds out in training camp, comes back for the start of the season (it is a contract year, after all) and the Raiders, if they can’t come to terms on a new deal in-season, place the franchise tag on him for 2019 (and 2020, if need be).

And again, the Raiders will have no problem paying Mack — even with Derek Carr’s contract on the books — so the only way he’s playing in someone else’s jersey is if the Raiders decide they no longer want him in their colors.

While Gruden might have proven himself to be a man willing to make big, bold moves so far this offseason — a man with little to no allegiance to the players brought in by previous regimes — he’s not headstrong enough to trade Mack or let him walk in free agency. Teams never recoup full value for one of the best players in the NFL via trade, and if a coach decides to show one the door during their prime years, that player might as well hold it open.

Mack isn’t going anywhere.

The Raiders’ first mandatory team activity is in June — if Mack misses that minicamp, he risks being fined $84,435 (per former NFL agent Joel Corry on Twitter), but that’s a pittance compared to what he’ll get in his next contract, where the “guaranteed” money could be around $80 million with $50 guaranteed at signing. If he doesn’t have a new deal in place by June, he’d be a fool to show up for that minicamp.

Now, if Mack holds out of training camp, we can start a conversation about what that means. But that’s a long ways away.

Between now and then, Mack’s absence is a non-issue — while Raiders coaches did get to start their installation plans today and do some on-field stuff with players for the first time in 2018, Mack isn’t going to miss anything of true importance until the team heads to Napa. Even then, I’m sure one of the best players in the NFL — a player with 40.5 sacks in four NFL seasons — will be able to handle the responsibilities that come with being the top pass rusher in a single-gap system where his job will be simple as “go hit the guy with the ball”.

So unless you believe Mack lacks the ability to work out on his own or that he lacks the ability to comprehend his simpler role for 2018 — both ridiculous notions — there’s no reason to bat an eye at the defensive end’s absence in Alameda Monday. With a possible record-setting contract in flux, it would have been ridiculous for him to show up.