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Raiders coach Jon Gruden is standing by his decision to trade star pass rusher Khalil Mack.

Gruden said today that despite the Raiders only sacking Broncos quarterback Case Keenum once in 35 pass attempts, he has no regrets about trading Mack, whom Gruden said the Raiders felt wasn’t going to sign a contract extension with them.

“No, it doesn’t make me regret making the decision,” Gruden said. “We made the trade. We made the trade. There’s going to be hindsight and all that stuff. We would have loved to have had him here but he’s not here. I’m not going to rehash this.”

The Raiders will save a lot of salary cap space by having Mack’s expensive contract off their books, and they’ll have the Bears’ next two first-round draft picks. Gruden believes that in the long run, that can help the team win more than Mack can.

“Hopefully we prove that in the long run we did the right thing,” Gruden said.

In the long run, Gruden might be vindicated. But there’s going to be some short-term pain.