I said above I'm a fan of Gruden. I don't think this is a case of "well, he shouldn't have gone for it on fourth down"; that's just subjective gamesmanship. This is very different. And I'm really disappointed in Jon for not seeing the bigger picture here. If I'm another Raider, I'm like "WTF?".
I can count on maybe three fingers the times when a coach's blatant favoritism could be justified (LT, Brady, and I'm going to save the third for a future choice). In most cases, when a coach gets too enamored with a player it does not end well for the team, and this is that in spades.
EDIT: That Schefter bit is interesting; so they saved the money anyway? Could Gruden be crazy like a fox? I don't think so, but it's worth asking.