I believe the Raiders were concerned that once AB had his guarantee, they would have no leverage in controlling his actions. Thus the dropping his guarantee from the contract. For AB, that put him in a position subserviant to Mike Mayock, which I don't think AB could live with. Gruden had enough AB drama and wanted to get on with his team. Thus Gruden let Mayock do what he thought was beast for the team. Hence AB gets released. BB saw an opportunity to solve his WR problem and convinced Kraft to gamble 9 mil, and now AB is a Patriot. No conspiracy , no collusion, just a calculated gamble by BB and Kraft. Will it work? we will see.