Mike Holmgren did visit Oakland Raiders

The Oakland Raiders head coaching search will undoubtedly be filled with its fair share of big names, as two recent, coaching stalwarts in Mike Holmgren and (surprise, surprise) Jon Gruden have already been linked to the team. Holmgren’s link seems pretty strong, as Pro Football Talk reported yesterday that he took a trip to the Raiders facilities.

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Today, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio writes that Holmgren stated on KJR Seattle’s Mitch in the Morning that he did indeed visit the Raiders, “Yeah, I did go down there. A couple of years ago, I had met with [owner] Mark [Davis] about possibly working with the Raiders, and it didn’t work out. . . .  And [G.M.] Reggie McKenzie did work with me in Green Bay for many, many years.  So I do have a relationship with him, those are all true.  So they phoned me up, I went down there for a day and looked at some film.  They had the bye after the London game.  And just to float some ideas, and get another opinion of the team and what was going on.  No jobs were discussed.  Nothing like that, it was more just a pop in and pop out, and that’s what I did.”

Holmgren was predictably mum when talking about specifics (like, uh, if he is interesting in the Raiders head coaching job), but the fact that he never ruled it out indicates that he is indeed interested. I mean, why else would he visit the Raiders? To stop and chat with his old buddy Reggie McKenzie? No, there’s something at play here, and he clearly has some level of interest.