Jon Gruden has been linked to being the frontrunner for the Oakland Raiders job, and Jack del Rio’s firing seems to point even more so to that.
Rumors have been swirling over the past couple of days about the Oakland Raiders pursuing former head coach and current ESPN analyst Jon Gruden. There have been multiple reports over the past couple of days linking the Raiders to Gruden, and the rumors continued to swirl Saturday as the reports intensified.
One of obstacles in a potential hiring of Gruden was the fact that Jack Del Rio was still the head coach. Unfortunately for Del Rio, it is a problem no more. Sunday after Oakland’s loss to the Chargers in Week 17, Del Rio was fired, on his way to his postgame press conference at that. With that in mind, the door is now open for Gruden to return to the Silver and Black.
Sunday night, ESPN NFL Insider and scoop guru Adam Schefter had an interesting tidbit to pass along, telling ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt on Sportscenter “Jon Gruden is going to be the next coach of the Oakland Raiders. The only question is when it happens.”
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Gruden was the head coach of the Raiders from 1998-2001, before taking over the reins as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, replacing Tony Dungy. He won the Super Bowl the following year, defeating the Raiders by a 48-21 score.
In addition to head coaching duties, there is also talk of the Raiders offering him an ownership stake in the team in order to bring him back.
Bringing him back would be an interesting move. For one, he has not coached in almost a decade and it would be interesting to see if he could adjust to today’s play style of the National Football League.
It is a passing league now, and if there is one area where he could truly excel, it would be helping take Derek Carr to the next level again. Marred by injuries, the latter suffered a down season by his standards. Even still, he threw for 21 touchdowns to only 12 interceptions on the year.
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This would certainly be the big-name hire the Raiders have been looking for. It seems as though Gruden’s name comes up in rumors tying him to the Raiders every year. Maybe this year is the one where we finally see it happen.