Oakland Raiders: What to expect from a Jon Gruden-led team
By Nick Sparrow
With the Oakland Raiders giving coach Jon Gruden a 10-year, $100 million contract, here is what fans can expect based on his previous tenure as a head coach in the NFL.
Jon Gruden coached 11 years (four years with the Oakland Raiders and seven with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) before retiring after Tampa Bay fired him after the 2008 season. In his eleven seasons, Gruden had a 95-81 regular season record and made five playoff appearances, playing a total of nine games in which he had a 5-4 record including the 2002 Super Bowl against the Raiders.
It is also important to note that Gruden was close to staying with the Buccaneers. Prior the 2008 season, Tampa Bay gave Gruden a contract extension through 2011. Gruden and the Bucs started that season 9-3 and looked to be on their way to a division title and possible first-round playoff bye. However, Tampa could not win a single game in December as they lost their final four games of the season, missing the playoffs, and costing Gruden his job.
Gruden is viewed as a quarterback guru and an offensive mastermind. In his time with the Raiders, Gruden’s best finishes were being ranked third in points scored (2000) and fourth in passing yards (2001). As the head coach of the Buccaneers his best finishes were ranked 18th in points scored (2002, 2003, 2007) and sixth in passing yards (2002).
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The only season Gruden won the Super Bowl, his team ranked18th in scoring and 15th in passing yards. That isn’t to say Gruden isn’t a good coach but rather that any dreams that he will immediately fix the Raiders’ offensive struggles might be unrealistic.
Gruden’s largest flaw might be team building. In all of his years as a head coach, Gruden has selected 10 players in the first-round. Those ten players are Charles Woodson, Mo Collins, Matt Stinchcomb, Sebastian Janikowski, Derrick Gibson, Michael Clayton, Cadillac Williams, Davin Joseph, Gaines Adams, Aqib Talib. Of those 10 players only Woodson, Janikowski, Joseph, and Talib have been selected to Pro Bowls and only Woodson and Joseph would do so with Gruden as their coach.
Janikowski, despite still being with the Raiders after a great seventeen-year career, remains as the only kicker drafted in the first-round in the 21st century. Perhaps the worst draft mistake of Gruden’s career came in 2005 when Gruden selected Carnell “Cadillac” Williams with the No. 5 overall pick despite future Pro Bowlers such as “Pacman” Jones, DeMarcus Ware, Shawne Merriman, Thomas Davis, Derrick Johnson, and (most painfully) Aaron Rodgers still being on the board. Rodgers was projected to be a top-five pick but an unexplained draft-day slide caused him to fall all the way to 24th, where he was drafted by the Green Bay Packers.
Williams won Offensive Rookie of the Year that season but never quite lived up to the hype in Tampa Bay after that and was eventually viewed as the reason Rodgers wasn’t in a Buccaneer uniform.
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Still, Gruden was always a great play caller and if general manager Reggie McKenzie can help Gruden keep the talent-level on the team high, it would be no surprise if Gruden is able to keep this team competitive for years to come. Gruden turned the Raiders into one of the top offenses in the NFL during his first stint with the team because he inherited a team that had talent in place, similar to the Sean McVay situation this season. Gruden’s problem is when the team lacks that talent, which the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did in his final seasons.