NFL Trade Deadline: 30 greatest trades in NFL history

12. Buccaneers acquire Jon Gruden as new head coach

That’s right, trades involving head coaches do in fact take place in the NFL. In case any of the football fans reading this article forgot about the crazy deal from back in 2002 that sent Jon Gruden from the Oakland Raiders to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, yes, it did happen.

At the time, the Buccaneers were viewed as one of the most talented teams in the NFL that always came up short when it mattered the most in the playoffs. That is until Gruden came into the picture of course.

After Tampa Bay lost in the NFC Wild Card round for the second year in a row in January, the team made the difficult decision to part ways with former head coach Tony Dungy. This was tough since during his six years with the team, the Buccaneers had reached the playoffs four times.

Still, the Buccaneers faced a tough position since the talent appeared to be there on both sides of the football to bring home a championship. Yet for some reason, Dungy just couldn’t get over the hump come playoff time in Tampa Bay.

Like most big trades, the price for Tampa Bay to bring Gruden on board certainly didn’t come cheap. They had to provide Oakland with two first-rounders and two second-rounders, on top of $8 million to sweeten the deal.

As everyone knows, the Buccaneers would finally go on to win the Super Bowl during their first year with Gruden as head coach. If this wasn’t amazing enough, it should also be noted the win came against his former team in the Raiders.

Even if the argument can be made that Gruden never would have won it all with Tampa Bay if it wasn’t for the great team Dungy left him, nothing can take away from the epic trade paying off right away for the Buccaneers.