Raiders might have to place call to Jon Gruden about coaching opening
Two things felt inevitable following the Oakland Raiders’ fourth loss to open the season, and 10th in a row dating back to last season: Dennis Allen was a dead man walking and that the Raiders were poised to go big for his long-term replacement.
Allen was fired late Monday night (by phone, incidentally), and already the rumors have started to fly: Raiders owner Mark Davis’ next phone call might just have to go to Jon Gruden.
Gruden had just finished the Monday Night Football broadcast of the Kansas City Chiefs pounding the New England Patriots when the news of Allen’s firing broke, and it would have been fascinating to hear his immediate thoughts in the wake of the report.
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After all, Gruden and the Raiders are that odd couple that broke up years ago but continue to flirt and play the what-if game. They might be willing to give it one more chance.
Gruden, the Raiders’ head coach from 1998 to 2001, was the one guy that the late Al Davis — father of Mark — probably hated to see go the most. The rest Davis fired; Gruden, he traded to the Buccaneers for draft picks. They might have butted heads, but Davis knew how good Gruden was and wasn’t going to get nothing in return for him.
That’s why Mark Davis reportedly put out feelers on Gruden this offseason — and his buddy Rich Gannon said as much — and also the season before, when Allen’s first as head coach was not even finished.
At that first point, Al Davis had been dead for just over a year, and Mark Davis was still growing into his role as the new Raiders owner. Hard to believe, but the team was even less settled then than it is now, as bad as things appear on the surface.
Gruden certainly is no lock to return. Oh yes, he has the cushy TV gig, signed a five-year extension with ESPN back in 2011 and generally has stiff-armed any talk of whatever coaching gig he has been tied to in the past five years. There still would be two years left on that deal, and the network has touted that it maintains “exclusivity rights” on Gruden in the wording of his contract, whatever that means.
But Gruden most certainly is keeping an open mind about returning to coaching one day — he has said it, in various forms, on several occasions. The time might be nigh for a comeback if the Raiders offer the right setup.
Gruden is believed to want two things with his next NFL job: the right quarterback and the right personnel man as his sidekick. The first part might be in good shape. Gruden generally was laudatory of Derek Carr in his QB Camp series (although he acts that way of every prospect, including Tajh Boyd and Kellen Moore, et al), but he also took it a step further in the lead up to the 2014 NFL draft.
But even though Gruden and Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie worked together in Green Bay for a year in 1994 (Gruden as wide receivers coach, McKenzie as the Packers’ director of player personnel), there doesn’t appear to be an unbreakable bond between the two. Besides, McKenzie’s reign as GM has not gone well, and you could make the argument that his work — even more so than Allen’s — has been more germain to the Raiders’ struggles.
So would Gruden even consider a return based on the way things fell apart with Al Davis? What we’ve heard for years is that Mark Davis’ attempt to repair some damaged relationships with former Raiders who sparred with his father over the final years has been regarded as noble and fruitful. What that means for Gruden is not known. But the fiery Gruden has maintained a special relationship and affection for Raiders fans who still view him as a larger-than-life figure and the coach they probably most would want to see return.
Mark Davis is not known as being a meddler on the same level of his father, and he doesn’t have the football heft to walk into a room and demand changes to the depth chart, a switch to the draft board or a play call during a game. That, ultimately, was at the core of the Gruden-Al Davis divorce more than a decade ago.
If Gruden is convinced that Mark Davis will be a more laissez-faire owner and that he can make chicken salad from what’s on this flawed roster, then at age 51 there might be no more perfect time to return to the game. You can bet that Davis will be set to go all in to fix one of his father’s biggest regrets and mistakes.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
