The Oakland Raiders have not had a winning season since 2002 and are still searching for a head coach who can help them return to the success they had in the early-2000s. Might they consider hiring the man who is responsible for those successful seasons as their next head coach?
After firing Dennis Allen on Monday night following an 0-4 start, Raiders owner Mark Davis said at a press conference Tuesday that Jon Gruden will be in the mix for the team’s head coaching job.
Here’s how the exchange went between Davis and reporters:
-Q: Do you plan on reaching out to Jon Gruden to coach this team?
-DAVIS: I don’t know. He may reach out to me, I may reach out to him. I may reach out to anybody. That’s the future and I’m not going to talk about future coaches.
-Q: Does Reggie [McKenzie] have the ability to reach out to a Jon Gruden or whoever?
-DAVIS: He has the ability to reach out to people–he’s the general manager of the Raiders and he’s able to do that.
Davis could have outright dismissed the possibility, but it’s telling that he will consider it.
The Raiders already have Tony Sparano as their interim head coach, and Davis told the media that the team’s next head coach could already be in the organization, but you have to figure that they will go for a home run this time. They’re on their ninth coach! Ninth! since trading Gruden to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They can’t afford to screw it up again.
The obvious question becomes: would Gruden be interested in the position?
Though his name has come up in connection with multiple college and NFL coaching jobs since being fired after the 2008 season, Gruden has remained out of the coaching profession and instead insists he enjoys his position as a broadcaster for ESPN. However, Gruden, 51, is still young and could probably be one of the better coaches in the league if he ever took a job.
Also take this into consideration, via NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport:
Close friend of Jon Gruden: “One of these days, he’s going to accept these offers he gets every year. Maybe it’s this one.” #Raiders
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 30, 2014
NFL Network also reports that Davis is willing to pay Gruden a lot of money to get him out of the broadcast booth.
And here’s reporter Jim Trotter, who closely profiled the Raiders for SI a few years ago:
If I were an oddsmaker, I'd say Davis' 1st call will be to Jon Gruden. If that fails, the next call goes to Jim Harbaugh. #educatedguess
— Jim Trotter (@JimTrotter_NFL) September 30, 2014
It sounds like this is a legitimate possibility, though we wouldn’t say it seems likely to happen.
