Rich Gannon open to becoming Jon Gruden’s QB coach

Rich Gannon has been discussed as a potential candidate to join Jon Gruden’s coaching staff in Oakland, and Gannon says he is open to the possibility.

On Thursday, Gannon joined 95.7 The Game in the Bay Area and was asked about the possibility of joining Gruden’s staff on the Raiders (Gannon said he thinks Gruden will be the team’s next coach even though no announcement has been made).

“Honestly, guys, we talked about it in the past – a year ago, two years ago, three years ago – every time he’s always mentioned to me that he wants to get back into coaching … We really haven’t had the opportunity, because of his schedule with ESPN and my schedule with CBS, to really sit down and have a really lengthy conversation. My focus is just on ensuring that he will take the job and that he’ll get to Oakland after this playoff game. Then at that point I think it’d be an appropriate time to sit down – if in fact he has interest in me being a part of it – to sit down and have a conversation. Other than that, I wish I had more to say, but I really don’t,” Gannon said, via the San Jose Mercury News.

NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport floated the possibility of Gannon being on Gruden’s staff when he sent this tweet on Sunday:

As Jon Gruden called around to round up assistants, one name kept coming up as a QB coach: Rich Gannon. He has the #Raiders game today

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 31, 2017

Gannon spent a lot of his career as a backup and wasn’t too highly thought of until Gruden got his hands on him. Once they began working together, Gannon became a Pro Bowl QB and eventually turned into the NFL MVP.

If Gannon were to take a job with the Raiders, he would be entering the coaching profession for the first time. The current CBS analyst would also have the opportunity to work with a talented quarterback in Derek Carr, who has shown promise early in his career.