Jon Gruden is good friends with Andy Reid, but can he best him if or when he joins the AFC West again as the Oakland Raiders head coach?
The Oakland Raiders have decided that, once again, change was needed. Dennis Allen wasn’t the answer at head coach, which gave way to Jack Del Rio, who apparently wasn’t also the answer at head coach. Now Reggie McKenzie, the team’s general manager, is going to make his third head coaching hire (which by the way, why is McKenzie still around?) and it’s reportedly set to be TV analyst and former NFL head coach Jon Gruden.
The fires burn for Gruden every year in the same way that teams kick the requisite tires on Nick Saban and David Shaw at the college level or in the same manner you might hear about Bill Cowher un-retirement whispers. But this year has been different in the intensity of it all. First it was the University of Tennessee making such a push. Then you also heard Gruden’s name linked with another former team as Dirk Koetter’s future was questioned with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Raiders are reportedly the real deal, however. The Raiders already cleared the slate by firing Jack Del Rio, so the coaching opening is there. They have to hire someone, and Adam Schefter is saying it’s basically a done deal.
This will be familiar territory, albeit in a dated sense, for Gruden to return to the AFC West, where he roamed the sideline as the Raiders head coach once before from 1998 to 2001. The Raiders never finished worse than .500 in those four seasons under Gruden and ended up 22-10 in his final two seasons, making the playoffs each time and winning at least one game in the postseason each year as well. The following year, when Bill Callahan took over, the Raiders made it all the way to the Super Bowl.
Gruden finished 5-3 against the Chiefs in those four seasons, but dominated K.C. during his last two years as he clearly developed the team in his image. Gruden also comes with a Super Bowl win on his resume. He turned the Raiders into an offensive powerhouse, finishing in the top 5 in the NFL in total points and top 10 in total yards over multiple seasons.
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Consider the work that Gruden did with quarterback Rich Gannon. Before working with Gruden, Gannon was a journeyman quarterback who’d even played and started a couple seasons for the Chiefs, as well as Minnesota and Washington. His completion percentage before starting for Gruden’s Raiders was 56% with 66 touchdowns and 54 interceptions in his career and an overall record of 31-27. Those are average numbers to be sure.
In Gannon’s four years with Gruden calling the shots, he made the Pro Bowl every single season. He completed 63% of his passes with 105 touchdowns and 44 interceptions. Gannon was, simply put, a new man under Gruden, in much the same way that quarterbacks have come alive under Andy Reid’s tutelage.
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Derek Carr has certainly looked good against inferior competition but he’s also never made the leap to an elite quarterback because he can’t win the big game against the most formidable teams. At the heart of Gruden’s return to the Raiders will be his ability (or inability) to get Carr to make that leap. It’s been some time since Gruden was a head coach—nearly a decade, to be clear—but his history suggests that the AFC West might be much more competitive if the Raiders can get their quarterback to make the leap. That alone will change the Raiders fortunes considerably.