Over the past few days, Kansas City Chiefs fans and media have taken notice of a familiar face that has appeared at training camp. Former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden has been seen observing practice while covered in Chiefs gear and talking with other coaches.
Former Raiders head coach Jon Gruden back out at Chiefs practice today, watching the d-line pic.twitter.com/3I5F2ecoqT
— KC Sports Network (@KCSportsNetwork) August 5, 2024
Gruden, who has been absent from the NFL since 2021 after resigning as head coach of the Raiders following the discovery of inappropriate emails sent over a 10-year period, is apparently trying to find his way back into the coaching industry by attending Chiefs training camp.
Gruden has been one of the most polarizing figures in the coaching industry over the last 20 or so years. He has been on dozens of staffs over his coaching career and his coaching tree features several household names such as Sean McVay, Raheem Morris, Mike Tomlin, Kyle Shanahan, and Gus Bradley.
However, the most significant piece of history here is that head coach Andy Reid and Jon Gruden's friendship goes way back to the early 1990s when Reid and Gruden both worked under Mike Holmgren's staff with the Green Bay Packers.
With that said, Andy Reid is known as a man of second chances. Typically, that's mostly been when it comes to players on the roster and we all know that Reid and the Chiefs have dealt with plenty of that this offseason already. Regardless, Reid is always going to look for ways to add talent or make the team better.
Gruden has evidently struggled to find his way back into coaching since his incident in 2021, but if there's a friend who can find him a spot and face the least amount of criticism for it, it's Andy Reid. It's tough to poke too many holes in Reid's method of giving people second chances as the team is coming off of back-to-back Super Bowl victories and has maintained a pretty strong culture.
It remains to be seen if Gruden is just simply a temporary visitor at Chiefs camp or if this is part of a plan to eventually give him a larger role within the organization, but it would be a pretty significant move to add a coach with the cache of Jon Gruden this late in the offseason.