Raiders have inched forward under Gruden, but need a huge leap
Decades ago at a prep football game in San Diego, a large trumpet player in the band caught the eye of the school’s football coach, John Shacklett.
Later, the coach sought out the young teen. “What grade are you in?” “Ninth,” said the trumpeter.
The coach: “You’re coming out for football next year.”
“OK,” replied Lincoln Kennedy.
A football career was launched that took Kennedy — who outgrew clumsiness to become a dominant blocker — from Morse High to the University of Washington and a NFL career mostly with the Oakland Raiders.
He’s still grateful to the man known as Shack.
“Without his tutelage and guidance,” the 49-yearold Kennedy said this week, “I don’t know where I would be right now. I owe it all to him.”
Now a Raiders broadcaster and sports-radio host, Kennedy speaks highly also of Las Vegas coach Jon Gruden, his head coach between 1998-2001.
“I love Gruden,” the former right tackle said by phone Wednesday. “Don’t get me wrong.”
Kennedy wants better, though, for the Raiders.
For that to happen, he said, it begins with Gruden.
“You can’t keep starting off strong and then collapsing in the second half of seasons before people start losing faith in your ability to finish a season,” Kennedy said of Gruden’s program, which missed the playoffs the last two years by going 1-5 down the stretch both times.
This season’s finale, Sunday at Denver, has the Raiders at 7-8 despite their 6-3 start. Since club owner Mark Davis brought Gruden back, the Raiders are 18-29 (.383) with no winning seasons.
Once again, the defense stinks. It stands last in points, a year after it improved from 29th and 24th.
If Gruden can’t fix the defense, the Raiders won’t be winning any playoff games, something they last did when Kennedy was an All-Pro tackle in 2002. Davis may have to move on from Gruden, who got a 10-year contract worth up to $100 million, if the pass rush and pass defense remain liabilities in years ahead.
“I believe in Gruden, but this is going to be a serious test,” said Kennedy. “Because being a head coach the first time, he didn’t have to worry about being a general manager. That was left up to Al Davis. Now, he’s basically the general manager, and they need to find a defensive coach.”
Touching on a familiar criticism of Gruden — that
he’s overly focused on his team’s offense — he added: “Head coach is total team management. You can’t just manage one side of the ball and not worry about the other.”
On the bright side, the offense has improved under Gruden. Led by quarterback Derek Carr, who’s become a top-12 quarterback in rating the past two years, the Raiders have gone from 28th to 24th to 11th in points scored. Players such as tight end Darren Waller, running back Josh Jacobs, receiver Nelson Agholor and receiver Hunter Renfrow have grown into standouts under Gruden.
Not good enough, said
Kennedy, who paired Gruden’s decisions during games with the failure to score more touchdowns. The Raiders are 25th at turning red-zone trips into touchdowns, a year after they finished 23rd. Las Vegas has attempted 18 field goals of shorter than 30 yards, six more than any other team.
“Gruden has to become more aggressive,” said Kennedy. “You’re not going to win games in today’s National Football League by kicking field goals. You’ve got to get better red zone performance.”
Kennedy suggested Gruden, 57, can improve the offense’s staying power by giving more say to others.
Also, he’d like him to model Chiefs coach Andy Reid’s penchant for refresh
ing the offense with wrinkles.
“Sometimes you’ve got to put your pride aside and realize you’ve got to try to take information from other people and be creative,” Kennedy said. “On offense, you’ve got to be a little more creative and innovative throughout the year, so people don’t get the jump on you. When you watch the Raiders, the same plays that we ran when I played for them, they haven’t really changed much there.”
Kennedy isn’t the only former Raiders employee who was part of Gruden’s first tenure with the club to suggest the coach adjust his approach.
Michael Lombardi, a Raiders executive between 1998-2001, said Gruden’s 63-80 record (.441) in the
nine seasons since his Super Bowl victory with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ref lects Lombardi’s belief that Gruden “refuses to be a head coach.”
“Everything he does is about the offense,” Lombardi said this week on his podcast, The GM Shuff le. “It’s always about the offense.”
In Lombardi’s view, Gruden is adept on offense — but the Raiders need him to be more collaborative, including during games.
“The bigger issue is, Gruden, he’s just not in tune to the game,” Lombardi said. “Nobody’s in his ear telling him. Nobody’s gonna tell him what to do. … He doesn’t want anyone telling him what to do.”
Kennedy praised Carr, who’s ninth in rating this year and impressed the three-time Pro Bowler with accuracy that was “off the chain” (67.6 percent).
Seeking better in 2021, Kennedy called on Carr, 29, to overcome a “mental hurdle” and make more plays outside the pocket by enlisting his good footspeed. Gruden’s support would be necessary there, and the groin injury Carr sustained two games ago while trying to run for yards against the Chargers may discourage further runs.
The Raiders have inched forward under Gruden, whose first team went 4-12. Can the coach modify some of his entrenched habits, leading the Raiders into the fast lane?
It’s worth a try.