Gruden’s return to be very big deal
A week — or for some, years — of anticipation over a potential reunion between the Raiders and Jon Gruden appears to be nearing an end.
The Raiders are expected to introduce Gruden as their head coach Tuesday, according to multiple reports, almost 20 years to the day after they hired Gruden for the first time.
The circumstances are different now. Gruden is 54, nine years removed from the last game he coached in the NFL. He reportedly is in line to receive a record-setting, nine-figure contract. And he’ll return as one of the most recognizable faces in the game to the franchise and fans who helped launch his career and have long hoped to bring him back.
The Raiders have not confirmed a Tuesday introduction, which was reported Friday morning by Steve Corkran of RaidersSnakepit.com and confirmed by other outlets including ESPN, Gruden’s current employer. Reached by phone, Gruden told The Chronicle he couldn’t confirm the news.
“I don’t have any confirmation on that, I have not heard that,” Gruden said. “I’m in Kansas City — I have not heard anything, honestly.”
Gruden is scheduled to call Saturday’s AFC wild-card game between the Titans and Chiefs with ESPN. He said he was headed to a meeting when contacted Friday morning.
“I’ve heard enough rumors here in the last two weeks it’s about to really drive me crazy,” Gruden said. “I’ve heard I’m getting ownership of the team. I’ve heard a lot of bizarre things. But no, I haven’t heard anything. I’m in Kansas City. I’ve got another broadcast Saturday and I’m just waiting to hear.”
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Gruden will be offered a 10-year contract worth roughly $100 million that would be the NFL’s longest ever for a head coach. That deal also would extend well into the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas, which is tentatively scheduled for 2020.
The hire also would be lucrative for Gruden’s coordinators, who are expected to receive four-year deals, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. Gruden reportedly has started assembling a coaching staff that would include Greg Olson as offensive coordinator, Paul Guenther as defensive coordinator and Rich Bisaccia as special-teams coordinator.
Olson, currently the Rams’ quarterbacks coach, was the Raiders’ offensive coordinator from 2013 through ’14, including quarterback Derek Carr’s rookie year. Olson also worked with Gruden as Tampa Bay’s quarterbacks coach in 2008. It has been reported Gruden would call the plays next season.
Guenther has spent the past four seasons as the defensive coordinator in Cincinnati but is not under contract for 2018. Bisaccia was Gruden’s specialteams coordinator from 2002 through ’08 in Tampa Bay. Bisaccia is currently with the Cowboys but, according to multiple reports, would be allowed out of his contract to accept the Raiders’ job.
Rich Gannon, the Raiders’ quarterback under Gruden and current CBS analyst, has been mentioned as a possible quarterbacks coach on Gruden’s staff. Gannon addressed those reports Thursday in an interview on 95.7 FM.
“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,” Gannon said. “My focus is just ensuring that he will take the job and get to Oakland after this playoff game.
“And then, at that point, I think it’ll be an appropriate time if in fact he has interest in me being a part of it, to sit down and have a conversation.”
In his stint as head coach in Oakland, from 1998 through 2001, Gruden compiled a 38-26 regular-season record and led the Raiders to the playoffs twice. His last game was the “Tuck Rule” game Jan. 19, 2002, a 16-13 loss to the Patriots in the AFC divisional playoffs in the snow.
Then-owner Al Davis traded Gruden soon thereafter to Tampa Bay for two first-round draft picks, two second-round picks and $8 million. The next season, Gruden led the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl, in which he beat the Raiders 48-21 in what would be Oakland’s last postseason appearance until the 2016 season.
Gruden was fired by the Buccaneers after seven seasons in which he went 60-57, including the playoffs. Though he has remained close to the game as an analyst on “Monday Night Football” and host of ESPN’s “Gruden’s QB Camp,” some wonder whether Gruden will be able to coach effectively after nearly a decade away from the sidelines.
At least one person with similar experience believes he will: Dick Vermeil, who worked as a broadcaster between head-coaching jobs with the Eagles (1976-82) and Rams (1997-99).
“I think Jon will probably come back into the game with a better perspective as to what it takes to win on a consistent basis today than when he left,” Vermeil said in a phone interview.
“You have a better overall big picture. You’re a little more mature. And you know, he’s got such a passion for the game. And it’s probably been regenerated today more so than it was when he was coaching before. Obviously, he missed it or he wouldn’t be coming back.”
Though Gruden’s return appeared less certain earlier this week, several Raiders players said they were intrigued by the possibility. Defensive tackle Justin Ellis described Gruden as “for sure like a mastermind of this game” and said playing for Gruden “would be an honor.”
“It’s exciting,” linebacker NaVorro Bowman said. “You know what he’s done in the past. You know that he understands the game of football, both sides. He’s studied the quarterback position inside and out. He’s a guy that is a well-known critic in this game and coach as well.”
The Raiders fired head coach Jack Del Rio in the wake of Sunday’s season finale after a 6-10 season. Del Rio had signed a four-year extension prior to the season.
The timing led to questions of whether the Raiders were circumventing the NFL’s Rooney Rule, which requires any team with a head-coaching vacancy to interview at least one minority candidate. However, an NFL spokesman and John Wooten, chair of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, confirmed the Raiders have complied with the rule by interviewing two minority candidates.