It’s happening.
The Oakland Raiders will name Jon Gruden as their head coach on Tuesday, according to multiple reports Friday.
Breaking: Jon Gruden will be introduced as the #Raiders head coach Tuesday, in a "splashy" news conference, I was informed by a team source.
— Steve Corkran (@CorkOnTheNFL) January 5, 2018
Raiders are calling a significant press conference for Tuesday at which time they will introduce Jon Gruden as their next head coach, as @CorkOnTheNFL reported.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 5, 2018
Raiders are giving new head coach Jon Gruden a 10-year contract, the longest coaching deal in NFL history, sources tell ESPN. The deal is likely to be worth about $100 million.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 5, 2018
The #Raiders coaching staff under Jon Gruden will be the most expensive in @NFL history: Jon Gruden will make $100M over 10 years. Coordinators are getting 4 year deals, sources say. 2 years in Oakland, 2 in Las Vegas.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 5, 2018
Raiders will keep Reggie Mckenzie as GM but will be hiring an EVP of Football Ops overseeing personnel and could add a young exec too…
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) January 5, 2018
The Raiders coordinators will be Greg Olson (OC), Paul Guenther (DC) and Rich Bisaccia (ST)
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) January 5, 2018
(Saturday update: It’s now officially official.)
Welcome back, Coach Gruden. Let's get to work.#BackInBlack | #RaiderNation
Release: https://t.co/uVjOyTLMcj pic.twitter.com/9qJqTc0i8g
— OAKLAND RAIDERS (@RAIDERS) January 7, 2018
Gruden will conclude his duties as ESPN’s Monday Night Football analyst with Saturday’s NFL Wild Card game between the Tennessee Titans and the Kansas City Chiefs. The happenstance there puts both Gruden and Chiefs coach Andy Reid in a bit of an awkward spot, given that the two will square off twice a season moving forward.
The intrigue here will be to see just how much Gruden has evolved since he was fired by the Tampa Bay Bucs after the 2008 season. Those who paid attention to his comments while on the clock for ESPN indicate he was intrigued by the number of changes to offensive philosophy during his time away from coaching.
Gruden is coaching again, but does anyone remember this? pic.twitter.com/skHBMXWSbX
— The Mick Nartin™ (@themicknartin) January 5, 2018
It’ll also be interesting to see if Gruden changes his approach toward quarterbacks, both in how he collected them and treated them during his time in Tampa Bay. Gruden isn’t even on the ground yet in Oakland and already there are questions of how Raiders quarterback Derek Carr will put up with Gruden’s coaching.
From this ProFootballTalk story titled, “Concerns emerge regarding Jon Gruden/Derek Carr relationship”
Per a league source, there’s a real concern that Carr won’t be able to put up with Gruden’s style for very long. Gruden will ride him and needle him and yell at him and criticize him and ride him some more. Carr will have to learn how to deal with that, or Carr won’t last.
It’s not surprising that a $125 million quarterback may not respond well to this type of needling.
Said Chris Simms, on the air, about Jon Gruden: "He told me that I was like warm piss running down his leg."
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) January 5, 2018
Obviously, it’s too early to know any of these answers. But it sounds like we’ll begin to find out on Tuesday.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.
