On Jon Gruden’s very first day as the Oakland Raiders coach in 1998, he was quickly introduced to the reality of working beneath a brash and unpredictable decision maker. At his introductory news conference, owner Al Davis stole the show by suggesting the team would pack its bags again and move back to Los Angeles.
Gruden’s ability to overcome Davis’s capriciousness established him as one of the NFL’s best coaches. He later won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, then spent a decade out of the game, before returning to the Raiders last year.
Gruden quickly learned he was once again coaching under a top executive with a penchant for questionable decisions. That person’s name is Jon Gruden.
That’s because, in this stint with the Raiders, Gruden has something he lacked the first time around: control over making the team’s personnel decisions. And in his second year back, Gruden’s Raiders have put together a campaign that has exemplified his biggest wins and failings.
The Raiders are 6-5 and could put themselves tied atop the AFC West this weekend if they beat the Chiefs. They’re also coming off a 34-3 loss to the Jets, a humiliating beatdown that raised eyebrows about the talent he has assembled.
Gruden has traded away the team’s two best players, linebacker Khalil Mack and wide receiver Amari Cooper, and when the Raiders tumbled to a 4-12 finish last year, there were questions about his ability to run a team. In a bid to turn things around, Gruden oversaw a bunch of marquee acquisitions—and whiffed on many of those too: Antonio Brown was supposed to be a Raider this season, before the soap-worthy drama led the team to unceremoniously release him before he ever played a game in the silver and black.
“He’s got absolute, ultimate authority over everything in the organization, not simply coaching, not simply Xs and Os,” said Amy Trask, the Raiders’ chief executive from 1997 to 2013.
But for all his failings as an executive, the team’s winning record shows Gruden still can have the magic touch when it comes to the other part of his job: coaching.
Jon Gruden, Quarterback Guru
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr is completing a lot of low-risk passes on plays that are designed to get receivers open on short routes. PHOTO: DARREN YAMASHITA/REUTERS
There’s one number that explains Gruden’s success as an offensive schemer this season: Derek Carr has an expected completion percentage of 69% this season, the highest figure in the league, according to NFL’s NextGen Stats.
Carr has actually completed 71% of his passes but his high “expected rate” shows that Carr has thrived because Gruden has put him in a position to do so. NextGen calculates expected completion percentage based on factors such as the openness of the receiver and the length of the throw.
Carr is completing a lot of low-risk passes on plays that are designed to get receivers open on short routes. Those plays work for him because he has shown a reluctance to throw deep. This year, Carr’s completion percentage is buoyed by his passes traveling an average of only 6.4 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, shorter than every other current starter.
“There may be no one better in our league in putting the work in during the week and putting together a game plan that can really put you in a position where you can be an elite,” said Rich Gannon, the quarterback who morphed from a journeyman to an All-Pro during Gruden’s first stint in Oakland.
Carr has also at times shown why Raiders fans have seemed eager to move on from him and begin anew with someone else in Las Vegas next season. He threw 27 passes for just 127 yards in the loss to the Jets and watched the end of the game from the bench.
The Rebuild of the Rebuild
Jon Gruden, left, chats with Raiders owner Mark Davis. PHOTO: THEARON W. HENDERSON/GETTY IMAGES
Since his return to the Raiders, Gruden’s personnel moves have been widely scoffed at. First, he traded away the team’s best players. Then he cut most of the average ones. And then he replaced them with guys like Nathan Peterman, by some measures the worst quarterback in NFL history.
He also brought in flops like Brown and Vontaze Burfict, the linebacker who was suspended for the season after repeated helmet-to-helmet violations.
What made Gruden’s teardown of the Raiders roster most bewildering is that it came just five years after another failed teardown of the Raiders roster by Reggie McKenize, who was effectively ousted by Gruden a year ago. Gruden started at rock bottom. “When you think about it, Jon has come in and done a rebuild of a rebuild,” said Trask.
Gruden’s wrecking-ball approach left the Raiders with arguably the most talent-starved roster in the league. To compensate, Gruden has taken chances on outcasts, headcases and renegades. Veteran guard Richie Incognito was out of the league last year but has returned to Pro Bowl form in silver and black. Erik Harris, a career special-teamer who spent time working in a potato chip factory, has emerged as a cornerstone safety.
No player illustrates how Gruden’s long-odds bets have paid off as much as Darren Waller. A wide receiver in college, there was nothing in Waller’s NFL career to suggest stardom beckoned. In three years with the Baltimore Ravens, he had 12 career catches, two suspensions for substance abuse, and was trying to transition to a new position as a tight end.
His NFL career was hanging by a thread on the Ravens’ practice squad until the Raiders went to Baltimore last year for a late season matchup. Waller’s athleticism caught Gruden’s eye during pregame warm-ups. The very next day, Waller was a Raider.
One year on, Waller is one of the breakout players of the NFL season and one of the Gruden’s building blocks. Last month, Waller inked a new long-term deal that will keep him with the Raiders through the 2022 season.
Pound the Ground
Josh Jacobs is now one of the favorites to win offensive rookie of the year. PHOTO: LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM/GETTY IMAGES
Gruden’s legend has been built off the passing game. Before the Raiders made him a head coach at 34 years old, Gruden served under Mike Holmgren and Andy Reid, two disciples of the pass-heavy West Coast offense.
But there is something about Gruden that flies in the face of that lore: he loves to run the football. In 2000, during Oakland’s first playoff berth with him, the Raiders led the league in rushing.
At times, this has made the Raiders an anomaly during the NFL’s passing boom. Gruden did things like stress the important of fullbacks in an era when most teams look at the position like woolly mammoths—unnecessarily large and nearly extinct.
Gruden also took heat for spending the 24th pick of the last draft on Alabama running back Josh Jacobs. Jacobs is now one of the favorites to win offensive rookie of the year. He has run for 957 yards rushing, fifth in the NFL and on pace to be Oakland’s top rusher since a guy named Marcus Allen ran for 1,759 in 1985. Allen is in the Hall of Fame and was the MVP the last time the Raiders won a Super Bowl.
Gruden’s ability to overcome Davis’s capriciousness established him as one of the NFL’s best coaches. He later won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, then spent a decade out of the game, before returning to the Raiders last year.
Gruden quickly learned he was once again coaching under a top executive with a penchant for questionable decisions. That person’s name is Jon Gruden.
That’s because, in this stint with the Raiders, Gruden has something he lacked the first time around: control over making the team’s personnel decisions. And in his second year back, Gruden’s Raiders have put together a campaign that has exemplified his biggest wins and failings.
The Raiders are 6-5 and could put themselves tied atop the AFC West this weekend if they beat the Chiefs. They’re also coming off a 34-3 loss to the Jets, a humiliating beatdown that raised eyebrows about the talent he has assembled.
Gruden has traded away the team’s two best players, linebacker Khalil Mack and wide receiver Amari Cooper, and when the Raiders tumbled to a 4-12 finish last year, there were questions about his ability to run a team. In a bid to turn things around, Gruden oversaw a bunch of marquee acquisitions—and whiffed on many of those too: Antonio Brown was supposed to be a Raider this season, before the soap-worthy drama led the team to unceremoniously release him before he ever played a game in the silver and black.
“He’s got absolute, ultimate authority over everything in the organization, not simply coaching, not simply Xs and Os,” said Amy Trask, the Raiders’ chief executive from 1997 to 2013.
But for all his failings as an executive, the team’s winning record shows Gruden still can have the magic touch when it comes to the other part of his job: coaching.
Jon Gruden, Quarterback Guru
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr is completing a lot of low-risk passes on plays that are designed to get receivers open on short routes. PHOTO: DARREN YAMASHITA/REUTERS
There’s one number that explains Gruden’s success as an offensive schemer this season: Derek Carr has an expected completion percentage of 69% this season, the highest figure in the league, according to NFL’s NextGen Stats.
Carr has actually completed 71% of his passes but his high “expected rate” shows that Carr has thrived because Gruden has put him in a position to do so. NextGen calculates expected completion percentage based on factors such as the openness of the receiver and the length of the throw.
Carr is completing a lot of low-risk passes on plays that are designed to get receivers open on short routes. Those plays work for him because he has shown a reluctance to throw deep. This year, Carr’s completion percentage is buoyed by his passes traveling an average of only 6.4 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, shorter than every other current starter.
“There may be no one better in our league in putting the work in during the week and putting together a game plan that can really put you in a position where you can be an elite,” said Rich Gannon, the quarterback who morphed from a journeyman to an All-Pro during Gruden’s first stint in Oakland.
Carr has also at times shown why Raiders fans have seemed eager to move on from him and begin anew with someone else in Las Vegas next season. He threw 27 passes for just 127 yards in the loss to the Jets and watched the end of the game from the bench.
The Rebuild of the Rebuild
Jon Gruden, left, chats with Raiders owner Mark Davis. PHOTO: THEARON W. HENDERSON/GETTY IMAGES
Since his return to the Raiders, Gruden’s personnel moves have been widely scoffed at. First, he traded away the team’s best players. Then he cut most of the average ones. And then he replaced them with guys like Nathan Peterman, by some measures the worst quarterback in NFL history.
He also brought in flops like Brown and Vontaze Burfict, the linebacker who was suspended for the season after repeated helmet-to-helmet violations.
What made Gruden’s teardown of the Raiders roster most bewildering is that it came just five years after another failed teardown of the Raiders roster by Reggie McKenize, who was effectively ousted by Gruden a year ago. Gruden started at rock bottom. “When you think about it, Jon has come in and done a rebuild of a rebuild,” said Trask.
Gruden’s wrecking-ball approach left the Raiders with arguably the most talent-starved roster in the league. To compensate, Gruden has taken chances on outcasts, headcases and renegades. Veteran guard Richie Incognito was out of the league last year but has returned to Pro Bowl form in silver and black. Erik Harris, a career special-teamer who spent time working in a potato chip factory, has emerged as a cornerstone safety.
No player illustrates how Gruden’s long-odds bets have paid off as much as Darren Waller. A wide receiver in college, there was nothing in Waller’s NFL career to suggest stardom beckoned. In three years with the Baltimore Ravens, he had 12 career catches, two suspensions for substance abuse, and was trying to transition to a new position as a tight end.
His NFL career was hanging by a thread on the Ravens’ practice squad until the Raiders went to Baltimore last year for a late season matchup. Waller’s athleticism caught Gruden’s eye during pregame warm-ups. The very next day, Waller was a Raider.
One year on, Waller is one of the breakout players of the NFL season and one of the Gruden’s building blocks. Last month, Waller inked a new long-term deal that will keep him with the Raiders through the 2022 season.
Pound the Ground
Josh Jacobs is now one of the favorites to win offensive rookie of the year. PHOTO: LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM/GETTY IMAGES
Gruden’s legend has been built off the passing game. Before the Raiders made him a head coach at 34 years old, Gruden served under Mike Holmgren and Andy Reid, two disciples of the pass-heavy West Coast offense.
But there is something about Gruden that flies in the face of that lore: he loves to run the football. In 2000, during Oakland’s first playoff berth with him, the Raiders led the league in rushing.
At times, this has made the Raiders an anomaly during the NFL’s passing boom. Gruden did things like stress the important of fullbacks in an era when most teams look at the position like woolly mammoths—unnecessarily large and nearly extinct.
Gruden also took heat for spending the 24th pick of the last draft on Alabama running back Josh Jacobs. Jacobs is now one of the favorites to win offensive rookie of the year. He has run for 957 yards rushing, fifth in the NFL and on pace to be Oakland’s top rusher since a guy named Marcus Allen ran for 1,759 in 1985. Allen is in the Hall of Fame and was the MVP the last time the Raiders won a Super Bowl.
