Raiders mailbag: Jon Gruden not on hot seat despite outcries
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Yup. Another mailbag post is starting with coach Jon Gruden. When a coach is getting this much attention, it usually means the coach is doing very well or very badly.
In this case, it’s the latter for Gruden.
“Just read your Monday piece and was shocked that you didn’t get to Jon Gruden until your last sentence,” Donald Barrington from Henderson said in an email. “I expected that he would have been the leadoff name.”
Barrington was referring to my coaches on the hot seat story. I know many people would have loved for me to mention Gruden as a potential coach to be fired, but Gruden isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. He’s in the first year of a $100 million, 10-year deal.
Gruden and his rebuild are here to stay. But if Raiders owner Mark Davis decides to cut Chucky loose, Donald has generously offered to fill in for a reasonable price.
“If you are in contact with Mark Davis, let him know that I’d be willing to coach five games for him at $625,000 per game (or whatever he’s paying the out of touch Gruden) and I will guarantee no worse a result, while making my retirement VERY comfortable.”
“Time for Jon Gruden to trade Carr and complete (the) wipeout of Raiders. He should be able to get a No. 1 2019 draft pick for him.” — William E Postma (Twitter)
Somehow the Raiders suckered the Dallas Cowboys into giving them a first-round pick for Amari Cooper, who has struggled the past two seasons.
So asking for a top pick for Derek Carr isn’t crazy if he really is being shopped. Gruden says he’s not, but the media shouldn’t believe anything he says these days.
If the 3-4 Jaguars still view themselves as Super Bowl contenders, they are the most likely team to pull the trigger on this hypothetical deal.
Blake Bortles was recently benched for Cody Kessler. They obviously don’t believe in him, and his most vocal defender, teammate Jalen Ramsey, is starting to lose confidence in him.
Fun fact: Bortles and Carr were both drafted in 2014. Bortles was the No. 3 overall pick (Yep. Crazy, huh?) and Carr was taken in the second round at No. 36.
“AJ McCarron will be the starter for the rest of the year when Carr is traded. Gruden loved McCarron on his QB show on ESPN.” — Alex Chisholm (Facebook)
Hate to break it to you, Alex. But Gruden loved everyone on that QB draft show. He once called Christian Hackenberg a first-round talent, which he really believed because he brought him in with the Raiders this spring for a cup of coffee.
But, hopefully. the Raiders avoid this. If the Bills didn’t believe in McCarron, that means he’s not very good.
This team isn’t winning with Carr under center. Let him have the rest of 2018.
“Nobody cares about the players right now. We locals care where our Raiders are going to play in 2019.” — Antonio Cloud (Facebook)
Wow. Antonio really cares about the 2019 team. What a caring man. But forget the 2018 players. No one cares about them (Insert a confused Jim Halpert gif).
It’s about to be November, and the Raiders still don’t have a home for the 2019 season. I still think they make it work with city officials to return to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
No sense in putting money into Sam Boyd Stadium to house the Raiders for a season only for it to be torn down in 2020. Time is ticking for a decision.
“LV Raiders!!! In Gruden we trust!!!” — Junior Matters (Facebook)
Good to see someone still believes in Gruden. But doubt his current players do. Remember when Gruden called Cooper the main vein of the offense? He’s in Texas now. Kinda of hard to trust a coach like that.
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