Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

The Raiders fired Jack Del Rio, a well-respected and pretty good coach in the middle of building a respectable program (granted in a down year) in order (presumably) to hire the sainted Jon Gruden.

I don't get it.
Gruden's record isn't that fantastic.
He basically stumbled into a Super Bowl win by inheriting Tony Dungy's Tampa Bay team and beating the team he had coached the previous season. Gruden was so familiar with the intricacies of his opponent he played QB on the scouting team for his defense.

Other than that he is famous for being "Chucky" and a minor MNF TV celebrity I just don't see the attraction.
Maybe he's a good coach (we're about to find out) but I don't see the reason for the adoration.
Someone explain it to me...


NFL.com:
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300000 ... ck-del-rio

Gruden's Coaching Record:
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... rudJo0.htm

Del Rio's Coaching Record:
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... elRJa0.htm

He hasn't lost a game in years.

But, seriously, folks. For some reason, if the charismatic Gruden's luster faded during the post-SuperBowl seasons, it was burnished by his constant presence in the media (even before MNF) these last several years.

When you've been a winning coach, you either keep taking jobs and keep winning, or you occasionally find you can't recapture that magic and you end up tarnishing the reputation. But if you are always on the fringes, always rumored for coaching openings whenever they occur, always coy when that happens, still young and have a weekly reminder that you're all of the good things that people remember (and none of the bad things that people have forgotten about), your stock is going to go up by virtue of you NOT taking any of those jobs.

Remember how Cowher was always floated as a possibility when a decent opening occurred? It took years for that to finally wear off, once it became apparent he really did not want to coach again.

Vermeil is the only guy I can think of who took substantial time off with a good resume and eventually got back into it. (There may be others.)

In the post-Super Bowl XXXVI euphoria for fans of a franchise that had known little else but ineptitude for years, a lot of things got overlooked. But Gruden let his team get old and was a poor personnel guy. He had a quality guy in Rich McKay run off (and Bruce Allen was a disaster), whacked John Lynch when Lynch still had four Pro Bowl seasons left and signed Darrell Russell.

The drafts from 2003-2008 were mediocre. Aqib Talib (#1 in 2008) was the most valuable, but, again, a terrible human being. They used a second-round pick on Jeremy Trueblood, one of the worst offensive linemen I've seen in the last 20 years and others on Sabby Piscitelli and Dexter Jackson, who could not play AT ALL.

He went 45-53 (including playoffs) after that night in San Diego, including 17-19 in the division.

Given the Raiders' recent history (their last seven coaches have lasted an average of 674 days in the job, and they hired Art Shell TWICE), it's pretty obvious they don't have an idea of what to do. The idea of Gruden sounds good. They can sell that. What's left of the fanbase in Oakland who hasn't completely checked out will be excited about it, and he will say all the right things and build enthusiasm for the move to Las Vegas (whenever that actually happens). If they do give him an ownership stake (Why? WTF?), he'll last longer than 674 days and will be the right front man for billboards along the Strip.

But I think he's a bad guy. That's neither here nor there. But to answer your question, I think it's because absence has made the heart grow fonder.

JuggernautJ wrote:The Raiders fired Jack Del Rio, a well-respected and pretty good coach in the middle of building a respectable program (granted in a down year) in order (presumably) to hire the sainted Jon Gruden.

I don't get it.
Gruden's record isn't that fantastic.
He basically stumbled into a Super Bowl win by inheriting Tony Dungy's Tampa Bay team and beating the team he had coached the previous season. Gruden was so familiar with the intricacies of his opponent he played QB on the scouting team for his defense.

Other than that he is famous for being "Chucky" and a minor MNF TV celebrity I just don't see the attraction.
Maybe he's a good coach (we're about to find out) but I don't see the reason for the adoration.
Someone explain it to me...


NFL.com:
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300000 ... ck-del-rio

Gruden's Coaching Record:
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... rudJo0.htm

Del Rio's Coaching Record:
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... elRJa0.htm

Curious question why do you have a problem with it

I think it's an interesting hire. The Raiders have been attempting to figure out what they are doing for years since Gruden left - Bill Callahan, Norv Turner, Art Shell, Tom Cable, Hue Jackson, Dennis Allen, and Jack Del Rio - so they bring him back... but why? Well, one could be that he was the last Raiders coach to have success - 2 playoff appearances in 4 seasons (the Raiders have made the playoffs just twice since Gruden left), but is he the answer? To me it seems Oakland is continuing to grasp at straws like they have been.

sluggermatt15 wrote:I think it's an interesting hire. The Raiders have been attempting to figure out what they are doing for years since Gruden left - Bill Callahan, Norv Turner, Art Shell, Tom Cable, Hue Jackson, Dennis Allen, and Jack Del Rio - so they bring him back... but why? Well, one could be that he was the last Raiders coach to have success - 2 playoff appearances in 4 seasons (the Raiders have made the playoffs just twice since Gruden left), but is he the answer? To me it seems Oakland is continuing to grasp at straws like they have been.

You forgot Lane Kiffin, who Al Davis memorably ripped upon firing him.