Black Monday is just a few days away
Black Monday is just a few days away, and when it comes, there will presumably be several NFL head coaching jobs that open up. It's possible that one of those jobs could be in Oakland; and if the Raiders do decide to move on from Jack Del Rio, they will look to Jon Gruden to fill the vacancy. According to a report from ESPN's Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen, Oakland's offer to Gruden will include an ownership stake in the team.
Gruden previously coached the Raiders from 1998 through 2001 before being traded to the Buccaneers for multiple draft picks and then defeating the Raiders in the Super Bowl. He stayed with Tampa Bay until 2008, then joined ESPN's Monday Night Football broadcast in 2009 and has worked on that broadcast ever since.
His name is brought up for coaching vacancies seemingly every year, but Gruden has to this point resisted offers and instead stayed with ESPN, often negotiating himself extensions and raises in the process. This time around, according to Schefter and Mortensen, he will be tempted to actually make the jump back into the league.
Gruden will be tempted to accept it, according to sources, but would prefer not to make any decisions until the regular season finishes Sunday and the Raiders make a final determination on their current head coach, Jack Del Rio, who signed a contract extension last summer.
But Oakland long has appealed to Gruden for a variety of reasons. He would return to an organization he didn't want to leave in 2001, he would inherit a young quarterback in Derek Carr whom he feels strongly about, and he would get to coach a team that is slated to move in 2020 to Las Vegas, where he would not have to pay state tax, as he does now in Florida, where he currently lives. Gruden's contract even could be backloaded to pay him more in the Nevada years and lessen his tax burden during the Oakland ones.
Raiders owner Mark Davis has offered Gruden an ownership stake in the past, according to sources, and if he were willing to do so again, the contract then would have to be approved by all 32 NFL owners. The NFL's finance committee also would have to vet Gruden, but there is no reason to think it would not approve the deal.
Gruden told ESPN that there is no news to report but, "I can't say I haven't taken any phone calls. I take a lot every year from coaches, some others. ... Yeah, sometimes owners. Guys want to bounce ideas off me. I'm here to help people."
Gruden's current ESPN contract runs through 2021, but the network would presumably release him from his deal if he wanted to return to coaching.