Oakland Raiders: Five Potential Future Head Coaches

December 9, 2012; Tampa, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers former head coach Jon Gruden talks during the presentation of the 10th anniversary of the 2002 Super Bowl Champions during halftime against the Philadelphia Eagles at Raymond James Stadium. The Eagles won 23-21. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

5. Jon Gruden

Ever since he presided over the humiliating beat-down in Super Bowl XXXVII, the citizens of the Raider Nation have been pining for the days of Chucky and calling for his return. These calls have grown louder and louder, especially after the end of his tenure with Tampa Bay in 2008, only quelled ever so briefly by some semblance of decency under Tom Cable and Hue Jackson. Those calls are at a fever pitch now, and even being echoed by members of the media, many of whom see Gruden and the Raiders as top candidates for each other.

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We all know the Chucky story. Hired by Al Davis in 1998 to run the Raiders at the age of 35, Gruden led the Raiders to two consecutive 8-8 finishes in 1998 and 1999, then to a 12-4 record in 2000, followed by a playoff appearance and a loss in the AFC Championship game to Baltimore.  In 2001, the team went 10-6 and the season mysteriously ended in Foxboro, Massachusetts in a snowstorm.  I’m not sure what happened.  Then, Al Davis struck: he traded the young head coach to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for 4 draft picks and $8M in cash, replacing him with Offensive Coordinator Bill Callahan. The Raiders went 11-5 running the very same offense, and met who else but Jon Gruden’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl, where Gruden used his insight into Gannon’s tendencies and the Raider playbook to lead his team to a blowout win. He had inherited an excellent defense in Tampa, which of course helped, but what was impressive about his 2002 run with the Bucs is that he did it with Brad Johnson as his quarterback – in fact, Brad Johnson was a Pro Bowler in 2002 under Gruden.  Gruden would lead the Bucs to two more playoff appearances in 2005 and 2007, going 57-55 in Tampa Bay before being fired after a disappointing 2008 campaign. He has not returned to coaching since, and has carved out a niche for himself as a television personality, doing color commentary on Monday Night Football and annual pre-draft “Quarterback Camp” segments for ESPN, where he became famous for his segment with Andrew Luck and the play “Spider 2 Y Banana.”

At the age of 51, he is no longer the energetic young man he once was, but rather is developing into an elder scholar of the game.  While he did turn Rich Gannon into an MVP and Brad Johnson into a Super Bowl winning Pro Bowl quarterback, Gruden also presided over some very bad Bucs teams with very bad offenses in his time there. He has worked with Raider quarterback Derek Carr briefly while doing his ESPN segment, and on the surface seems like a very good fit for the Raiders. But by the end of this season, he will have spent six full seasons away from the sidelines, and this can be either a very good or very bad thing. Obviously, Dick Vermeil took fifteen years off from football only to return and win a Super Bowl with Saint Louis. If Gruden wanted to come back to football, however, he would have more than a few interested suitors in both the NFL and college. He may be content to stay in front of the cameras, however, where he gets to still yell about “Spider 2 Y Banana” and “Sluggo Seam” in between Corona commercials, and makes damn good money.

Until the Raiders can get back to winning football, Raider fans will always miss the Chucky era, which is compounded by the fact that we have to watch him every week on Monday Night Football while we’re thinking about how badly our Raiders got demolished the day prior. His popularity with the fans and his embodiment of the last successful era of Raider football may make him a tempting candidate for Mark Davis and Reggie McKenzie, but the opportunity to start something new with a new coach may prove more tempting – or simply more realistic – as the Raiders look to start over, again, with a new head coach.