Jon Gruden rolling the dice on youth this time around with the Raiders
By Kenny King
Jon Gruden is playing it a bit different this time around with the Raiders, this time choosing to roll the dice with youth.
When Jon Gruden took over the then-Oakland Raiders in 2018, he brought in a lot of veteran help. Previous team leaders from throughout the league came to end their careers in Oakland, and the result was a four-win season that had the fan base cringing at the thought of ten years of this.
The Raiders were the oldest team in the NFL with an average age of 27.4 years old, but since then, a lot has changed. During the 2019 and 2020 offseasons, the Raiders would focus less on bringing on players who would light up a Pro Bowl roster a decade ago, and used free agency and the draft to bring in young impact players to lay the foundation.
This method resulted in the Raiders now being in the top-10 of the youngest teams in the NFL.
As the Raiders enter the 2020 NFL season, there is youth up and down this roster, and fans have to be excited about this team not on this Fall, but in Falls to come. Gruden has leaned heavily on general manager Mike Mayock, who has worked wonders in the draft, and the overall culture inside the locker room is changing as well.