The Raiders will most likely be looking for a new head coach and quarterback after the season, and after whiffing on their top choices a year ago, it might be even more difficult for the organization to upgrade at head coach and quarterback a month from now.
If that ends up being the case, Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter offered an idea this week that would be the boldest of Mark Davis’s 14-year tenure as principal owner of the Raiders.
“There is one move, and only one, that would instantaneously bring back the aura of his father and the swagger back to the Raider Nation,” Carpenter wrote about Davis on Tuesday.
“This one move would be a dose of Viagra to the soul of the Raider Nation, restoring the swagger, the luster, and the pride and passion of his increasingly apathetic fan base… Hire Jon Gruden. I said it. Hire Chucky. It is no secret that when the coach was let go after a scandal involving leaked emails (of which he has apologized), Jon Gruden’s second tenure as the head coach of the Silver and Black had turned a corner.”
If the Gruden idea wasn’t enough, Hondo then doubled down on the legendary coach’s former quarterback.
“[Gruden] could reach out to the retired Derek Carr and inquire about his health,” Carpenter continued.
“Carr has never wavered about his love for the Silver and Black and his admiration for Gruden. Gruden could ask the all-time Raiders (passing leader) QB if he would sign a one or two-year deal to come back and groom a rookie like Fernando Mendoza.”
With Smith presumably leaving on the first flight out of Las Vegas at the end of the season, the Raiders will need a veteran quarterback in 2026 and if Gruden somehow returns to the organization, what better quarterback to take over the offense on short notice than Carr?
Carr didn’t get a proper farewell from the Raiders at the end of the 2022 season and at 34 years old, he is rumored to be as healthy as he has been in years.
He might also be willing to consider a role that assumes he wouldn’t be the starting quarterback beyond next year.
Getting Gruden to work under Tom Brady might be a challenge, but given the state of the organization, would the idea be worth considering?
It might be a pipe dream, but it’s certainly a better dream than the nightmare playing out in Vegas right now… is it not?
x: @raidersbeat
On one condition: he needs to be willing to make adjustments in the second half. Let the OC design the playbook, incorporate some of his and drop his ego once and for all. He’s too predictable. Spytek will have the final say at the draft and free agent signings and trade. If he breaks the agreement… bye, bye. He’s getting paid already, so no need to make a new one. Maybe some incentive pay.
I like it…
With all due respect, Hondo, the Gruden part of your article is a horrible idea. Whatever Gruden is supposed to be a genius at, he’s not.
THE ONLY WAY TO LIFT THE CURSE OF WAYNE VALLEY OFF THE RAIDERS IS FOR MARK DAVIS TO SELL.
Jon Gruden is the third best Coach in Raiders history, only John Madden and Tom Flores rank higher.
Mark Davis was not strong enough to stand by Jon Gruden when Roger Goodfellow came after him with the politics of the 1/2 an hour. Mark Davis is not strong enough to bring back Jon Gruden and he is not his own man because he took the NFL money to build that stadium in LV. So he will go along with the NFL to get along. Al Davis would have told Roger, the mail room boy, Goodfellow where he could go and “I will see you in court.” Mark Davis is profiting with out having to win in LV and it appears to me he is O.K. with that. The only way to lift the curse of Wayne Valley off the Raiders is for Mark to sell his controlling stake as Manager of the General Partner.
WEST SIDE
RN
SINCE 1974
Love Gruden & Carr, plus I’d like to see Gruden tell Brady off.
I think Gruden would let the GM have final say this time but if it’s a scenario where Carr comes back I’d rather have Kubiak as HC. He had Carr playing some of his best ball last year & Kubiak knows how to get the most out of his quarterback.
lololililolilol all creds gone forever
Anyone who suggest a return of Jon Gruden and Derek Carr are 1. living in the past; 2. as clueless as Mark Davis; 3. looking backwards instead of forward; 4. has NO vision for the future other than revisionist history; 5. forgetting that Al Davis said that “…The greatness of the Raiders is their future… 6. can’t face the fact that yesterday is gone; 7. understands that the prominence of any sports franchise is cyclical (it took Kansas City 50 years before winning their second Super Bowl; 8. are as void of leadership qualities as Mark Davis and 9. doesn’t understand that despite having a losing record, for years not unlike the Dallas Cowboys who haven’t won anything in forever either, has had the value of this franchise increase in value, not unlike the most valuabel franchise in the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys.
Owning a NFL franchise is a business and the bottom line is to increase the value of your business, in this case an NFL franchise. The owner of the Dallas Cowboys has successfully done this and, believe it or not, so has Mark Davis with the Raiders. Only the fans care about wins and losses while the owners and investors primary concern is the financial bottom line. The New York Jets and Miami Dolphins, who won Super Bowls in the distant past are STILL profitable NFL franchises. The most hated NFL franchise, by the NFL, for being a small market team and coincidentally, is referred to as Title Town is the Green Bay Packers. Much larger market teams, with exponentially more money, seemingly can’t duplicate the Packers success rate despite having bigger stadiums, larger viewer markets and more revenue. This “problem” isn’t specific to the NFL because, relatively speaking, the smaller market team Oklahoma City Thunder has just upended NBA larger market dynamic just last June.
I have been a Raiders fan since 1968, when the Raiders were a small market team, in Oakland. Frustrated Raiders fans need to come to grips with the fact that a losing record, in terms of wins and losses, has absolutely nothing to do with profitability. The Super Bowl was held last year in the city of Las Vegas and the NFL. Not only did the city of Las Vegas receive a unbelievable influx of revenue so did the ownership of the Las Vegas Raiders. For ownership, an influx of revenue is infinitely more preferable over wins. Understanding the importance of revenue over wins should help Raiders fans understand what is most important to NFL owners and investors. Should the Raiders actually win more games than they lose, well that’s just icing on the cake.
Gruden does have a brilliant football mind, anybody that doesn’t know that must be so amazing that they should be our next coach! Lol, he’s made mistakes but hopefully learned from them. His power would have to be strictly as HC and have to go by the normal guidelines the league has always used. Last time he was everything, like a God. Didn’t work and yes he was a bit outdated, but he isn’t dumb and has an incredible passion for the game. Let him work with his OC and still be accountable to the GM. Carr as a mentor would awesome, extremely likeable, nice guy with tons of experience and only 34 so has some good years left and could be very good in the right system and he does love the Raiders. Our biggest issue is the O-line period, protect the QB and open holes for the RB and everything else will develop just fine. D-line does need to be addressed as well and d-backs as we all know. There’s alot of work to be done obviously and Gruden is we connected so could get some good coaches to join in. Who knows, but we’re not looking like a team the top guys are going to run to right now so we need to tuck out tails under our butts and work our way out of this mess with the best we can find.
OMG. You listened to Hondo, and it made sense to you? Bill G. Thank you for being the navigator on this crazy ship of fools. Gruden is a caricature of what made him a good coach, he’s far more interested in entertaining the masses than putting together a young staff of innovative minds. He would prefer a group of retreaded yes men, that “play and coach the game” like it was in back in their day. I love Gruden, he’s a great Instagram follow, but his coaching days are done. It isn’t that game anymore. As far as DC goes, come on man. He’s white Geno. Same look on his face when he throws a pick, never quite making the play you need to win a game. Always quoting the press conference script, “It’s on me, I gotta make the throws” “I gotta prepare better”. Just like Geno, that isn’t what your body language on the field is saying, it’s not what your eyeliner eyeballs were projecting on the sideline. We cannot go forward by stepping back. To be honest, it’s kind of what we did this year, only it was someone else’s past. Now you guys want to get back in the Deloren again?
Stupid is as stupid does. I’m not even sure why I clicked on this horse sheet. Maybe it was too campaign for somebody’s platform to be pulled out from under them. Yeah that’s it.
Hire David Shaw or Chris Shula with Brian Daboll as OC if Fernando Mendoza is selected………..we stay in the now and future, not the past
I threw up in my nose.
Are you kidding me? Honestly? The last thing this franchise needs is to, once again, take a large step back to the past for a washed up HC and QB. This story is absolutely ludicrous.
After reading some of the comments it’s no wonder this franchise can’t move forward. Gruden 2.0 was a terrible, terrible experience. Moving on from Mack set the team back years. His offensive calls were maddening. His crazy free agents, trades, and draft picks were all but 2 terrible. Inexcusable when Mark got rid of JDR and brought Gruden back when it was painful obvious from day 1 it wasn’t going to work. And what happens after he quit because he’s a scumbag? The team came together under Rich. Between Gruden, McDaniels, Pierce, and now Carroll the team went from upstart franchise to perennial biggest losers. Could’ve / Should’ve hired Ben Johnson this past year or Jim Harbaugh the year before. As long as the losses keep coming the #1 pick is a definite possibility and with the horrible Geno, FA Pickett and AOC as the current QBs then it’s reasonable to believe we will pick a QB. So what we need is a true leader that excells in either O or D. That statement alone disqualifies Gruden.
You need your effing head examined. It was Gruden that did this. And, what did D.Carr
do in New Orleans? Your a stupid fool! Keep Gruden away, and only let Carr retire as a
Raider. Dumb ***.
Anyone else hoping that somehow Robert Salah sp.? Is hired immediately as HC?
Forget it. That’s a bad idea to hire Jon Gruden. He did nothing for the team. He was losing when the scandal broke out. He is way over rated. I would rather have Norvell Turner than Gruden. And I didn’t care for Turner. As far as Derick Carr, your kidding. I would not want that guyto coach my pop warner football team. Carr is a cry baby. Remember when he got benched, he said he was NOT going to sit on the bench. So he took his football and stayed home the last 2 games of the season. What a little B***h.
No to BOTH! Gruden is to egotistical and ineffective. Carr is injury prone, erratic, and gave up plays too early. We need youth at both positions.