With the NFL offseason in full gear, the chirping crickets have been dominating headlines for days.
The big story of the past two weeks, for the Raiders at least, was the rumor that Martavis Bryant may be facing a suspension, but it’s beginning to look more and more like that story may have been blown out of proportion.
There was something between Bryant and the NFL that didn’t go according to plan, but it feels like the Raiders dodged a bullet (albeit maybe imaginary) on this one. Or something to that effect.
So in the spirit of fake offseason news, these were the worst narratives of the Raiders 2018 offseason. Because it’s too early to say that the Bryant report wasn’t legitimate, that story doesn’t make the list.
3 – A new generation of football players won’t be able to handle Jon Gruden. As it turns out, Gruden has been very much the opposite of an authoritarian dictator some in the media had portrayed him to be.
“Gruden is all football,” Bruce Irvin said last month on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “When you look around the building, the TV screens is all football, X’s and O’s. He’s an energetic guy. What you see is what you get. He’s not going to sugar coat it. He’s gonna tell you the truth and that’s what you want in your head coach…. Guys was kinda worried with him being out of the game for 8-9 years if he would try to come back and try to be old school style, but it’s completely different. He let us run the team.”
Gruden is well aware of where the Raiders locker room seemed to fracture last year and he seems to have built it back to where it was two years ago – only now the players and coaches seem to be working harder than they ever did under Jack Del Rio.
2 – Gruden is going to take the Raiders back to smashmouth 1980’s football. Yes, Gruden signed a fullback and so did Bill Belichick. It doesn’t mean that either team is strapping on leather helmets to run the Nebraska triple option.
Keep hearing this smash-mouth West Coast offense that Raiders HC Jon Gruden wants to implement. Will likely come at the expense of Derek Carr, who had an 88.3 QB Rating under Shotgun compared to 72.5 under center last year. One of the few LRQB's I'll be avoiding.
— Tyler Buecher (@TylerBuecher) June 26, 2018
Gruden has talked repeatedly about being “multiple” in his formations and being able to run out a variety of different personnel groupings. The Patriots do this better than anyone in the NFL, but for some reason the idea isn’t as well received when the Raiders want to do the same.
Gruden threw the ball as much as anyone when he had Rich Gannon and he won’t be afraid to open up the offense under Derek Carr.
”Jon [Gruden] is state of the art in everything he does and he is setting you up,” Raiders voice Greg Papa recently said on his 95.7 The Game radio show. “He does it with his formations and he started stuff in football that was all copied.”
”Jon’s been studying this league for a long time. So before you all think he’s going to have 10 fullbacks on the field with Derek, just watch and see what he does with tempo and personnel groups. It will be state of the art.”
1 – Carr won’t be able to handle Gruden’s “colorful” language. Maybe the dumbest narrative surrounding any team this offseason was the idea that Carr would be too thin-skinned to work with Gruden.
It was a hot topic for a while among some beat writers and national media, but the pretend storyline seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur since Carr and Gruden actually started working together.
Coach and quarterback will be chirping back and forth this year and they might even get mad at each other on occasion – and that will be fine.
twitter: @raidersbeat
This is not the era of Vince Lombardi where players have to bend to a coaches style. Gruden brings a new culture experienced coaches and is a brilliant football mind.
Gruden made the Raiders whole again. No more locker room division because of Politics. No more kings antics or Craptrees dropped passes. Our team gave up on Carr because he didn’t drop to his knees in protest in 2017. No secret. Those people are all going away. King! Bye bye, Craptree!! See ya!!! Donald Penn’s replacements were drafted. He will soon be gone!!! We got a new punter! Who is not a clown!!! We got a leader in Jordy Nelson!! Which we haven’t had since Tim Brown!!! Wake up Raiders. Carr is your leader!! Gruden will make the team respect him or they will be gone. Just as King or Craptree!!! No more racist political bs. Straight hard nose Raider football. Jack Del Rio was afraid to do anything about the attitudes in that locker room. Even turned on Carr at one point last year. He was scared!!! CHUCKY doesn’t get scared!!!! He scared people!!! Just win baby! We love Gruden and he is a Raiders saving grace. The Raiders are all white again!!! Lets go win that Championship that Gruden should of had in the first place. It was a fumble crooked NFL!!! God Bless Jon Gruden and Derek Carr. Hope they win many Championships the next 10 years!!!! We will soon be out of craphole Oakland too. Southern California ready to hit the road for Vegas!!! The future looks bright for the Raiders!!!! #WalkthePlank. #inGrudenWeTRUST 💀 💀 💀
Gruden made the Raiders whole again. No more locker room division because of Politics. No more kings antics or Craptrees dropped passes. Our team gave up on Carr because he didn’t drop to his knees in protest in 2017. No secret. Those people are all going away. King! Bye bye, Craptree!! See ya!!! Donald Penn’s replacements were drafted. He will soon be gone!!! We got a new punter! Who is not a clown!!! We got a leader in Jordy Nelson!! Which we haven’t had since Tim Brown!!! Wake up Raiders. Carr is your leader!! Gruden will make the team respect him or they will be gone. Just as King or Craptree!!! No more racist political bs. Straight hard nose Raider football. Jack Del Rio was afraid to do anything about the attitudes in that locker room. Even turned on Carr at one point last year. He was scared!!! CHUCKY doesn’t get scared!!!! He scares people!!! Just win baby! We love Gruden and he is a Raiders saving grace. The Raiders are all white again!!! Lets go win that Championship that Gruden should of had in the first place. It was a fumble, crooked NFL!!! God Bless Jon Gruden and Derek Carr. Hope they win many Championships the next 10 years!!!! We will soon be out of craphole Oakland too. Southern California ready to hit the road for Vegas!!! The future looks bright for the Raiders!!!! #WalkthePlank. #inGrudenWeTRUST 💀 💀 💀
What do you mean when you say ,”the raiders are all white again”?
Kinda feels like a typo but kinda not
Cant wait for the 2018 season ! GO RAIDERS !💀💀💀
Tyler Beuchler doesn’t know that you can’t be “under shotgun” as a about in any football leagu. Unless you are extremely short playing with really tall guys.
I make this stupid point just to point out that TB is not one to follow. He knows nothing about football, not even its simple language..
the blind leading the blind
Just the fact that so called “journalists” ran w that crap … all your famous without source material. Forget the words that actually come out of a player/coaches mouth… you just go ‘head and put your own ignorance on it and let’s see who follows~