Are the Oakland Raiders in the mist of a new search for another head coach? Is the next head coach already behind the shield in Jon Gruden?
Looks like Dennis Allen is at the end of his regime with the Silver and Black. After Al Davis passing, his son was given the reigns to create his new commitment to excellence in Oakland. Mark Davis was the right man for the job. Under the new ownership, he hired a general manager, Reggie McKenzie, who fired the head coach at the time, Hue Jackson and hired his own in Allen.
But unfortunately for the Raiders an Allen hasn’t had too much, if any success. Oakland is still a below average team.
Allen never seemed to have the team in his hands, he was never on top of the AFC nor had the team heading in the right direction. His record as coach of the Raiders is 8-20 going into Sunday’s game against the Chargers. Oakland does have some talent to build on, but continued to fall and fail to make the playoffs in the past two years with Allen at the helm.
So where does this once historical franchise go from here?
Reports continue to fly from all channels on the Raiders attempting to sway Jon Gruden back to Oakland beginning with the owner Mark Davis and out the comfy ESPN Monday Night Football broadcast booth. For those young folks and fans that seemed to forget Gruden was the last great coach for the Raiders.
Under Gruden, the Silver and Black were a solid playoff team that he led the team to the AFC Championship and left the team under his offensive coordinator Bill Callahan after taking the same job for the Bucs in Tampa, who met his team in the Super Bowl when the Raiders had their last winning season.
According to league sources, Davis was in extended talks in trying to land Gruden late in 2012, while at that point the Raiders finances were at a standstill and that would take an enormous commitment to land Gruden and his staff back than now it remains very possible to for discussions to open up once again.
Since the Raiders are stuck in a bind with Allen with him only having four wins this season at the helm, his job is certainly in jeopardy. And now CBS Sports’s Jason La Canfora is reporting that if the Raiders coaching job should open up, Gruden will be the leading candidate to replace Allen as the Raiders head coach.
While great coaches grimace at the opportunity to coach for the Raiders, Gruden maintains a strong connection to the franchise and is very close with Hall of Fame coach John Madden.
It was previously reported by ESPN that Gruden would not be coaching in 2014, but that could change if the right opportunity opened up. The idea of being the right man to save the franchise and restore it to glory days definitely carries a certain cache to Gruden, who is about to complete another season in the broadcast booth at ESPN.
Welcome back “Chucky” once a Raider always a Raider.
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