Oakland Raiders: Jon Gruden Missed Boat on New Breed of Players

The Oakland Raiders brought back Jon Gruden because they wanted him to return the organization to its winning ways like he instilled in the early 2000s.

The problem is they didn’t seem to assess just what they were getting themselves into. Is Gruden a good head coach? Yes. His track record proves that much with several winning seasons and a Super Bowl ring. However, being a good head coach and being a good general manager are two different things. Mark Davis and ownership seem to have not taken that into account when they willingly handed Gruden control of the Raiders roster.

People like to celebrate his old school approach to how to coach a team. That’s all fine and good but it’s been 10 years since the man was involved closely with NFL players. Things have changed a lot since he last stood on the sideline. Remember that Gruden left the game in 2009. This was two years before the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Players have become more and more educated on handling their own contracts.

They aren’t naive anymore. Gruden was dealing with young guys who were getting paid tons of money from their rookie deals, so their desire to haggle wasn’t as large. Thanks to the rookie wage scale, players coming out of their first contracts are more prone to fight hard for as much money as they can get as the Khalil Mack situation is proving.

Gruden, with that mentality of over 10 years ago, may not have been ready for it.

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Bucky Brooks of NFL.com has a unique perspective on this matter. Not only is he a former scout and current analyst, he also has the added experience of having played for Gruden. He knows the man well enough to see the problem, and it’s one where that large gap of being outside the game for so long is working against him.

"“Look, I know Gruden is old school. I played for him during his first season with the Raiders in 1998 and remember how he rebuilt the team from scratch. He employed a no-nonsense approach to help the franchise rise from the ashes during his initial run in Oakland, and I’m sure that he’s adhering to the same script in his second go-around.That said, most of the best organizations nowadays have solid partnerships between the head coach and his top players. Gruden might’ve missed this evolution during his decade away from the game. Instead of the dictatorships that ruled the roost in the 1980s and ’90s, more coaches are creating democracies where the team leaders set the pace for the squad.”"

In this sort of situation, Gruden can go one of two ways. He can adapt himself to the new reality and work to get a better connection with his players by improving communication with Mack. Or he can take more of a Bill Belichick approach. If a player pushes too hard on the money front, trade him for high draft picks and move on. Having Tom Brady has made that a good strategy in the past for New England. Would Gruden feel that comfortable since he has Derek Carr?

This is the unanswered question that has Raider fans on pins and needles. Gruden is a “grinder” as he so often likes to say and he wants players who are the same. Grinders tend to put the team first, even at the cost of their own comfort. This could have a big impact on the negotiations with Mack the longer this holdout goes on.

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