Jon Gruden rumors to the Cowboys as head coach could be a good fit. Jason Garret may need to watch his back.
Jon Gruden has been the hot name in coaching rumors for the past few seasons, but at every turn he has decided to stay away from the sidelines. More rumors came up recently that tied him to the Dallas Cowboys after the team hired a number of his former coaches from when he was with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Gruden did great work in Tampa Bay, becoming the youngest head coach to win the Super Bowl, but the rumors were soon called "ridiculous", a source told ESPN's Ed Werder. The coaches brought in were all Gruden assistant coaches, including Monte Kiffin (defensive coordinator), Rod Marinelli (defensive line coach), Rich Bisaccia (special teams coach) and Bill Callahan (offensive coordinator).
Gruden has shown he is not interested in returning to the sidelines since being in the broadcast booth for ESPN, but if owner Jerry Jones decided to bring him in as either a head coach or an assistant, it would be a good move. Jason Garret may not need to watch his back yet, but the seat under him is starting to get hot.
Jones would want to make a splash with his hiring and this would be the name to do it. So far in this past year, he has been mentioned for the Cleveland Browns coaching job, Tennessee college coaching job as well as the Philadelphia Eagles. While none of those worked out, there's a chance Gruden could be enticed by a head coaching job that allowed him to select his own players.
Jones serves as the general manager of the team, but if he would give up some decision making to someone, it likely would be Gruden. He is known as a detailed-oriented hard worker and he is a proven winner in the NFL. Last year the Cowboys missed the playoffs again for second straight season and went just 8-8.
The team ranked third in passing, but was 31st in rushing after averaging just 79 yards per game. The defense struggled, which forced Jones to cut ties with coordinator Rob Ryan. The team brought in Kiffin, who will need to fix a unit that ranked 19th in passing and 22nd in rushing defense.
The Cowboys were inconsistent all season before hitting a hot streak towards the end. The team won five of six games to get into playoff position, but lost the final two games to the New Orleans Saints and the Washington Redskins.
Gruden popped up in the news along with Callahan after Tim Brown accused the former Oakland Raiders head coach of throwing the Super Bowl against Gruden's Buccaneers.
Brown said in the interview that Callahan may have changed the team's game plan on Friday night because he was friends with Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden and "hated" the Raiders. Gruden was formerly the coach of the Raiders the previous season before leaving for the Tampa Bay job.
"We get our game plan for victory on Monday, and the game plan says we're gonna run the ball," Brown said. "We averaged 340 (pounds) on the offensive line, they averaged 280 (on the defensive line). We're all happy with that, everybody is excited."
Callahan later said the comments were preposterous, but Hall of Fame Wider receiver Jerry Rice supported Brown's claims. Rice said on ESPN's "NFL Live" that the game plan was changed the way Brown described it and he thought it was "unusual."
"For some reason - and I don't know why - Bill Callahan did not like me," Rice said. "In a way, maybe because he didn't like the Raiders, he decided, 'Maybe we should sabotage this a little bit and let Jon Gruden go out and win this one.'"
During 11 seasons as head coach in the NFL, Gruden went 95-81 with five playoff appearances with the Oakland Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He left coaching in 2009 to join television and has been working as an ESPN analyst on Monday Night Football. Gruden recently signed a five-year extension with the network and has said that he is content in his current position.
"I'm trying to figure out where I'm going," Gruden told Bryant Gumbel on HBO's "Real Sports" last summer. "If the right opportunity presents itself, I will come back."
By working on ESPN, Gruden has kept himself relevant to the NFL and has been able to show off his skills at breaking down game film and analyzing the games as they happen. He is known as a great offensive mind, but also can work a defensive unit.
Gruden was head coach of the Raiders from 1998-2001 and went 38-26 in the regular season with one AFC championship appearance in four seasons before leaving to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he led the team to a Super Bowl championship in his first season in 2002.
Gruden coached the Buccaneers to 12 wins in 2002, but only reached double-digit wins in one other season (11 in 2005). He took the Buccaneers to the playoffs three times, including in 2007 when they lost to the New York Giants as they won the Super Bowl in the NFC Wild Card round. He became the youngest head coach to win the Super Bowl at 39 years old, but was fired in 2008. Gruden won three NFC South titles while in Tampa Bay, but finished in the bottom half of the division four times in seven years.
Gruden's teams finished .500 or better in eight of 11 seasons and previously served as an offensive coach with the Green Bay Packers and the Philadelphia Eagles before becoming a head coach.
During his time with ESPN, Gruden has called both NFL and college games and has hosted "Gruden QB Camps" segments while working with young quarterbacks like Cam Newton, Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III.
Gruden could be the next guy in Dallas, but for now it seems unlikely.
