https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/01/01/buffalo-bills-playoffs-black-monday-jon-gruden-mmqb-peter-king
WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THE COACHING SITUATIONS
By Peter King
THEARON W. HENDERSON/GETTY IMAGES
This coaching season might be relatively boring. A few things I’ve gathered entering Black Monday around the NFL, starting with a few points about the weirdness surrounding the Raiders:
• I have never seen a head coach, minutes after his season ends, announce his own firing. That’s what happened after the last game of the season for Oakland in Los Angeles on Sunday. What an odd situation to have owner Mark Davis and GM Reggie McKenzie nowhere in sight, and Jack Del Rio emotionally announce that the owner had just whacked him.
Del Rio, one of the toughest coaches in the league, and a local guy who wanted to coach the Raiders ’til the day he died, was visibly emotional when he said: “Mark felt the need to change. I told him how much I appreciated the opportunity he gave me. I mean that. Very grateful. My childhood team.” Man, you watch that scene and you really felt for Del Rio.
• Great scoop by Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen on the fact that the Raiders were pursuing former Oakland coach Jon Gruden (40-28 as the Raiders boss from 1998 to 2001) for a second act. Is Gruden worth, potentially, a share of ownership? Consider that Oakland fans love reunions, and there’s at least one more season to be played in the Black Hole; those fans will eat it up.
Consider, too, that there’s an expensive product to be sold in Las Vegas, and a 6-10 Raider team with a stunningly horse-crap offense (how can a Derek Carr-led unit average 19 points a game for a season?) isn’t going to excite many high-rollers. The money they pay Gruden, and the share of ownership (gulp), might be a necessary cost of doing business.
• The Raiders have had nine coaches since Gruden coached them.
• Gruden has been gauging the interest of unemployed coaches, and other men he’d like to work with, about joining a potential coaching staff.
• Gruden, obviously, is a hero in Tampa Bay for delivering a Super Bowl win. But since then, in his last six coaching seasons, Gruden didn’t deliver. In those six seasons as a head coach, his Bucs went 45-53, including 0-2 in the playoffs. There’s that issue.
And this: If Gruden takes the Raiders job, it will have been nine years and eight months between games coached when he steps on the sideline next September. I agree that Gruden’s a good head-coaching candidate. But he’s hardly a lock to bring the Raiders deep into January.
• It will be cruel irony if the Raiders, a team that was pioneering in many ways under Al Davis, doesn’t honor the spirit and the letter of the Rooney Rule. The organization needs to be accountable to an honorable coach-hire process, and not just shove Gruden into office.
In a down year for coaching candidates, Gruden looks like a headliner for Mark Davis. But I would caution against expecting nirvana. Now for other coaching info...
AFC
• In Denver, GM John Elway is on the fence about head coach Vance Joseph, who will have to at least make major changes to the offensive staff. I’ve heard Elway is waffling about what he wants to do with Joseph, but late Sunday night appeared to be closer to keeping him than jettisoning him. Lots of rumors out there about who Elway likes, but one guy I’m hearing he won’t go after if he seeks a new coach is Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh—not that Harbaugh would leave Ann Arbor.
• Mike Mularkey likely saved his job in Tennessee with the win over Jacksonville and resulting wild-card slot.
• In Cleveland, owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam have steadfastly stood behind 1-31 Hue Jackson, and over the weekend I heard they were still steadfast.
• Cincinnati: total conundrum. I doubt Marvin Lewis would have major demand for his services if he becomes a coaching free-agent, and I doubt owner Mike Brown will be able to get either of two familiar head-coaching faces to return to Cincinnati: Jackson or Jay Gruden. But I do not know what Brown will do today when he and Lewis meet.
• Indianapolis, ideally, wants a long-term partner for Andrew Luck with a presence to coach the entire team, not half of it. The rumor that will never go away is that owner Jim Irsay longs to hire old Colts QB Jim Harbaugh. But the domineering Harbaugh, I believe, would be an ill fit with Luck and GM Chris Ballard.
• With the terrible news that Texans GM Rick Smith is taking a leave of absence to help care for his seriously ill wife, Houston owner Bob McNair and coach Bill O’Brien will meet today to discuss O’Brien’s future and his request/demand for a change in the football structure of the team.
I hear McNair is going to agree with at least some of O’Brien’s requests, and it’s likely now that O’Brien will stay, particularly with Smith’s future understandably cloudy. McNair doesn’t want to lose both men in the same year.
NFC
• I thought Bill O’Brien would be a perfect partner for the New York Giants—demanding, commanding, good in quarterback development. But if he stays in Houston, the slate is clear and GM Dave Gettleman (see below) could go in a lot of different directions.
• Detroit just might end up battling the Giants for Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, assuming the Lions fire Jim Caldwell today, which is likely. The Lions are 25-24 in Caldwell’s last three years, with a top-six or -eight quarterback in Matthew Stafford, and spit the bit last week in a pre-playoff game at Cincinnati, being penalized six times in the fourth quarter and giving up sacks on their last two offensive snaps. Patricia, organized and no-nonsense, seems smart here.
• Chicago seems a good fit for offensive coordinators Pat Shurmur or Josh McDaniels, with Mitch Trubisky needing a hands-on mentor.
• Bruce Arians was a godsend for Arizona, and made the Cards relevant again. But he looked wrung out and too emotional to hide much Sunday after yet another win in Seattle (the Cards are 4-1 under Arians at the toughest place to play in the NFL). With Carson Palmer likely to retire, the Cards need a quarterback of the present and future, and a mentor to handle said quarterback.
In all, seven changes will either happen or seem likely: Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Oakland, Detroit, Chicago, Arizona and the Giants. It’s not the landslide some predicted. But you watch. Some team we least expect will have a time-stopper to announce big changes this week.