Jon Gruden has resigned as Raiders head coach. His resignation came shortly after a report came out in the New York Times that detailed several instances in which Gruden made homophobic slurs and misogynistic remarks in leaked emails during his time as a Monday Night Football analyst.
This report coming on the heels of a report in the Wall Street Journal of Gruden making racist remarks. Emails that were unearthed in an investigation into the Washington Football Team.
Gruden may be out, but the Raiders 2021 season goes on without him. And that means they need an interim head coach to pick up the playbook and guide this Raiders team the rest of the way.
We’re just five games in, so the interim head coach will be important. He will coach a 3-2 club for at least the next 12 regular-season games.
Here are the top candidates to take over as interim head coach.
STC Rich Bisaccia
Currently the team’s Assistant Head Coach, so stepping up to head coach would make some sense. The longtime Special Teams Coordinator has no head coaching experience, but he is well-respected by his players and has a commanding presence that suggests he could do well as a head coach. His no-nonsense approach could do well to keep this team from unraveling.
DC Gus Bradley
Bradley has head coaching experience. He was the head coach of the Jaguars for four seasons from 2013-16. Though he went 14-48 during those four seasons, he is a well-respected coach with 13 years of experience as a defensive coordinator or better.
OL coach Tom Cable
Cable also has head coaching experience. In fact, he has head coaching experience with the Raiders. He was the Raiders interim head coach in 2008, taking over for Lane Kiffin who was fired after just 20 games. And after that season Cable had the interim tag stripped off and stuck around for two more seasons, going 17-27 as a head coach. From there he served as the Assistant Head Coach/OL coach in Seattle from 2011 to 2017.
DL coach Rod Marinelli
Marinelli has been coaching in the NFL ranks since 1996. Mostly as a defensive line coach, but he has ten years experience as a Defensive Coordinator and three years experience as a head coach.
He was the head coach of the Detroit Lions from 2006-08 during which he had a record of 10-38. Marinelli was named the Raiders interim Defensive Coordinator late last season after the firing of Paul Guenther.
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