[jwplayer 1vROLFUW-ThvAeFxT]
There is a lot still to be played out this season in the NFL. The Raiders are in the thick of a playoff race that includes more teams than it excludes. But if you ask Brett Favre — and Sirius XM host Bruce Murray did — what he thinks of the job Jon Gruden is doing in Oakland, he had some strong words in response.
“I don’t know what the outcome of the season will be but if I had to pick a Coach of the Year right now it would be Jon Gruden. Some people may say I’m absolutely crazy but I think he’s done a tremendous job. I mean, think about the drama that he’s – and you just talked about not so much drama, but last year when he traded Khalil Mack and then Mack’s first game against Green Bay he just goes crazy and has a tremendous game and everyone says, ‘Is Gruden crazy?’ Trades [Amari] Cooper. Then he has the Antonio Brown fiasco at the start of the season, and all this could have just destroyed his team. I think when you look at all those things that have occurred and where they are and more importantly how they’re playing. They’re playing well and they’re responding to how he coaches. It’s just a tremendous job, it really is. I very impressed with what he’s done there.”
Favre was on the Packers when Gruden was a young assistant in the early 90s. He added that Gruden was a ‘sponge,’ and he could tell Gruden would go on to become a head coach at some point. Gruden would get his first head coaching job with the Raiders just a few years later in 1998.
After ten years as a head coach with the Raiders and Buccaneers, he returned to coaching and the Raiders before the 2018 season. At that time, Favre said he thought Gruden would be even better than he was because of the perspective he gained from his nine years with ESPN as a Monday Night Football analyst.