Tag: jon gruden

Jon Gruden says he’s irritated by Ravens problems with penalties

Gruden went on to point how Ronnie Stanley, who he says is one of his favorite left tackles in the game, has nine penalties.

On the eve of the season opener, former NFL head coach Jon Gruden posted a video on his YouTube channel expressing his excitement for the potential of the Lamar Jackson-Derrick Henry backfield combination.

Gruden used a whiteboard to illustrate how the sky was indeed the limit for the Baltimore Ravens’ zone-read attack.

In a new video discussing the Ravens, Gruden’s tone has shifted from optimistic enthusiasm to angry disappointment.

“They have really irritated me with their slow starts,” Gruden articulated, referencing the games against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals.

“They really have to get started faster, and that’s critical for their defense as well. Play with a lead, and make somebody chase ya.”

Chucky then brought up the biggest bugaboo of this Ravens season so far.

 “Very important that the Ravens eliminate the penalties. They’re No. 1 in the league in penalties, it’s ridiculous…they’ve gotta get rid of the penalties”

Gruden went on to point out how Ronnie Stanley, who he says is one of his favorite left tackles in the game, has nine penalties.

He then mentioned how left guard Patrick Mekhari has ten and right guard Daniel Faalele five.

“Now if you’re the offensive line coach, you’re probably gonna say ‘hey, you’re pissing me off.’ We gotta get rid of the penalties.”

No lies detected.

But the best part of this video, which appears to be in sponsored partnership with a sportsbook, is when Gruden mocks referees with jacked arms going out of their way to show off their biceps for the cameras.

Gruden does a great job imitating how a buff official will use the rule book gesture that indicates holding as an excuse to do the old “Which way to the beach?” routine.

Funny stuff!

And again, no lies were detected.

Former Super Bowl-winning coach calls Drake Maye ‘superstar’ in the making

Jon Gruden is completely sold on Drake Maye in the NFL

Former NFL head coach Jon Gruden had high praise for New England Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye.

Gruden, who now works at Barstool Sports, is famous for his quarterback evaluations. His “Gruden’s QB Camp” television series was a must-watch for football junkies everywhere.

He has seen his fair share of talented quarterbacks over the years, and he boldly endorsed Maye during a segment with Barstool.

“Drake Maye is going to be a superstar. Drake Maye is going to be everything you’re looking for. Five-star—badass. He’s a horse, man,” said Gruden.

Maye has been receiving praise from several figures around the league. From Patriots legends to his teammates, the buzz is alive and well for the third overall pick of the 2024 NFL draft.

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Former Bucs HC Jon Gruden spotted on sidelines with former players, ownership

Following his removal from the Ring of Honor, that seemingly ended Gruden’s relationship with the team and Glazer family until Sunday.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and former head coach Jon Gruden have a complicated relationship over the years. Of course, Gruden coached the team from 2002 to 2008 and won Super Bowl XXXVII during that tenure. He would be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor, but that’s where the happy story ends.

After being inducted in 2017, Gruden was removed by the Glazer Family following the details of leaked emails becoming public. That seemingly ended Gruden’s relationship with the team and Glazer family until Sunday.

Rick Stroud of The Tampa Bay Times shared that Gruden was visiting with former players and the Glazer family on the sidelines before the Bucs game against the 49ers.

Obviously, stating that everything is all well and good may be premature, but Gruden has been working his way back into the public spotlight. He has launched a YouTube channel where he provides coaching breakdowns and discusses current topics related to the NFL.

Gruden brothers love Commanders QB Jayden Daniels

The two former NFL head coaches love watching Jayden Daniels.

Jay Gruden spent almost six seasons as head coach of the then-Washington Redskins before he was fired in 2019, making him the most successful coach of the Daniel Snyder era. The legendary Joe Gibbs coached for only four years in his second stint before walking away, but he led Washington to two playoff berths.

These days, Gruden is an analyst covering Washington and the rest of the NFL. Gruden roots for the Commanders now that Snyder is no longer the team’s owner.

Like everyone else, Gruden is a huge fan of Washington rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels. After the Commanders blew out Arizona on Sunday, Gruden tweeted the following.

 

Jay Gruden isn’t the only one in his family who is a fan of Daniels. His older brother, Jon, the former Super Bowl-winning coach of the Buccaneers and Raiders, revealed uniquely how much he enjoys Daniels.

 

On Monday, Jay Gruden joined “Grant and Danny” of 106.7 The Fan for his weekly spot and discussed Daniels.

Regardless of what anyone thinks of the Gruden’s, they know offense. And they are huge fans of Washington’s new signal-caller.

 

Drew Brees previews Saints-Cowboys with Jon Gruden

Drew Brees previewed this week’s Saints-Cowboys game with ex-NFL coach Jon Gruden. He doesn’t envy Derek Carr having to prepare for Mike Zimmer’s defense:

Jon Gruden has been out of the NFL for a few years now after being fired by the Las Vegas Raiders in the wake of a scandal centering on his extensive use of hateful language, and he’s keeping busy these days by talking shop with current and former players when the New Orleans Saints aren’t inviting him to observe practice and sitting down with him for team meals in Tampa.

Gruden still has a lot of connections and fans around the league. His old quarterback Derek Carr is one of them. Another Saints quarterback, Drew Brees, is another. Brees joined Gruden on his YouTube channel to discuss a wide range of topics including youth football, fatherhood, and this week’s matchup with the Dallas Cowboys.

Brees visited the Saints at their training camp in Southern California, and he’s eager to see more of their offense with Klint Kubiak calling plays into Carr’s headset: “I love what that offense brings, both in the run game and I think the mentality, the way it shapes up the play action the passing game as well. I think there’s a renewed enthusiasm there. I think Derek’s about to have some of his best years. He’s got some explosive weapons around him.”

Interestingly, Brees pointed to what the Saints are doing now in comparison to what he and Sean Payton did back in 2006. Just like Payton learned much from Gruden as a coaching mentor in adapting the West Coast offense for his own designs, Kubiak is making Kyle Shanahan’s system his own in New Orleans. “It came from the same source, right?” Brees added.

As to this matchup in Dallas? Brees is hoping Carr can build on his strong performance: “That’ll be a heck of a matchup. I’ll be glued to the TV for that one.”

One wrinkle to this year’s game Gruden pointed out? Mike Zimmer’s return to Dallas. He’s once again the Cowboys defensive coordinator after a couple of seasons out of the league, running the defense where he first rose to prominence as Payton’s coworker so many years ago. And Brees doesn’t envy Carr and Kubiak having to outwit a defensive coach he has a ton of respect for.

“I’ll say this, we played against Zim a bunch. And there was never a week I expended more mental energy preparing for a defense than a Zimmer defense,” Brees said. “Because just like you said, the minute they walk those two linebackers up in the A gaps, even if they’re just bluffing them, it gets you thinking so much about, ‘Where can I get the ball out? What coverage are they potentially rolling to?'”

That sounds exhausting just from the description. What’s really intriguing about the Kubiak-Zimmer chess match is that Kubiak last worked as an offensive coordinator calling plays under Zimmer on the Minnesota Vikings. But the offense he’s running now is more heavily derived from Shanahan’s San Francisco 49ers system than what Kubiak used in Minnesota, so it’s not like either coach has an inside track on what the other is planning. It’s all going to come to a head on Sunday. Like Brees (and Gruden), we’ll be watching.

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Disgraced former Raiders head coach Jon Gruden is back with his own show

Jon Gruden is back. And he’s got his own show again.

I guess enough time has passed since Jon Gruden was run out of the NFL because he has resurfaced and is back in the spotlight.

The former Raiders and Bucs head coach and Monday Night Football analyst was most recently seen in Chiefs camp, decked out in Chiefs gear as a guest of head coach Andy Reid. Ok, they’re friends from back in their days together in Philadelphia with the Eagles.

Well, turns out that was just Gruden dipping his toe in the water. And now he thinks he’s ready to jump in head first.

Gruden announced Thursday that he will be hosting a new show on Youtube called Gruden Loves Football. The first episode is already up.

https://twitter.com/GrudenLovesFB/status/1831679384559784120

It was six years ago that Gruden left the Monday Night Football booth to take the Raiders job — the same one he had held for four years from 1998-2001.

Gruden was in year four of his 10-year, $100 million deal when several racist, sexist, and homophobic emails came out between him and a Washington executive during Gruden’s time in the MNF chair, leading to his forced resignation.

Whether he’s forgiven for what he said — or for his terrible mismanagement of the Raiders — will be up to the viewing public to decide.

Jon Gruden believes the Lamar Jackson-Derrick Henry combination will be nightmare to defend

Jon Gruden posted a YouTube video breaking down the potential of the Lamar Jackson-Derrick Henry backfield combination this season.

Former NFL head coach Jon Gruden posted a video on his new YouTube channel in which he used a whiteboard to illustrate the tremendous potential of the Lamar Jackson-Derrick Henry backfield combination this season.

Gruden, the lead announcer for Monday Night Football in between coaching stops, is pretty excited about what the Ravens offense could do with the zone read.

Gruden drew a zone read series play on the board, describing how difficult it would be for the Kansas City Chiefs to account for Henry and Jackson simultaneously.

He summarized it like this: “So that combination of Derrick Henry going one way and Lamar Jackson going the other way, good God! I wouldn’t want to be a part of (trying to defend) that!”

Many consider Cam Newton the greatest dual-threat quarterback of all time, but two months ago, he expressed his belief that Jackson has already surpassed him in this regard.

Northwestern starting quarterback Mike Wright was tutored directly by Newton while attending the legendary quarterback’s 7-on-7 camps in high school. Wright believes that Jackson and Newton are on their own elevated plane when it comes to quarterback speed.

“It’s easy to fall in love with how fast a quarterback is,” Wright said in an exclusive interview published for RG.”

“I’ve heard it my entire career, whenever you see a quarterback run as fast as he can- you’re like, ‘oh my god, this guy is fast.’ That’s the first thing you think about whenever you read a scouting report on myself or Lamar, you think about how fast he is and what he can do in the run game.

“That’s what makes guys like Lamar and Cam (Newton) such a threat; they also beat you with their arm.”

Wright, who ran track at Mississippi State before transferring to NU, is right- whenever a quarterback is lightning fast, it just overshadows all their other skill sets, including those in the passing game.

And the addition of Henry, a four-time Pro Bowler and two-time NFL rushing champ, provides the thunder to supplement Jackson’s lightning.

“The other thing is they got Derrick freaking Henry, good luck tackling this guy,” Gruden added.

“Let’s say you’re an unblocked safety and you’re in the hole. You’ve got nobody blocking ya, you’ve just got to tackle Derrick Henry.

“You want that job? You ain’t gonna sign up for that.”

After a long offseason of speculation and forecasting, we finally see what this potentially lethal backfield combination looks like Thursday night in Kansas City. 

Gruden’s anticipation and excitement are very much reflective of most of the Ravens’ fanbase.

The Athletic’s QB rankings put Derek Carr at the bottom of Tier 3

The Athletic ranks Saints quarterback Derek Carr at the bottom of Tier 3 among the NFL’s starting quarterbacks, and second-worst in the NFC South:

The New Orleans Saints quarterback situation has been the subject of controversy pretty much ever since Derek Carr signed with the team  last offseason. Some fans swear up and down he is going to return to form and be a top 10-to-15 quarterback that the Saints need, others insist he is the worst player on the team and should be replaced. It’s tough to find many takes that fall in the middle ground.

Ultimately the reality is somewhere between, and that might be the case for Carr in these quarterback rankings from The Athletic’s Mike Sando. They put Carr on the lower end of their rating system. Here is their blurb about the Saints quarterback, where he ranks in Tier 3, and why:

Carr’s No. 20 ranking ties for his worst in 10 Tiers appearances. His 3.00 average is his worst since 2015, when Carr was entering his second season and on the upswing.

“He’s a 3 without (Jon) Gruden,” an offensive coach said. “Gruden could carry the mantel of all the leadership, where Carr could just snuggle up under the umbrella of Gruden. He is exposed now. He is the umbrella. It’s not comfortable. That takes away from his production.”

Carr’s statistics from last season aligned with Mayfield’s. Both led teams that finished 9-8. But voters see Carr as a declining player lacking the intangibles they think are strengths for Mayfield.

“We talk like Baker is some revitalization story,” a head coach said. “No, Baker has taken two teams to division titles. Derek Carr was in that same NFC South division with a better defense.”

The Saints ranked ninth and the Buccaneers were 18th last season in EPA per play on defense, per TruMedia.

“What holds (Carr) back is a lack of toughness in the pocket, and some of his decision making within the scheme,” another exec said.

According to their ranking system, Carr is tied for No. 20 on the list with Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith, which in my eyes is… honestly not the worst comparison of talent. However, Carr ranks second-worst in the NFC South among the starting quarterbacks. He’s behind new addition Kirk Cousins (No. 13) and Baker Mayfield (No. 19), but ahead of Bryce Young (No.28). Out of the 30 starters listed, Cousins was the only one from the NFC South to make it into their “Tier 2” category, with the remainder falling below that mark.

Ultimately, this placement for Carr is not unjustified. Even if he does take a step forward this year, he has not done it yet, and the criticisms provided are generally an accurate assessment. Hopefully better days are on the horizon for Carr, for the sake of the Saints. But if not, who knows what the outcome of the team is for the 2024 season and potentially even beyond.

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All Pro receiver Raiders should have drafted gets record new deal

All Pro receiver Raiders should have drafted gets record new deal

Today the Cowboys backed up the Brinks truck for CeeDee Lamb. The All Pro receiver just got a record signing bonus while becoming the second highest paid non-QB in NFL history

Lamb is coming off an All Pro season and his third Pro Bowl season. He caught 135 passes for 1749 yards last season and has improved his receiving numbers each of his seasons in the NFL.

When Lamb came out of Oklahoma in 2020, he was easily the best receiver in that draft. The team with the highest draft position and a need at wide receiver was the Raiders. For that reason, I had him as the pick by the Raiders in my mock draft that year. But Jon Gruden was smarter. He took Alabama’s Henry Ruggs III at 12 overall. Yeah, Mike Mayock was the GM, but we all know Gruden was calling the shots on those top picks.

Now, we know the cautionary tale that Ruggs’s life became. He’s in prison for killing a woman and her dog while driving drunk. But this isn’t about Ruggs. This is about Lamb. And how much of a no-brainer pick he was at the time and has proven to be ever since.

To be fair, the Broncos also overthought this. They chose Ruggs’s Alabama teammate Jerry Jeudy three picks later at 15 overall. Leaving Lamb to fall right into the laps of the Cowboys at 17 overall. A gift from the overthinking brainiacs ahead of them in the draft.

Saints backup quarterback Jake Haener starts strong at Day 1 of OTAs

New Orleans Saints backup quarterback Jake Haener started strong at Day 1 of organized team activities:

The New Orleans Saints came into this offseason with a void at the backup quarterback position, when Jameis Winston elected to sign with the Cleveland Browns. It was reported that the team did make an effort to sign veteran Joe Flacco who would’ve served that role well, but he also decided to take his talents elsewhere.

After signing quarterback Nathan Peterman and Kellen Mond before drafting Spencer Rattler, it was clear that the pressure of filling this role was on a specific someone in that room. Jake Haener was on notice.

And he just might be living up to those expectations.

Haener, last year’s fourth-round pick, put on a stellar performance at Day 1 of organized team activities on Tuesday. Haener spent the day mostly with the second-string offense, completing a couple of highlight throws to receivers A.T. Perry and Chris Olave. He also had a nice connection with rookie tight end Dallin Holker.

It was reported earlier in the offseason that there is a strong belief in Haener’s abilities when it comes to the Saints front office. Haener also spent a good amount of time with former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden this offseason in an attempt to absorb knowledge from the offensive guru.

Many of us discounted Haener with the excitement behind Rattler, but we might just want to pump the brakes and see if Haener can build on this. There are many months ahead, and these are only unpadded practices in May, but he’s off to an impressive start.

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