Tag: Oakland Raiders

Saints bring in Jon Gruden to help mold offense around Derek Carr

The Saints brought in Jon Gruden to help mold their offense around Derek Carr, via @southexclusives:

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New Orleans Saints coach Dennis Allen was a big reason people linked quarterback Derek Carr to the Saints after his release from the Las Vegas Raiders. Allen drafted Carr in 2014 during his first head coaching stint. One of the reasons the Saints might have been the best location for Carr is his familiarity with the offensive system. This system is most similar to the one Carr ran between 2018 and the beginning of the 2021 season with Jon Gruden.

Gruden’s tenure with the team was abruptly cut short after emails of his were leaked to the public. Those email contained anti-gay and racist remarks. That was week 5 of the 2021 season and the last time the football world had heard of Gruden, until now. The Saints made the questionable decision to invite Gruden to the facility to help mold the offense around Carr. Is this a baby step for Gruden easing back into the NFL? Only time will tell. 

Gruden was brought in because Carr has previously stated he feels his best work came when paired with Gruden. It’s easy to see why he would feel that way. Between 2018 to 2020, Carr’s passing yards and touchdowns increased each season. His completion percentage and passer rating in those years were also some of the best in his career.

Carr’s past experience makes switching teams “not as big of a curve as it could be in a different system or a different offense.” The majority of learning for Carr will be understanding the slight differences between the systems and getting adjusted to new teammates. Though the system he’ll be in may feel familiar, it isn’t a carbon copy. There will still be some concepts that are new to him and slight terminology differences he will need to adjust to. He’s also been studying and working with his teammates to better understand how they can maximize their connection.

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Giants acquire TE Darren Waller: 5 things to know

Here are five key things to know about the New York Giants’ newly acquired tight end Darren Waller

The New York Giants acquired Pro Bowl tight end Darren Waller from the Las Vegas Raiders on Tuesday afternoon in exchange for a third-round selection in the upcoming draft.

Here are five things to know about the Giants’ newest tight end:

6 actors (Jesse Plemons!) who should play John Madden in Tom Brady’s limited series

A limited series about legendary NFL coach and broadcaster John Madden is in the works.

The life and times of late NFL legend John Madden are heading to a television near you in the future.

A limited series about the accomplished coach and broadcaster is on the way from filmmaker Gavin O’Connor and executive producer/newly retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady.

While you can guess what Brady brings to the table, O’Connor has plenty of experience telling sports-based stories, having directed the Disney hockey drama Miracle, the MMA drama Warrior and the Ben Affleck-led basketball drama The Way Back.

While a broadcasting home and casting have yet to be finalized, Brady spoke to why he’s so engaged with working on the project (via Deadline).

“I grew up admiring John Madden, first as a coach, then as a commentator. I loved John’s passion for the game, especially his insatiable appetite for educating audiences about football. He welcomed fans with that warm smile, infectious laugh, and exceptional knowledge of the game, making everyone feel as if John were watching the broadcast right next to them on their living room sofa.”

The major question now is who will play Madden in the project?

Whether it’s Oakland Raiders-era Madden or Monday Night Football-era Madden, we’ve got some ideas for who might lead the project.

Ohio State football class of 2023 scouting report: Noah Rogers

Ohio State football class of 2023 scouting report: Noah Rogers #GoBucks

The Ohio State football recruiting class of 2023 is complete and despite some murmurs of negativity in the crowd, this class is fantastic from top to bottom. One of the gems of the class is a four-star wide receiver from the state of North Carolina in Noah Rogers.

Rogers is widely viewed as a top 40 recruit in the class and a top ten receiver overall, but as we previously discussed with Brandon Inniss, it is going to be extremely tough for a wide receiver to crack the lineup in this deep two-deep early in their career, but Rogers has enough talent to be a meaningful contributor early.

Name: Noah Rogers

High School: Rolesville (Rolesville, NC)

Height: 6 feet, 2 inches

Weight: 195 pounds

4-Star Wide Receiver

Charles Woodson: Despite many accolades one regret was not winning Super Bowl with Raiders

Even with his long list of accomplishments there’s one thing Charles Woodson wishes he could’ve done: ‘winning a Super Bowl with the Raiders’

You won’t see another resume as impressive as Charles Woodson’s. That’s not opinion, it’s a fact. No other man on earth has checked all these boxes:

Heisman Trophy
College Football National Championship
NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year
NFL Defensive Player of the Year
Super Bowl ring
Pro Football Hall of Fame

That means he’s won at every level, both on a team level as well as every personal award possible.

But even with all that, there was one thing that eluded Woodson in his career.

“Winning a Super Bowl with the Raiders,” Woodson said without hesitation. “I feel like that’s the one thing that got away from me, man. To be able to win a Super Bowl in the Silver & Black, man, if I could’ve accomplished that, on top of all the other things – and don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining – but, man, to have won it with the team that drafted me…Getting there was great, but, man, if we could’ve closed that deal, I would’ve definitely said ‘You know what, I did it all.”

Woodson got close to helping the Raiders to a Super Bowl win a few times. First in 2000 when the Raiders made it to the AFC Championship game, but lost to the Ravens.

Then the following year when Woodson forced the would-be game-ending fumble on Tom Brady only to have it overturned by the improper implementation of the now defunct Tuck Rule.

Then finally in 2002 when the Raiders made it to the Super Bowl only to face their old coach Jon Gruden.

The Raiders fell off after that and a few years later, Woodson would be allowed to leave in free agency to sign with the Packers. That’s where he would eventually get his ring in 2010.

Getting his ring came a year after Woodson won Defensive Player of the Year. And a year later, at the age of 36, Woodson was asked to switch to safety, which for many defensive backs, signaled the end of his career.

But not for Woodson. He had unfinished business.

Woodson returned to the Raiders at the age of 37 and played three more seasons before finally stepping away from the game.

Right to the end, even with nothing left to prove, Woodson was not going to go out with a whimper.

“Making it through that season was a feat in its own self,” Woodson said of his final NFL season. “In that first game I dislocated my shoulder, and then the third game of the season, playing against the Browns, I suffered a grade two MCL sprain and, man, every day from that game forward… And then even against the Bears, I suffered a left shoulder sprain, and, aw man, it was hard each and every game to get myself in position to practice, just the little bit that I could practice to go into the game and still have to play at a high level and to go through all that and to actually in my 18th year, make a Pro Bowl, having gone through all that, I feel like that was a career all wrapped up into that 16-game schedule.”

“I just kept telling myself… I’m not going to spend my last season on the sideline.”

Though all that, Woodson would make his ninth Pro Bowl at the age 39 and at a second position before riding off into the sunset.

He obviously never got to hoist the Lombardi Trophy in Silver & Black. But he gave everything he had to the team that drafted him. From the moment he set foot on an NFL to the day he left it for the last time.

He may have took a trip to Green Bay for a time to get his ring, but he has never really left the Raiders.

Kyle Long nearly quit Bears at halftime vs. Raiders following blowup with Matt Nagy in 2019

Kyle Long shares new details about his Bears exit in 2019 after their game against the Raiders that included a verbal spat with Matt Nagy.

It’s been about three and a half years since Kyle Long last played for the Chicago Bears but he’s sharing interesting details about his departure from the team and it wasn’t pretty.

The former offensive lineman spent seven years with the Bears before he was unceremoniously placed on injured reserve following a Week 5 loss to the Las Vegas/Oakland Raiders during the 2019 season and never played a down for the navy and orange again.

Long hinted at what had gone down near the end of the year in some tweets and later revealed the Bears placed him on injured reserve due to his ineffectiveness on the field thanks to wear and tear on his body after so many years.

The decision wasn’t exactly Long’s choice, but he understood the nature of the business after struggling in that game against the Raiders. Now years later, Long shared exactly what went down that led to his departure and it’s a lot uglier than initially thought.

Speaking during a live broadcast on the Green Light Podcast, hosted by his brother Chris, Long revealed he nearly quit the team at halftime of that game after head coach Matt Nagy chewed him and his teammates out.

We were playing the Raiders and we were getting our asses whooped and we were in [the locker room] at halftime. Our head coach Matt Nagy, God bless him, he looks at the o-line and says ‘you guys are playing like some gutless, quiet [expletive]’ and he’s staring me in the eyeballs.

I stood up in the middle of the halftime and I just walked out. I made it about 50 yards down the hallway, and you know how long those hallways are, and our security guard goes ‘Kyle, come on man. Not like this.’ I had to ride eight hours home in first class on the way home. Because I’m a starter, they got me up with the coach. I sat across the aisle from Matt Nagy and his wife for eight hours the whole way.

They told me ‘do not come back to the building.’

 

Nagy’s message may not have been appreciated, but the team did show more fight in the second half of that game after being chewed out. Down 17-0 at halftime, Chicago scored 21 points in the third quarter, but fell at the end of the game, losing 24-21. Since leaving the Bears, Long has taken shots at Nagy on multiple occasions. It became clear he wasn’t a fan of the former Bears head coach, but this revelation took that notion to a new level.

Long retired following the 2019 season for one year and came back in 2021 to play with the Kansas City Chiefs, then hung up his cleats for good in 2022. Even though it’s been years since he and Nagy have shared a locker room, he still has strong feelings about how he was let go from the Bears.

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Upcoming ‘The Perfect 10’ documentary features 3 Raiders greats to go from Heisman to Hall

Only 10 people have ever won a Heisman and gone onto the Hall of Fame. And 3 of them are Raiders greats. Set your DVRs Raider Nation.

“This is an amazing feat, man. Only ten guys have been able to accomplish this. More men have walked the moon than to have been able to accomplish what we’ve accomplished,” said Tim Brown in front of six other NFL legends to open the upcoming FOX documentary ‘The Perfect 10’.

Those seven legends all have something special in common. They’re being called ‘The Perfect 10’ because they make up the ten men in the world have hoisted both the Heisman Trophy and have a bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

‘The Perfect 10’ will premiere on FOX this Saturday, February 11 at 5 pm Pacific (8pm ET). And if you’re a Raiders fan, you will want to set your DVR.

No team is more well represented in this exclusive club than the Raiders.

Of the seven NFL legends in that room, three are Raiders greats.

The first to join the club was Marcus Allen. Then it was Tim Brown in 2015. And Charles Woodson completed the ten in 2021.

“To have this individual type of accomplishment and to have it be so few who have done it is really mind boggling, you know,” Woodson told Raiders Wire. “I was thinking earlier about the amount of kids who played little league football, high school football, college football, the few that make it to the NFL, and then to just carve that down to just ten guys that have done something like that with the history of the game, that is really quite amazing and hard to put it into words.”

Woodson said as a kid he had imagined himself winning the Heisman Trophy and winning championships (something he also did) but the Hall of Fame was not something he grew up imagining. And even the Heisman seemed out of reach once he switched to defense at Michigan.

“When I got to college and chose to play defense, that dream was pretty much…that was a wrap. Because defensive players don’t win that award,” Woodson said of his Heisman hopes. “So, for me to get to my junior year and to have the success we had as a team, to make the plays at the right time that I made as an individual player, when those things start to happen, that’s when it’s like ‘oh man’ and that dream that was kind of a fleeting thought in my mind was back. . . Then to be invited to the ceremony and ultimately have my name called, holy cow, that was an incredible moment.”

The four other NFL legends on hand for ‘The Perfect 10’ include Earl Campbell, Tony Dorsett, Barry Sanders, and Roger Staubach. The three not present are OJ Simpson, and Doak Walker (deceased), and Paul Hornung (deceased).

Irish in the NFL: Las Vegas Raiders Bring Back Te’Von Coney

the Raiders announced they would be bringing back former Notre Dame star Te’Von Coney on a reserve/futures contract

The Oakland Raiders officially became the Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday as an incredible history officially came to an end with a new era for both the franchise and the NFL now set to begin.

Friday saw just slightly less significant news as the Raiders announced they would be bringing back former Notre Dame star Te’Von Coney on a reserve/futures contract.

Coney didn’t make the Raiders roster in 2019 but was a part their practice squad after being signed as an un-drafted free agent last spring.

Coney had a monstrous final two seasons at Notre Dame recording 239 tackles, 21 which were for loss between 2017 and 2018, two years the Fighting Irish went a combined 22-4.

Remembering Franco Harris and the Immaculate Reception in all its brilliance

Franco Harris’ death comes two days before the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception

Franco Harris died on Wednesday, two days before the 50th anniversary of the “Immaculate Reception.”

The Pittsburgh Steelers planned on honoring Harris on Saturday when they play the Las Vegas Raiders by retiring the running back’s No. 32.

On Dec. 23, 1972, the Oakland Raiders and Steelers met in a playoff game.

Oakland led 7-6 by virtue of a 30-yard touchdown run by quarterback Ken Stabler. It was the longest run of Stabler’s NFL career, whether in the regular season or postseason.

The Steelers were down to their last play, a fourth-and 10 from their 40, when the incredible occurred.

Harris, after initially blocking on the play, had run downfield in case Terry Bradshaw needed another eligible receiver. After Bradshaw threw the pass towards John Fuqua, Harris recounted the advice of his college football coach Joe Paterno, who always told his players “Go to the ball.”

Harris, in the vicinity of the deflected pass, scooped up the sailing ball just before it hit the ground. Harris ran past Raiders linebacker Gerald Irons, while linebacker Phil Villapiano, who had been covering Harris, was blocked by Steelers tight end John McMakin. Harris used a stiff arm to ward off Raiders defensive back Jimmy Warren, and went in for a touchdown.

It took 15 minutes for the officials to rule the play a touchdown. In 1972, and for many years prior, an offensive player could not touch or catch a football if the previous person to touch it was a fellow offensive player.

That rule has changed over the course of time.

Roy Gerela kicked the extra point and the Steelers had an unforgettable 13-7 playoff victory.

For years, it was debated whether the Steelers’ Fuqua or the Raiders’ Jack Tatum had created the deflection.

The Immaculate Reception was called the greatest play in NFL history during the league’s 100th season.

Franco Harris: Hall of Fame running back passes away at 72

Harris’ final season in 1984 was spent as a member of the Seattle Seahawks.

On Wednesday morning the NFL world awoke to the heartbreaking news that Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris passed away at the age of 72. Harris was one the most dominant running backs of the 1970’s, and became one of the faces of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ dynasty.

Although 11 of his 12 years in the NFL were with the Steelers, Harris’ final season in 1984 was spent as a member of the Seattle Seahawks.

Harris won four Super Bowls during the 70’s, and even took home MVP honors in Super Bowl IX. But what he will be remembered for is his role in the legendary Immaculate Reception.

The Immaculate Reception is easily the most iconic – and controversial – play in NFL history. Trailing the Oakland Raiders by a score of 7-6 with only 0:22 seconds left to play, the Steelers were facing 4th-and-10 at their own 40 yard line. Quarterback Terry Bradshaw, scrambling to avoid the sack, heaved the ball to Oakland’s 35 yard line, targeting Steelers running back John “Frenchy” Fuqua. What happened next is where history was made.

Fuqua was met immediately by Raiders safety Jack Tatum just as the ball got there. As the two players collided, the ball was bounced back and landed in the waiting arms of Franco Harris who happened to be in the right place at the right time. Harris then ran the ball for a touchdown to give the Steelers a 13-7 win.

What makes it so controversial is the question of who the ball actually touched first. In 1972, the rules at the time made it illegal for two offensive players to touch the football in succession. If the ball bounced off Raiders safety Jack Tatum, the play would have been fine. But if it hit Fuqua, the play should have been blown dead and ruled an incomplete pass. The film has been studied to an almost Zapruder-esque level, but 50 years later, it’s still just as unclear as ever.

Whatever the truth may be, the only thing that matters is it’s place in NFL history. The mystery and speculation surrounding the Immaculate Reception is part of what makes it so legendary.

The timing of death never great, but what will make hearts in the Steel City heavier is the fact the Steelers are going to be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Immaculate Reception. While Harris will unfortunately be unable to be apart of the festivities, he will be there in spirit. Fans across the country know Harris will live on in memory as long as football is played.

The story of the NFL cannot be told without the Immaculate Reception… or Franco Harris.

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