There’s a lot of speculation right now as to whether Jon Gruden will leave his post at Monday Night Football to come back to coaching. Even though it’s a much easier gig and allows him more flexibility and time to spend with family and friends, it’s pretty much understood by everyone that former coaches that end up on TV want back in the game, if given the right opportunity.
Gruden’s name was linked to the Dallas Cowboys and just recently down in South Florida, but not with the Miami Dolphins. He’s having to dodge and deflect questions about whether or not he’ll accept the position of being the next head coach of the University of Miami Hurricanes football team.
I don’t believe for a second that he would wait all that time analyzing the X’s and O’s of Monday Night Football to come back to a mid-level college contender, but it did get me thinking about what possibilities should be out there once the NFL Season is over.
So, here are my Top 5 choices for where Coach Gruden will have a chance to end up. I don’t have any more insider knowledge than you do, but thought I would do this just for fun. Here we go…
5) Carolina Panthers
The Panthers have been just awful this year. They don’t seem to have a quarterback of the future. They running game that they relied heavily on over the past couple of years has withered away. There was even speculation of head coach John Fox sabotaging his own team by putting in stay-at-home dad Brian St. Pierre as the starting quarterback for a game over a draft choice because he wanted one counter shot before they inevitably let him go.
Gruden will want to go somewhere where he has a chance to work with talent that could possibly win right away. Carolina does not fit the bill here at all. The loss of Julius Peppers to the Bears via free agency last off-season sapped away any talent that they had on defence and we already talked about the inefficiencies on offence.
4) Denver Broncos
Josh McDaniels wanted to put his stamp on the Denver Broncos the second that he arrived there a year and a half ago. The stamping began with the trade to send Jay Cutler to Chicago in exchange for Kyle Orton and picks. Then he let Brandon Marshall go to Miami. He traded away Peyton Hillis to the Browns. He’s put a stamp on this alright. A stamp of failure.
The moves by McDaniels have made this team largely ineffective, particularly in the offence. The Broncos defence was severely hampered this year with the loss of Elvis Dumervil to a season-ending injury in the pre-season, but there’s still not enough talent here for Gruden to be lured from his cushy TV gig.
3) Arizona Cardinals
It’s hard to imagine that the loss of two guys can make such a huge difference to a football team, but the Cards look like a shell of their former selves without Kurt Warner to lead them at the quarterback spot and Anquan Boldin to make the tough catches as their top wide receiver. We always knew the Cards had no running game, but it’s being exposed this year like never before.
Ken Whisenhunt looks to have lost his magic with this club and is in major danger of losing his job at the end of the year. I just don’t see the personnel here being a right fit for what Gruden preaches to his players. A Jon Gruden team is full of toughness and heart and the Cards seem to have a lot of guys that like to float by and are almost OK with losing. Just don’t question Derek Anderson about laughing when down 18 in the 4th quarter.
2) Dallas Cowboys
Jerry Jones will certainly be the one to offer the most money and it would be a huge feather in the cap of any coach’s career to be the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. However, there are two hurdles that have to be jumped before Gruden can become coach of this football team.
First, we’re assuming that Jason Garrett doesn’t get the job after his 8 game audition as the interim head coach. In the first three games of the test, the Cowboys have looked much closer to the Super Bowl contender we thought they were. Garrett was supposed to be the successor to Phillips and was paid handsomely by Jones to be the offensive co-ordinator. Let’s not push Garrett out the door just yet.
Secondly, Gruden strikes me as someone that will not tolerate Jerry Jones telling him what to do and how to run his football team. However, it’s hard to shut out the owner completely when he also holds the title of General Manager. Gruden did have a meddling owner in Al Davis when he coached the Raiders in the late 90’s, but Gruden is in a much different spot now. He needed that job because it was his first shot. He doesn’t need this job now because as a Super Bowl winner, he can command more money, power and respect.
1) Cincinnati Bengals
Part of me says that I’ve completely lost my mind by putting the Bengals at the top of this list, but I’m going to stick to my guns here. Even though they’re a 2-9 football team, they’re loaded with talent and it’s clear that they’ve tuned out Marvin Lewis. They're in desperate need of someone that’s going to grab them by the neck and demand accountability.
I would suspect that if the Bengals ever felt like they could get Gruden’s services, they would bow down to him and give him anything he wanted in order to coerce him to Ohio. Keep in mind as well that he was born in Ohio and it would be a homecoming of sorts for him.
I think we can all agree that no matter where he ends up, he’s going to instantly make that football team better and be back where he belongs. Gruden deserves to be on the sidelines, if he wants it, and not in the booth talking about what’s happening on the sidelines.