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For the first time since Jon Gruden came back to the Raiders, it sounds like they are comfortable with Derek Carr as the starting quarterback. There’s been endless chatter for years about how the team is going to move on from their quarterback but nothing has happened. This offseason has been more of the same. There’s been talk of the Raiders going after Deshaun Watson, Russell Wilson and even Aaron Rodgers.
Well, based on numerous reports that have recently come out, Carr is going to stay with the team and could even get a contract extension. There’s been an unfounded rumor over the years that Carr and Gruden don’t get along. However, Jon’s brother Jay Gruden dropped some insight on that narrative.
“Jon has never spoken a poor word about Derek Carr,” Gruden said on the Keyshawn, JWill, and Zubin Show. “I don’t know where this narrative came from that Jon doesn’t like Derek or wants to get rid of Derek. I know he loves Derek, that’s for sure.”
Jay is a fellow coach so it’s reasonable to believe that the brothers would chat about Carr from time to time. At this point, nobody should be that surprised that Jon Gruden is a fan of his quarterback.
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No Reason to Believe Carr & Gruden Don’t Get Along
There have been plenty of analysts and insiders who have run with the narrative that Carr and Gruden don’t get along. While it was sometimes presented as a fact, it’s now looking it was always just based on speculation. There’s no reason to believe that there was ever a point in which Gruden and Carr didn’t get along.
Analysts always talk about the coach’s “wandering eye” for quarterbacks but they always fail to mention that he’s never had a quarterback as good as Carr to work with. Perhaps he only had a wandering eye in the past because he never found a permanent solution at football’s most important position.
Gruden Tying Himself to Carr
If the rumors are true and the Raiders do give Carr a contract extension, Gruden is showing a ton of faith in the quarterback. The coach is now almost two decades removed from his only Super Bowl win. He didn’t leave a cushy job at ESPN just to miss the playoffs every years.
He came back to the NFL to win championships and cement his legacy. If he retired today, Gruden would go down as one of the league’s all-time great characters but nobody would consider him one of the great coaches. If he can turn the Raiders around and bring them a Super Bowl or two, then he’ll go down in history as one of the greats. The only way he’s going to make that happen is if he has a great quarterback. It remains to be seen if Carr can get the Raiders over the hump but it’s sounding like Gruden believes he can.
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