How can Jon Gruden help the Saints? And is he worth the trouble? Saints Insider discusses

How can Jon Gruden help the Saints? And is he worth the trouble? Saints Insider discusses

Jon Gruden

The NOLA.com experts Jeff Duncan, Luke Johnson, Rod Walker, and Matthew Paras talked about the rumor that the New Orleans Saints are thinking about hiring Jon Gruden to their coaching staff on Wednesday’s Saints Insider podcast.

As the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Gruden won the Super Bowl in 2002 and guided the team to five postseason appearances in his fourteen complete seasons. In the past, while both players were with the Las Vegas Raiders, he collaborated with quarterback Derek Carr of the Saints.

But Gruden resigned from the Raiders in the middle of the 2021 season after a league investigation unveiled emails Gruden had sent while working for ESPN that included racist, homophobic and misogynistic slurs. Gruden is suing the league over damages to his reputation from the scandal.

So what should Saints fans make of Gruden hanging around the team? How can he help Carr and the team’s offense reach its potential? And given his baggage, is that worth it to the Saints?

Here’s a portion of the Saints Insider conversation. For the complete discussion and much more on the Saints beginning their off season, check out the Saints on NOLA.com YouTube channel.

 

Luke Johnson: The Saints are not afraid to ruffle some feathers in the NFL league office. But before we get to Gruden as a person and some of the stuff that has got him out of the league right now, let’s talk about this from a pure football standpoint. If you really look at this, Gruden is known as an offensive mind, and if you look at it deeper, Derek Carr had probably his two best professional seasons with Gruden as his play-caller.

Matthew Paras:Yes, he has shown innovation. Of course, there are several offensive styles. Although I believe this method has a lot of West Coast ideas, he tends to get the best performance out of his players. The reason it’s worked so well with Carr is intriguing since Jon Gruden has a history of quarterback instability due to his high expectations for the position. However, I believe Carr would be a good fit. If he were to come, I believe he would have some talent to work with on this squad.

There are some pros on it, but I don’t know if it’s that much of a benefit to outweigh the social aspect of it.

LJ: So let’s talk about that. Gruden has been out of the league since midway through the 2021 season. He resigned because of a series of emails that leaked in the New York Times, and prior to that, some racially disparaging comments about DeMaurice Smith. Look, my stance on this is that the comments should be despicable to anybody hearing those. But then you’re talking about bringing a guy like that into an NFL roster where the vast majority of this roster is African-American. You’re talking about coming into this city that is a majority Black city? I think that’s a tough sell.

Rod Walker:

I believe the Saints will need to answer this if they decide to take this action. Move ahead of it. Don’t just let him in here on false pretenses that nothing occurred. They need to deal with it, whether that means saying, “Hey, we sat down and talked to Jon about this,” or doing something else entirely. I think they just need to take something.

When Gruden was brought in as a consultant, I recall asking the guys during training camp what they thought of it. It appeared as though they were okay with it. Although it’s possible that players weren’t fully aware of what some of the emails said or anything, I believe in.