Here’s a portion of the Saints Insider conversation. For the complete discussion and much more on the Saints beginning their offseason, check out the Saints on sportupdates.co.uk

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.

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.

Now, in my opinion, everyone who hears those remarks ought to find them abhorrent. However, you’re talking about adding a player of that calibre to an NFL team that is predominately made up of African Americans. Are you referring to entering this predominantly Black city? That seems like a hard sell to me.

Rod Walker: I think it’s something that if the Saints make this move, they have to address it. Get in front of it. Don’t just sneak him in here and act like none of this stuff happened. They have to address it, if that means they say, “Hey, we sat down and talked to Jon about this,” or whatever they have to do, they just have to get in front of it, I feel like.

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. I believe that might be okay in the locker room, even though it’s possible that players weren’t fully aware of what some of the emails stated or anything. However, I do believe that, should he arrive, it must be resolved beforehand.

There’s undoubtedly a lot of smoke there, and I can understand why there could be interest purely from a football perspective. He would instill an alpha mindset in the offensive coaching staff, enabling them to

It would resemble what Gregg Williams did to the defence in 2009 in many respects, with Dennis Allen essentially taking over as head coach of the offence, much like Sean Payton did with Gregg Williams. And that year, it succeeded in leading to a Super Bowl.

However, Jon Gruden comes with a lot of baggage. There are numerous.

MP: A few things: Just because Gruden is suing the league doesn’t mean the Saints can’t hire him. Brian Flores is suing the league, he has a job in Minnesota; Steve Wilks is suing the league, he has a job in San Francisco.

The interesting thing about bringing Gruden in is, if the Saints struggle next year and they want to fire Dennis Allen after four games, does Gruden become the head coach? Is that something you have consider if you’re Allen?

JD: I thought about that, but I think Dennis Allen realizes he’s gonna be gone next year no matter what if he doesn’t win. So if he thinks Jon Gruden can help him, I think that’s the way he’d look at that.