On Sunday, the Las Vegas Raiders will visit the Las Angeles Chargers in an attempt to start the season 1-0 for the fifth time in six years. Las Vegas will enter its first season with head coach Antonio Pierce patrolling the sidelines following the firing of his predecessor, Josh McDaniels, midway through the 2023 campaign. McDaniels became the second Raiders frontman to be relieved of his duties midway through the season in recent memory, with longtime bench boss Jon Gruden being pushed out the door in October of 2021.
Gruden is the last Las Vegas Raiders head coach to lead the AFC West club to the postseason and also led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl victory in the early 2000s. However, homophobic, racist, and misogynistic emails from Gruden surfaced in 2021, leaving a black mark on his career and abruptly ending his NFL coaching tenure. Nevertheless, Gruden has resurfaced on YouTube with his new podcast, Gruden Loves Football. On Thursday, Gruden sat down with his old Raiders quarterback, Derek Carr, showering him with love as they reunite following an ugly split in 2021.
Ex-Las Vegas Raiders Coach Jon Gruden Reconciles With Derek Carr
According to Keith Ricci on Twitter, former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden and ex-quarterback Derek Carr had a reunion on YouTube:
I love you. I miss you. I’m really excited to watch you play this year, man… I told you at Jon Gruden’s QB Camp I was going to draft you, and at some point, I was going to coach you, and we did do some shredding now.
You know, I have always felt, and you know this, that quickness is key to being a great quarterback. The mental quickness. The arm quickness. The body quickness. Every year, you have to get quicker, and I have never really coached a quarterback that is as mentally quick as you are.
Carr also stressed that he had a “great offseason,” working on his throwing mechanics while emphasizing strength and condition. Carr played for Gruden from 2018 to 2021, with the former throwing 90 touchdowns to 41 interceptions. However, Gruden did not finish the final portion of the 2021 season, resigning after disturbing emails leaked from the league investigation into the then-Washington Football Team for workplace misconduct.
The tandem reunited in 2023, with Carr becoming a member of the New Orleans Saints and Gruden latching on as a consultant. Despite throwing 25 touchdowns to eight picks last season, Carr’s only two seasons with a quarterback rating over 100 came with Gruden at the helm (2019 and 2020).
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