The Chicago Bears are approaching another deflating season. They once again waste a good defense because they can’t get anything out of the offense. Most alarming is how Caleb Williams seems to have rapidly regressed from his promising start to the season. He’s taking way too many sacks, missing easy throws, and looking overwhelmed at times. Matt Eberflus feels he is on borrowed time as head coach, staring down his third straight losing season. People are already discussing who might replace him next January. At least one man appears to have made his pitch: Jon Gruden.
The former Buccaneers and Raiders head coach led the NFL under a cloud of controversy thanks to some emails he sent that had racist undertones. This has led to him filing a lawsuit against the league for leaking the emails to get him fired. As it appears the case is moving in his favor, whispers have surfaced that he wants to get back into coaching. Former MVP quarterback Boomer Esiason revealed as much on his radio program.
“I’m telling you right now, (I made a) couple calls last night — I can confirm that he definitely wants to get back in. One hundred percent. I can also confirm, and I believe this to be true — this is, again, my opinion after speaking to at least two different people that are involved in coaching searches and things of that nature — that there are teams that are interested in him.”
“If it’s not this year, it’s definitely next year. But he’s coming back. He’s definitely coming back.”
Part of that is finding ways to let teams know you’re interested.
Well, Gruden certainly found one in the form of Barstool Sports, who hired Gruden as a contributor. The former coach appeared on Pardon My Take recently, where he was asked about the Bears’ situation. He then made his pitch for how he’d fix Williams if given the chance.
Jon Gruden is clearly out to prove something.
His exit from Las Vegas was ill-timed. He’d had the Raiders on a winning path, going from 7-9 to 8-8, and were 3-2 when he was forced to resign. No doubt he believes the league robbed him of a chance to finish what he started. Now, he is out to show he can still do the job. He has kept close tabs on the Bears’ situation via his YouTube channel. It isn’t hard to imagine he’d jump at the opportunity to turn around a charter franchise like Chicago with a “unique” talent like Williams as his quarterback.
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
Gruden’s track record speaks for itself. He won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay in 2002, has six winning seasons in 15 years, and has produced a top-15 passing offense twelve times in his career. The man has a knack for working well with quarterbacks. Brad Johnson and Derek Carr both had career-best seasons under his watch.
The obvious question is whether the Bears would hire Jon Gruden. While they will likely seek an offensive-minded head coach, they don’t have a long track record of hiring guys with big personalities. Gruden most definitely has that. Nobody can argue he has proven experience. Maybe they decide that is the best thing for this situation.
Gruden? He’s at best an average football coach. Maybe average would be a step up for the Bears, though. 6 winning seasons out of 15 implies 9 non-winning seasons (can’t call 8-8 a losing season), so that’s below average. His one Super Bowl win came in the year that Tampa traded for him after firing Dungy. The defense remained good enough, and he picked up the offense enough to reach the mountaintop. In his later years in Tampa, the defense continued to get worse, and he couldn’t repeat the SB win. In Keyshawn Johnson, he had a talented WR who… Read more »
I think Gruden would be excellent for our team, he has football intelligence, the guy running the show now is a nice guy, but…..
I’m all for giving Brown his shot as our OC. I have said it before, I was in the vicinity of Tampa during their SB buildup. Trent Dilfer was the 5th pick overall, IIRC. He looked really good as a QB, until the ball left his hand. His accuracy in the intermediate and beyond was similar to Mitch. Shaun King wasn’t much better. It was the addition of Brad Johnson, a sound, not sparkly QB, who could actually make all the throws required of an NFL QB, that put that team over the hump. It wasn’t Gruden, and it sure… Read more »
Holy hell, keep Eberflus, f!ck Gruden 😂
Last week, I would’ve said the odds of the McCaskeys hiring Jon fucking Gruden is the same as the odds that RFK would be appointed to oversee all federal health policy. But, well, …