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Thoughts from the Dark Side
Looking Back: The Gruden years left no foundation for the Raiders future and led to this mess
Its easy to wax nostalgic over the Jon Gruden era in Oakland. He was a charismatic coach and the Raiders won consistently during his four years in Oakland, and he set the table for the Raiders 2002 Super Bowl run. That was a good time to be a Raider fan, but the soft focus of hindsight combined with Gruden’s charisma and Chuckie persona make it easy to miss that the seeds for the recent disasters were planted during his tenure as head coach. I would love to see another run of success like the Raiders had whilst Gruden’s omnipresent scowl stalked the sidelines, but looking at the Silver lining obscures the Black Clouds that were building.
Jon Gruden took over the Oakland Raiders after the Joe Bugal led disaster that was 1997. Bugal led the Raiders to underachieve their way to a 4-12 disaster, at that point it was the worst record of the Al Davis era. Gruden took over primed to lead the Raider franchise to rise from its ashes like the Phoenix of Myth, and he succeeded beyond expectations. His third year the Raiders were in the AFC Championship Game, where a combination of Tony Siragusa’s belly flop on Rich Gannon and Marquez Pope and Anthony Dorsett’s inability to tackle Shannon Sharpe cost the Raiders a chance at the Super Bowl. Gruden’s fourth and final season as the head of the Raiders’ ship ended on a snowy night in Foxboro.
Those were good times, with the best yet to come. His successor Bill Calhihan opened up the play book a bit and led the Raiders to Super Bowl XXXVII where a Gruden led Tampa Bay team devastated the Raiders based on Gruden’s knowledge of the Raider offense, and Callihan’s ill-advised plan to change nothing.
“You can go from boom to bust/ from dreams to a bowl of dust”
–from “Between the Wheels” by Rush
Callihan’s second year began the Raiders plunge, from which they have yet to emerge three coaches and five years later. How did the Raiders go from boom to bust so fast? What caused them to tumble faster than George W. Bush’s approval rating?
If you remember, the joke around the league during the run of the early part of this century was that the Raiders were the NFL’s retirement home. By 2002, the Raiders were the oldest team in the league. It was not the culmination of guys who had been Raiders for ages coming together for an epic final battle. During the Gruden era, the Raiders were built to win now, with no thoughts of the future. That is an easy one to pin on Al Davis, as he is the lightning rod for criticism for everything that is wrong with the world, but looking at the bigger picture, very few players during the Gruden era were developed. The ones who carried the team were the aging vets that signed with Oakland for that last chance at the ring. The guys like Andre Rison, Jerry Rice, Rod Woodson, Bill Romonowski, etc.
The easy cop out is to blame Al, as he is the one who is most responsible for player acquisition. Jon Gruden also was big on that philosophy, as was Bruce Allen. (more on him in a moment.) To show that it was not just Al, but Gruden’s inability to develop younger players, just take a look at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers under Gruden. It took him bringing in Jeff Garcia to fill the role of Rich Gannon and get the Bucs back in the playoffs.
Gruden and Al had a synergy in their love of giving aging vets their one last shot. It worked for the short term, but left the Raiders with a rotting core. The aging vets aged out together in 03 and Gannon had his career ended in 04, and no one was left waiting in the wings. True, Davis tried adding pieces to the puzzle, but there was no foundation and without a foundation, even the greatest skyscraper will come tumbling down.
After Gruden’s rookie season was marred by a series of groin injuries to quarterbacks Jeff George, David Klingler, and Donald Hollis, Gruden brought in veteran quarterback Rich Gannon in a move that would pay huge dividends for the Raiders. The problem is that Gannon was already 34 when the Raiders acquired him, which is nearly a senior citizen in NFL years. At no time did Gruden make any apparent moves to groom a successor. He drafted Marques Tuiasosopo to be an heir apparent in 2001, but Tui never got any game time until Gannon’s injury in ‘03 in the second and final year of the Callihan era. The bigger question is when your starting QB is 34 years old, why wait so long to bring in an heir apparent?
In addition to Gruden’s distaste for playing young players, the second problem was that the contracts that the aging vets were signing were heavily back-loaded creating a major salary cap land-mine for the Raiders. Bruce Allen was adept at getting the Raiders under the cap for the current season, but the problem was that it was creating a disaster down the line. The Raiders had dead money from Gannon’s contract on the books until last year.
I think that the reason that Gruden wanted out at the end of the 01 season was not that he wasn’t getting the control he wanted. I think that he saw the writing on the wall from what was coming. He knew that the team was getting up there in age, and it would not take much for the entire house of cards he had built to come crashing down. Bruce Allen was out the door not long after Gruden, and as the Raiders’ capologist he knew damn well what was happening.
Its easy to think, had Gruden not left the Raiders would not in the shape that they are in now. I have entertained that same thought. The problem is that the run that Gruden built was based on planned obsolescence. The Raiders’ team was due for rebuilding by 2003 due to age, but there was no infrastructure on the 03 team that was a foundation on which to build. There was no core of youth that could take the mantle from the aged veterans. It is true that Al Davis was short sighted thinking that he could reload for 04 and 05, but at that time the Raiders were only one and two years removed from a Super Bowl.
The good news is that the rebuilding process has finally begun. Hopefully JaMarcus Russell is everything the Raiders are hoping, and the core of youth can bring the Raiders success for the next decade.
This video gives me chills:
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21 Responses to “Looking Back: The Gruden years left no foundation for the Raiders future and led to this mess”
February 13th, 2008 at 8:04 am
[…] Looking Back: The Gruden years left no foundation for the Raiders future and led to this mess - Thoughts from the Dark Side […]
February 13th, 2008 at 8:41 am
[…] Looking Back: The Gruden years left no foundation for the Raiders future and led to this mess - Thoughts from the Dark Side […]
February 13th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Here we go again looking for reasons why we are in this situation. I agree Gruden did have alot to do with our demise and as he said Tampa proves it. But we are in this situation now and how we( I MEAN BIG AL )react to this will be the telltale sign of where we are going. One superstar will not save us, but youth speed and production might.
February 13th, 2008 at 8:46 am
[…] Looking Back: The Gruden years left no foundation for the Raiders future and led to this mess - Thoughts from the Dark Side […]
February 13th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Gruden got by on his charisma and thats it. He was very conservative in his play calling too. By the way raiderfans.net bites
February 13th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Dude, awesome Metallica video!! There was one you tube video I have tried to find for a long time. Its the one where the Raiders beat the Chiefs or the Jets to get into the playoffs, and the entire stadium chants ‘Raiders’ for the final 6 minutes of the game. It was awesome, but I can’t find it. Have you seen it Patrick, and can you find it?
OakFoSho
February 13th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
FoSho,
I haven’t seen that video you are asking about, but if I come across it, I’ll put it in a future post.
February 14th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Love the comment, Pat. Shame nobody saw it coming until it was too late. In J-Russ we have a future.
February 14th, 2008 at 9:08 am
It’s actually an interesting take on the situation that overlooks one thing: drafting. I picked that up and continued the discussion over here.
February 14th, 2008 at 11:11 am
I hope Kiffin gives up the play calling to someone else with more experience. Some of the games he could have won but didn’t because he became either too stubborn to change the plays or got too conservative. I guess this year draft will probably a defense draft with a wide receiver in the last round.
February 14th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
G ….
i would disagree with the conservative play calling… i think he did a good job of not being conservative.. He did say that there were times he did it because of what he had to deal with .. like the line not blocking , or receivers not catching , stuff like that…. he did a great job of a mixing up the play calling, i have never seen a raiders coach run on 3rd and 8 , and i saw kiffin do it numerous times and also going for it on 4th down.. i am pretty happy with his play calling… no one is perfect, unless you have a power team like the pat’s, then everything works
February 15th, 2008 at 5:53 am
I dont blame it on Kiffin. We had a lot of bad luck. In 2003 Jerry Porter was injured in the first game and lost for most of the year, our passing attack featuring Brown/Rice didnt work, we needed to have Porter to stretch the field. Callahan should have ran the ball more when Porter was lost but kept passing the ball and that failed.
Tui finally got his shot after Gannon was injured, showed potential against a KC prevent defense, next week he was gone for the year and we had ‘Rick Mirer’ for the rest of the year, season over and the team fell apart. Not many teams win down to their 3rd string QB
February 15th, 2008 at 6:34 am
I have to disagree. Gruden left after 2001 and we just finished 2007. Can you really hold him accountable for 5 years of losing?
Is it Grudens fault that Al would not re up a deal with Coleman, Barton, Woodson and Namdi before their contract was in the final year?
Is it Grudens fault that Al choose to restructure the entire offensive scheme from Callahan to Norv/ Art?
Did Gruden allow Tory James and Sam Adams to walk away while retaining John Parella and Clarence Love?
Did Gruden ever run a team so ineptly that a Star like Randy Moss would demand a trade and play for min $$$ rather than play for us at a restructure from 12 mill per?
Did Gruden take 5 years to teach Fargas to play RB? Did Gruden not bench Lamount Jordan after multiple dropped passes or late cuts to a hole?
Please- Our troubles started when Gruden left and Got worse when Callahan and Bruce Allen were gone.
Kiff is the 1st coach since to implement any real standards.
February 15th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Great article! I have believed this for a few years now. As Al has brought us to greatness many times, he will do so again. To all those Al haters…I’m looking forward to your silence soon enough.
February 15th, 2008 at 7:01 am
This column is very insightful. In the grand scheme it doesn’t really matter, but makes for interesting conversation. I have been thinking exactly the same thing in recent months re: Gruden. As much as I liked him and wanted him to stay, I totally agree with Patricks take. I arrived at my conclusion by the same route. Looking at the Raiders under Gruden and immediately after in comparison with his Tampa Bay teams since ( Garcia is the clincher) and you see where the lets win now, don’t worry about the future philosophy lead us to where we are.Obviously Gruden doesn’t deserve all of the blame, but as Patrick said, you can see him doing the same thing in Tampa. And when the aging veterans like Tim Brown, Rice, Woodson, as well as guys we don’t think about like Lincoln Kennedy, Frank Middleton, Barrett Robbins left the Raiders had nothing in reserve to speak of. It is just an eye opening take on a guy we in the Raider Nation have deified, deservedly for the most part. But we need to realize Gruden and the foundation he never bothered to build, bears some culpability for the current state of the team,
February 15th, 2008 at 7:34 am
I totally agree with your assessment. I’ve been a Raiders fan since 1985 and I get caught up in the Gruden era and how good it was. Also the Art Shell years of the early 1990’s also come back to haunt me as I watch the Raiders have another double-digit losing season. I never really put much into the thoughts that you have about Gruden’s and Al Davis policies towards veteran players. We were overstocked with aging talent that could (at that time) still win in the NFL. However, I think that it is overlooked that the Raiders, other than their 4-12 season in 1997 had not had a record worse than 7-9 prior to Gruden’s arrival. Therefore, the team had several players that Kiffin did not have. Future Hall of Famer and established #1 wide reciever TIm Brown was on the team. Steve Wiz was at left guard. BOth men were pro bowlers and possible hall of fame candiates. Al Davis did make a mistake by signing so many vets and both Allen and Gruden were a part of that situatation. AL has always been known to sign older players so that was never a surprise to me. However, I think that your article should speak volumes to the Raiders fans, like myself, who always harken back to the glory years of Gruden.
February 15th, 2008 at 8:38 am
That was a well thought out article. Certainly what you point out is a large part of the problem in the last few years. But the bad draft choices and free-agent signings also are a big part of it. As much of an icon as Mr. Davis is, and as much as I respect him, he has a blind spot when it comes to looking at a prospect in terms of his character and psychological makeup. And over the years this has proved disastrous. Just think - Chester, Darryl, Randy, Mr. Hitman from Denver, - the list goes on and on. Al always figures that if a guy can play, that’s enough. A bigger question is: does he WANT to play? How much does he care about himself versus the team? I only wish that more was done on looking inside a player’s head and seeing if the commitment and desire and responsibility is there.
February 15th, 2008 at 9:29 am
KD,
Like this artical states Big Al is to blame for everything wrong with the world. But when things go right he nevers gets any credit. Nice write up with alot thought put into it. If we can pick a couple of quality receivers for J.Russ this can be a good year.
Raider fan since 1971
February 15th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I agree with (Diceq), this is not Grudens fault on not building a foundation. Key word that defines us is “INCONSISTENCY” We had Tui as our hope for the future after Gannon was done, but after Calhahan, we had to switch to the vertical passing game. Under Gruden and Calahan, we ran a West Coast offense which was short desinged routes which benefited Gannons lack of arm strength, great accursacy and poise. Tuiasosopo is very similar to Gannon, very mobile, good accurcy but too doesnt have a strong arm thus the reason they brought in Kerry Collins.
Suprisingly we had decent young players following after our AFC Championship years, nothing great but decent, we did have Napolean Harris which was producing decent number for us, Charles Woodson, Philip Buchanon, Eric Barton, Jerry Porter. Those were players whom I thought you could build somethin around at the time.
Part of what u are saying is true Gruden didn’t leave us with a solid youth foundation that we needed to carry us into the future years but the lil foundation he did have proved ineffective due to “INCONSISTENCY”.
Ladies and Gentlemen you break up with a girlfriend then get married then divorce, then get married, then divorce then get married then divorced, you are goin to be a pretty disfuntional person yourself. Things are not goin to run smoothly because you have that is just “INCONSISTENCY.”
We just need to build a solid foundation which we started to with a good coaching staff and young players such as Russel and Miller and stick w/ it, not this signing of Dennis Green crap cuz that would be a contination of “INCONSISTENCY.”
Remember Raider Nation the plague that is hurting our nation is “INCONSISTENCY” til we rid of it don’t look for much a future. The Patriots and Colts have always been good this decade cuz they have contintiuty and conistency.
Damn I wrote a lot. Sorry Guys but The greatness of the Raiders are in its Futrue, Win Lose or Tie Raider til I die over and out.
February 15th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
I did not research this but I think that the Gruden deal gave us many draft picks. I think 2003 netted us Nnamdi and Vargas amoung others. Didn’t we also sign Curry around that time? Gruden was trying to groom Tui for the future, but his bad luck with injuries seemed to block his development. Can you tell me what players were picked with the picks we got for the Gruden deal. Their success would have been a building block for the future, so I can only imagine that there must have been some wasted picks. In addition, we did not re-sign players like Jon Ritchie who was a pivotal blocker and outlet player when the defense covered our aging receiver corp.
February 15th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Al Davis is solely responsible for the personnel the Raiders have. Gruden and Allen probably had a wish list of players, but Davis made ALL the decisions. He chose Sea Bass over Shaun Alexander. Davis is responsible for the shambles and collapse of the Silver and Black.
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