How is this story just breaking now! Rob Gronkowski has come and said that he and Tom Brady nearly joined the Oakland Raiders back in 2020, but former Raiders head coach, Jon Gruden, refused to sign the future hall of famers.
Jon Gruden’s reputation has just gotten even worse with this latest news. Not only do we now know that he was a backstabbing, racist, misogynistic fool, but also a complete idiot. Did he really believe that he could win more games with Derek Carr at QB over Tom Brady?!?
Now, don’t get me wrong, Carr is one of the best QBs in the league, but he’s nowhere near Tom Brady’s level.
Raiders fans have instantly face-palmed when they saw this news.
Can you imagine a current Raiders offense with Tom Brady at QB, Josh Jacobs at RB, Darren Waller and Gronk (if he came back this year) at TE, and Devante Adams, Hunter Renfrow at WR. That team would legitimately be unstoppable.
Yes, the Raiders defense is a little weak and could use some more depth, but just as how Tampa has been able to attract ring-chasing veterans with Brady, the Raiders would have been able to do the same thing. That’s the Tom Brady affect.
But the ‘genius’ Jon Gruden decided against signing Brady back in 2020 as he instead wanted to keep the Raiders a meandering mess. In Gruden’s three full comeback seasons (2018-20 as he only coached five games in that fourth and final 2021 season), the Raiders had a combined record of 19-29. Moreover, his best season was an 8-8 record in the 2020 season.
In comparison, Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski went 34-14, 12-4 in 2019, and, obviously, never had a losing season in that span. Oh, and the pair won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2020 while the Raiders missed the playoffs for the third straight season under Gruden.
There was a reason why Jon Gruden’s coaching career fizzled out in Tampa Bay during the early 2000’s and that was because he was a stubborn, unchanging fool. He was unwilling to update his outdated offensive schemes and ideas, which alienated his players and staff as his teams started losing.
And, as they say, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks as Gruden struggled with the Raiders during his second coaching stint just as he did with the Buccaneers in his first.
This Tom Brady-Rob Gronkowski story just personifies Gruden’s arrogance and stubbornness as he believed he could with without the legendary partnership of Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, even though the pair wanted to work with him and his team.
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