NFL: Jon Gruden: “Building a Championship Team”

Jon Gruden and the Oakland Raiders reached their low point of the season at the 3:34 in San Francisco on Thursday evening. Gruden himself remains calm – and still sees his team as an attractive option for other players.

“The Oakland Raiders are a great organization. I know it doesn’t look nice at the moment and I’ve heard a lot of negativity over the last six, seven months and rightly so. But we’re building a championship team here. I know that a lot of people, whether players or fans or just in general, want to be a part of it,” Gruden made clear after the bankruptcy against the 49ers.

Gruden thus continued an interview he had given to Fox Sports during the week. Oaklands Head Coach, who had received a $100 million ten-year contract before the season, said, “I get a lot of calls from people who really want to play for us. They want to play for the Raiders. And it’s exciting to have salary cap space and be able to talk to people who really want to play for the raiders.”

But what exactly this means for the future in terms of management planning is completely open. Over the past weeks Gruden has sold his best receiver Amari Cooper and his best player Khalil Mack via trade, rumours about quarterback Derek Carr are also circulating. Gruden obviously collects resources – in financial terms and with draft picks – to position itself for the medium and long term future.

That’s why Carr is also assuming that in the coming weeks players will have to recommend themselves for the future: “We are now at the point where the question is: Who will continue to fight? These are the men you want on your team if things go well. These are the men you want when the coach and the leaders aren’t around. “Those who turn your focus away, you don’t want.”