Jon Gruden is a brilliant hire for the Raiders, and here’s why

3. Gruden will help bring ‘The Raider Way’

When people think of the old Raider teams that had so much success in the 1970’s and 80’s, they think of the tough and sometimes dirty players that other teams feared to play. The Raiders had swagger, nobody wanted to play them. They beat people in the trenches, they were stout on defense, and they could stretch the field on offense. Since then, the team has been on the decline.

Nobody feared them after Gruden left and they lost the Super Bowl. They did not even have a winning season between 2003 and 2015. Del Rio helped turn that around in his three years as head coach, but in a different way. He changed the culture, changed the mentality. The Raiders are no longer losers who expect to go 4-12 or worse every year. They have the talent, now they need someone to take the next step and lead them to greatness.

Gruden can do just that. Reports have surfaced recently about this year’s Raiders team being lost and not having leadership or direction. Some of that falls on Del Rio’s shoulders, but some of it falls on the players as well. Gruden will help bring accountability back to the locker room. He will make sure that players hold themselves and their teammates responsible for their duties. Gruden can eliminate the mindset that plagued the team this year, and replace it with a cut-throat, do whatever it takes to win mindset.

With that type of leadership and mindset, the Raiders will be able to capture the swagger that made them so dangerous for so many years. They need to play with fire, with passion, and with precision. Gruden is more than capable of ensuring that all of those things happen.