Jon Gruden is still trying to convince us players ‘want to be Raiders’

Despite their record and play, Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden is trying to convince us that players from other teams want to join the Raiders.

My dad once told me that if you have to explain something, you’re padding the truth. Perhaps Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden missed the memo.

Gruden and his Raiders suffered an embarrassing loss to the San Francisco 49ers this past Thursday, 34-3. The loss brings the Raiders to a 1-7 record, nearly writing their way out of the entire playoff picture altogether. After the game, Gruden indicated again that there are still many players who want to don the silver and grey in the future.

As reported by ProFootballTalk:

"I see players after every game we play that want to be Raiders…That’s been the case my whole life. And I think the brand of the Raiders is an exciting one, and I think a lot of players no doubt do want to play for us in the future. And I’m not gonna speculate any further on that."

In reality, Gruden kind of “dry-snitched” on players who he faced this season from eight teams overall. As ProFootballTalk suggests, Gruden is walking a fine line between indirectly stating a fact and tampering with players under contract. But again, Gruden has been explaining himself a bit too much and with each loss, the truth is revealing itself slowly but surely.

In the end, Gruden’s first season is looking to be a colossal failure. The Khalil Mack episode put this season under a microscope, and so far it looks as if he’s clearly lost that battle. But the Raiders will have to decide soon if Gruden is worth the investment. Of course, there have been times where the first season wasn’t so good for a coach, and they turned the team around the following years. Gruden could be one of the coaches, too, but he has to climb out of the massive hole he dug himself.