Jon Gruden is a former NFL coach (Sky Sports)
Jon Gruden had it good in Las Vegas with the Raiders. His team was one of the most exciting in the league, being responsible for reviving Derek Carr’s career.
His draft choices were solid, especially if you take into account all of the NCAAF stats from all the players he brought into the team, and he made good on his promise to make the Raiders a top-tier team in the first three of his now extinct 10-year, 100-million-dollar deal. But after his offensive email-cladded demise happened, the Raiders are now in the market for a new head coach come next season.
While interim coach and former assistant coach to Gruden, Rich Bisaccia, was put in charge of the Raiders until the end of the season, rumors have already started making rounds about who the best-suited candidate to take over the Las Vegas coaching job should be. So here we break down three of our picks for who the best coaching candidates are to take over the Raiders’ coaching gig.
Football fans around the land could argue that if there’s a man who is more than ready and deserving of a head coaching opportunity in the league is Raiders interim coach and Gruden’s former assistant coach in Las Vegas, Rich Bisaccia.
With almost 40 years in the coaching rings, both in college football and the NFL and after being assistant head coach on every NFL he’s been in since 2008, it only seems right that Bisaccia gets to keep his job after the season ends to give him the chance to truly run the shots for Las Vegas.
He is regarded by coaches and former players of his as a natural-born leader who knows exactly what to say and do to get his team pumped up and ready for battle. Given the situation that the Raiders are in right now, that might just be what this team needs. If given the chance, and keeping Gus Bradley as his defensive coordinator, Bisaccia could very well prove to everyone who’s ever vouched for him that they were singing all of the right praises.
If Bisaccia can steer this team back on its winning tracks and make them playoff contenders again, then there shouldn’t be any need to look for a new head coach.
If the Raiders were to look for a coach who could make an immediate splash across the league, while also taking a devastating blow against a divisional rival, then taking the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy would do all of the above.
Bieniemy has been on everyone’s potential head coaching radar for years now, with his talents as offensive coordinator as the best presentation card.
What Bieniemy has done with Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City’s offense is beyond this world and he would be a perfect candidate to take the Raiders offense, turn it on its head and make it a potential top-5 offense in the league.
The only real issue with a guy like Eric Bieniemy is the same that has stopped him from taking other head coaching jobs before. There’s a feeling around the league that his leadership skills might not be up to par just yet with what could be required from him.
With that said, entering a team like the Raiders, with its owner Mark Davis being known for running a very tight ship in Las Vegas could end up producing a negative power struggle that could end up hurting the team, even if Bieniemy’s talents can speak volumes of what he can do.
Even after his faulty tenure as head coach of the New York Jets, Todd Bowles has proven around the league that he has what it takes to once again be a head coach in the league and do good.
His skills as defensive coordinator are some of the best in the league and while that might automatically pit him as a defense-only coach, the man knows what being part of a team with a win-always mentality is like.
What can he offer the Raiders? The skills and work mind to put this team into an orderly and centralized vision of what football is supposed to be like. At the end of the day Bruce Arians’ defensive coordinator in Tampa Bay could bring a much needed winning mentality to the Raiders, all while making them one of the strongest, yet demurest squads in the league.
People say that offenses win games and defenses win championships, with Todd Bowles and a top-grade offensive coordinator by his side, that might just be the case for Las Vegas.
More NFL news:
Follow our dedicated NFL page for instant E-Sports news and updates
