It's easy for Jon Gruden to say he's not thinking about coaching. Four weeks into the 2014 NFL season, no organization would hire him now.
2015 is another matter.
NFL.com reported Wednesday that Gruden, the former Raiders coach, the former coach of the Super Bowl XXXVII Tampa Bay Buccaneers and current ESPN analyst, skirted the issue about rejoining the Oakland Raiders on ESPN's "Mike and Mike."
"Well, I appreciate those seven or eight bloggers, I have seven or eight friends that are bloggers and use different screen names and they bring my name up every year when there's a coaching job," Gruden joked. "I'd like to thank those anonymous bloggers, I appreciate it. I'm just trying to hang onto my job to be honest with you guys. It's four weeks into the season; some of these teams haven't even played three games yet, so I'm not even thinking about coaching.
"I'm thinking about heading to Washington next week, watching the world champions and my brother coach. That will be exciting for me."
Raiders owner Mark Davis has preliminary discussion with San Antonio about relocating team.
The Raiders named Tony Sparano as interim coach after firing Dennis Allen earlier in the week. The Raiders have started the season 0-4.
Gruden did have an opinion how the Raiders can begin to repair their franchise.
"Well, I think they need to get some continuity in the organization," he said. "When you look at the NFL carefully, the Cleveland Browns, the Washington Redskins, the Raiders, there's a few teams that have had eight or nine, 10 coaches since 1999. And that's hard on an organization. It's hard on the fans; it's hard on the owner. It's just difficult to figure out which direction we're headed."
According to NFL.com, NFL Media columnist Michael Silver told "NFL Total Access" on Tuesday that an "emotional connection" still exists between Gruden and the Raiders and that sources are indicating "that there have been overtures, even before this, to Jon Gruden -- that Mark Davis is prepared to spend a lot of money, because that's what it would take to pry Jon out of the booth and back to Oakland."
Gruden reportedly has pulled his name out of the running in the early stages in several other coaching openings, so he may not be interested in coaching in general. But if the "emotional connection" angle is true, then Gruden could be interest in coaching the Raiders.
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