Hate Jon as Bucs Coach? Blame MOOCH!

[JasonOfthetower]

I had forgotten a lot of this -

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ins...uden_mariucci/


End of the rainbow
In the end, Bucs opt for Gruden instead of Mariucci
Posted: Monday February 18, 2002 5:01 PM
Don Banks - Inside the NFL

Even though he didn't wind up getting the Tampa Bay head coaching job that he was in line for, San Francisco's Steve Mariucci had plenty to do with the surprising five-year deal that brought the Bucs and Oakland's Jon Gruden together Monday.

Though details remain sketchy on just how the 49ers head coach overplayed his hand with Tampa Bay, perhaps asking for too much in terms of money or personnel authority, league sources say the Bucs job was his to lose until Sunday night. That's when Bucs vice presidents Bryan and Joel Glazer got back into contact with the Raiders regarding Gruden, and when Oakland owner Al Davis realized he had to cut the best deal possible with Tampa Bay.

Why? Because once Tampa Bay neared a deal for Mariucci, Davis was put into the position of being dealt a devastating double whammy in regards to Gruden. If the 49ers had indeed extracted a package of four draft picks from the Bucs in exchange for their head coach, San Francisco would have no doubt pursued Gruden next offseason once his Raiders contract expired, installing either current general manager Terry Donahue or even Bill Walsh himself on the sidelines for 2002.

Faced with the prospect of losing both his talented young head coach and his chance to receive a bevy of draft picks in compensation, all within a span of 11 months or so, Davis was driven to the bargaining table by unforeseen events. His choice was one of all or nothing.

Either he could watch as his hated cross-bay rivals landed both the Bucs' draft picks and Gruden inside of a year, or he could strike now, land the package of four Tampa Bay picks himself, and ensure that Gruden would be working on the West Coast of Florida rather than in the Raiders' backyard.

From that perspective, the trade was a steal for Oakland and Davis, who will receive two first-rounders and two second-rounders between now and 2004, plus $8 million in cash, from the Bucs in exchange for Gruden's rights.

The deal, at least in the short term, worked out for the beleaguered Bucs as well. In Gruden, the Glazers hired the second biggest fish they pursued -- after The Tuna himself, Bill Parcells -- in their debacle of a five-week head coaching search. They paid heavily for him, mortgaging a good chunk of their next three drafts plus handing him a five-year deal for an estimated $20 million, but the New England Patriots this season showed that a costly deal for a quality head coach can pay for itself in a short period of time.

As for Gruden, he too gets what he desperately wanted, a chance to avoid a lame-duck season in Oakland and the ability to work in one of the NFL's more attractive locales. Gruden has ties to the Tampa Bay area as well. Besides vacationing in the state for three weeks a year, his parents live in Tampa, where his father, Jim Gruden, once worked on the Bucs' assistant coaching staff. His brother, former Louisville quarterback Jay Gruden, is with the Orlando Predators of the Arena League and has lived in Florida since the early 1990s.

Much about Gruden's situation in the Bucs organization is still undecided. Most importantly, his hiring means there's a chance that Tampa Bay won't lose the services of general manager Rich McKay. Unlike Mariucci, Gruden is not seeking to be the team's GM and has made it known he would like to work with McKay.

If the cost of losing McKay doesn't have to be added to the Bucs' price tag for Gruden, that's another win for Tampa Bay. But McKay's relationship with the Glazers has been severely damaged during the course of the Bucs' coaching search, and he remains Atlanta's top choice to become its new general manager. If the two sides can work out their compensation issues, McKay will leave given the chance.

His replacement could be longtime NFL executive Ken Herock, who is expected to join Gruden with the Bucs in either the GM role or a high-level personnel position.

One facet of Tampa Bay's new-looking coaching staff does look to be in place. With the Raiders' deal with Tampa Bay stipulating that Gruden cannot take any of his assistants with him, the Bucs are now likely to retain their defensive staff, including coordinator Monte Kiffin and defensive line coach Rod Marinelli.

As for Mariucci, he can only wonder what might have been had the Bucs wound up with the San Francisco bay area's other marketable young head coach. Mariucci has two years remaining on his 49ers contract, at roughly $2.2 million per season. That's a far cry from the seven-year, $42 million deal he reportedly was seeking to become the Bucs head coach and general manager.

But Mariucci has no one to blame but himself. More than anyone, he inadvertently brought about the circumstances that put the Bucs and Gruden together. Even while he was in the final stages of punching his own ticket to Tampa Bay.

Up next for Raiders?
Now that the Raiders don't have a lame duck Jon Gruden on their hands in 2002, who will be wearing the head coaching headset in Oakland this season?

Though no decision or deal appears in place at this point, the list of serious candidates is thought to be short. Any speculation about the Raiders’ next head coach usually starts with former Vikings head coach Dennis Green, who has long been considered a potential hire of Oakland owner Al Davis.

Green has real interest in the job, and would come cheap, given that Minnesota owner Red McCombs still owes him $5.4 million over the course of the next two seasons. But there has been no contact between Green and Oakland thus far and don’t expect him to openly campaign for the job. Green spent Monday in Hawaii and is said to be confident that the Raiders senior assistant Bruce Allen knows how to find him if need be.

Green, forced out in Minnesota in early January, would be appealing to Davis on a couple of fronts. For one, he’s a proven, veteran head coach with eight trips to the playoffs in his 10 seasons with the Vikings. Led by the likes of Rich Gannon, Jerry Rice and Tim Brown, the Raiders are an aging, veteran team with a perhaps just another year or two left in their Super Bowl window of opportunity. Hiring Green over a less experienced head coach would be a nod toward that urgency.

As a member of Bill Walsh’s San Francisco coaching tree, Green also is schooled in the West Coast offense. But Green’s version is more vertically-minded than Gruden’s, and the ability to stretch the field has always been a cornerstone of Davis’s offensive beliefs. Green also is well-known to Rice, having coached the future Hall of Famer when both were with the 49ers.

But if the Raiders bypass Green, Oakland’s in-house candidate is offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Bill Callahan. With the Raiders believed to have blocked Gruden from taking any assistants with him to Tampa Bay, Callahan, 45, offers the organization its quickest and easiest transition. He has spent the past seven seasons - in Philadelphia and Oakland - coaching with Gruden and is the man most familiar with Gruden’s version of the West Coast offense.

At least some observers feel that Callahan will be in the front-runner position, given Davis’s long-held preference for staying within the Raiders family when he hires head coaches. Gruden and former Oakland head coach Mike Shanahan, however, are the two notable exceptions to that rule, and both have made names for themselves in the NFL ranks.

Lastly, former Raiders head coach Art Shell may surface as a candidate for the job, as Davis’s fallback option. But Shell, who coached Silver and Black from 1989-94, is considered an extreme long shot.

-- Don Banks, Sports Illustrated


Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.

[Corsair]

Its hard to believe that Al Davis actually gave us a bargain deal to ensure we didn't get Mooch.

[RRodkey]

Originally Posted by JasonOfthetower

Unlike Mariucci, Gruden is not seeking to be the team's GM and has made it known he would like to work with McKay.

He couldn't have been more wrong......... just wow.

[TorryHoltFan81]

I dont hate gruden, i think hes a great coach.

[Buc]

Originally Posted by JasonOfthetower

I had forgotten a lot of this -

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ins...uden_mariucci/


End of the rainbow
In the end, Bucs opt for Gruden instead of Mariucci
Posted: Monday February 18, 2002 5:01 PM
Don Banks - Inside the NFL

Even though he didn't wind up getting the Tampa Bay head coaching job that he was in line for, San Francisco's Steve Mariucci had plenty to do with the surprising five-year deal that brought the Bucs and Oakland's Jon Gruden together Monday.

Though details remain sketchy on just how the 49ers head coach overplayed his hand with Tampa Bay, perhaps asking for too much in terms of money or personnel authority, league sources say the Bucs job was his to lose until Sunday night. That's when Bucs vice presidents Bryan and Joel Glazer got back into contact with the Raiders regarding Gruden, and when Oakland owner Al Davis realized he had to cut the best deal possible with Tampa Bay.

Why? Because once Tampa Bay neared a deal for Mariucci, Davis was put into the position of being dealt a devastating double whammy in regards to Gruden. If the 49ers had indeed extracted a package of four draft picks from the Bucs in exchange for their head coach, San Francisco would have no doubt pursued Gruden next offseason once his Raiders contract expired, installing either current general manager Terry Donahue or even Bill Walsh himself on the sidelines for 2002.

Faced with the prospect of losing both his talented young head coach and his chance to receive a bevy of draft picks in compensation, all within a span of 11 months or so, Davis was driven to the bargaining table by unforeseen events. His choice was one of all or nothing.

Either he could watch as his hated cross-bay rivals landed both the Bucs' draft picks and Gruden inside of a year, or he could strike now, land the package of four Tampa Bay picks himself, and ensure that Gruden would be working on the West Coast of Florida rather than in the Raiders' backyard.

From that perspective, the trade was a steal for Oakland and Davis, who will receive two first-rounders and two second-rounders between now and 2004, plus $8 million in cash, from the Bucs in exchange for Gruden's rights.

The deal, at least in the short term, worked out for the beleaguered Bucs as well. In Gruden, the Glazers hired the second biggest fish they pursued -- after The Tuna himself, Bill Parcells -- in their debacle of a five-week head coaching search. They paid heavily for him, mortgaging a good chunk of their next three drafts plus handing him a five-year deal for an estimated $20 million, but the New England Patriots this season showed that a costly deal for a quality head coach can pay for itself in a short period of time.

As for Gruden, he too gets what he desperately wanted, a chance to avoid a lame-duck season in Oakland and the ability to work in one of the NFL's more attractive locales. Gruden has ties to the Tampa Bay area as well. Besides vacationing in the state for three weeks a year, his parents live in Tampa, where his father, Jim Gruden, once worked on the Bucs' assistant coaching staff. His brother, former Louisville quarterback Jay Gruden, is with the Orlando Predators of the Arena League and has lived in Florida since the early 1990s.

Much about Gruden's situation in the Bucs organization is still undecided. Most importantly, his hiring means there's a chance that Tampa Bay won't lose the services of general manager Rich McKay. Unlike Mariucci, Gruden is not seeking to be the team's GM and has made it known he would like to work with McKay.

If the cost of losing McKay doesn't have to be added to the Bucs' price tag for Gruden, that's another win for Tampa Bay. But McKay's relationship with the Glazers has been severely damaged during the course of the Bucs' coaching search, and he remains Atlanta's top choice to become its new general manager. If the two sides can work out their compensation issues, McKay will leave given the chance.

His replacement could be longtime NFL executive Ken Herock, who is expected to join Gruden with the Bucs in either the GM role or a high-level personnel position.

One facet of Tampa Bay's new-looking coaching staff does look to be in place. With the Raiders' deal with Tampa Bay stipulating that Gruden cannot take any of his assistants with him, the Bucs are now likely to retain their defensive staff, including coordinator Monte Kiffin and defensive line coach Rod Marinelli.

As for Mariucci, he can only wonder what might have been had the Bucs wound up with the San Francisco bay area's other marketable young head coach. Mariucci has two years remaining on his 49ers contract, at roughly $2.2 million per season. That's a far cry from the seven-year, $42 million deal he reportedly was seeking to become the Bucs head coach and general manager.

But Mariucci has no one to blame but himself. More than anyone, he inadvertently brought about the circumstances that put the Bucs and Gruden together. Even while he was in the final stages of punching his own ticket to Tampa Bay.

Up next for Raiders?
Now that the Raiders don't have a lame duck Jon Gruden on their hands in 2002, who will be wearing the head coaching headset in Oakland this season?

Though no decision or deal appears in place at this point, the list of serious candidates is thought to be short. Any speculation about the Raiders’ next head coach usually starts with former Vikings head coach Dennis Green, who has long been considered a potential hire of Oakland owner Al Davis.

Green has real interest in the job, and would come cheap, given that Minnesota owner Red McCombs still owes him $5.4 million over the course of the next two seasons. But there has been no contact between Green and Oakland thus far and don’t expect him to openly campaign for the job. Green spent Monday in Hawaii and is said to be confident that the Raiders senior assistant Bruce Allen knows how to find him if need be.

Green, forced out in Minnesota in early January, would be appealing to Davis on a couple of fronts. For one, he’s a proven, veteran head coach with eight trips to the playoffs in his 10 seasons with the Vikings. Led by the likes of Rich Gannon, Jerry Rice and Tim Brown, the Raiders are an aging, veteran team with a perhaps just another year or two left in their Super Bowl window of opportunity. Hiring Green over a less experienced head coach would be a nod toward that urgency.

As a member of Bill Walsh’s San Francisco coaching tree, Green also is schooled in the West Coast offense. But Green’s version is more vertically-minded than Gruden’s, and the ability to stretch the field has always been a cornerstone of Davis’s offensive beliefs. Green also is well-known to Rice, having coached the future Hall of Famer when both were with the 49ers.

But if the Raiders bypass Green, Oakland’s in-house candidate is offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Bill Callahan. With the Raiders believed to have blocked Gruden from taking any assistants with him to Tampa Bay, Callahan, 45, offers the organization its quickest and easiest transition. He has spent the past seven seasons - in Philadelphia and Oakland - coaching with Gruden and is the man most familiar with Gruden’s version of the West Coast offense.

At least some observers feel that Callahan will be in the front-runner position, given Davis’s long-held preference for staying within the Raiders family when he hires head coaches. Gruden and former Oakland head coach Mike Shanahan, however, are the two notable exceptions to that rule, and both have made names for themselves in the NFL ranks.

Lastly, former Raiders head coach Art Shell may surface as a candidate for the job, as Davis’s fallback option. But Shell, who coached Silver and Black from 1989-94, is considered an extreme long shot.

-- Don Banks, Sports Illustrated


Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.

Jason, good post/thread. We look around at some of the names mentioned in this article, I will take what we have. That means yes, this years record is what it is. See what happens the next couple of years, did not say one more year. Jon Gruden is going nowhere, Glazers like this guy, and apparently Kiffin does also. Go Bucs!

[JonCyn90]

Originally Posted by JasonOfthetower

I had forgotten a lot of this -

"McKay's relationship with the Glazers has been severely damaged during the course of the Bucs' coaching search, and he remains Atlanta's top choice to become its new general manager. If the two sides can work out their compensation issues, McKay will leave given the chance."

I guess we can blame Gruden for that too.

[Buc]

Originally Posted by RRodkey

He couldn't have been more wrong......... just wow.

Guess that you can twist this thing any way that you want. This quote comes from the Falcon message board.

We have the 2nd highest payroll in NFL history and our first stringers just lost to Phillys 2nd string team, which show what I have been saying all year. McKay is the one to blame for this mess. He has assembled a team of over-paid free agents and non-talented draft picks. He left Tamp Bay in shambles and if Art Blank does'nt wake-up soon he will have us in the same boat. Ask any Tampa fan about McKay.

[Buc Basil]

Originally Posted by JonCyn90

I guess we can blame Gruden for that too.

quoted for truth

[BucsMAN3K]

Quote:
Originally Posted by JasonOfthetower
I had forgotten a lot of this -

"McKay's relationship with the Glazers has been severely damaged during the course of the Bucs' coaching search, and he remains Atlanta's top choice to become its new general manager. If the two sides can work out their compensation issues, McKay will leave given the chance."



I guess we can blame Gruden for that too.

Originally Posted by Buc

Guess that you can twist this thing any way that you want. This quote comes from the Falcon message board.

We have the 2nd highest payroll in NFL history and our first stringers just lost to Phillys 2nd string team, which show what I have been saying all year. McKay is the one to blame for this mess. He has assembled a team of over-paid free agents and non-talented draft picks. He left Tamp Bay in shambles and if Art Blank does'nt wake-up soon he will have us in the same boat. Ask any Tampa fan about McKay.

[BFT]

Originally Posted by TorryHoltFan81

I dont hate gruden, i think hes a great coach.

Great, I like ice cream.









Next time, make a point, rookie.

[Navy_Bucs_Fan]

Originally Posted by BucFanTexas

Great, I like ice cream.









Next time, make a point, rookie.

What happened to your New Year's Resolution?

[BFT]

Originally Posted by Navy_Bucs_Fan

What happened to your New Year's Resolution?

Reread the thread. At 11:26pm on the 31st, I stated I'd be nice for the rest of 2006. I kept my promise.

Nice was last year.

[Navy_Bucs_Fan]

Originally Posted by BucFanTexas

Reread the thread. At 11:26pm on the 31st, I stated I'd be nice for the rest of 2006. I kept my promise.

Nice was last year.

34 minutes? Isn't that a tie with the time elapsed, before owning just one of your many rookies?

[BFT]

Originally Posted by Navy_Bucs_Fan

34 minutes? Isn't that a tie with the time elapsed, before owning just one of your many rookies?

That's a lifetime in my world....