Raiders Rumors: Jon Gruden & Derek Carr Returning To Las Vegas If Pete Carroll Is Fired?

Raiders Rumors: Jon Gruden & Derek Carr Returning To Las Vegas If Pete Carroll Is Fired?

Be honest with me right now. Do you want the Raiders to bring back John Gruden? Give me a yes. Give me a no. Let’s talk about it today here on the Raiders Report. Raider Nation, what’s going on? It’s Mitchell Ren here, your host of the Raiders Report. Coming up on today’s show, should the Las Vegas Raiders bring back John Gruden and Derek Carr if Pete Carroll is fired? I don’t know what year it is. I have covered John Gruden for a long time. I have covered Derek Carr for a very, very long time. Quite frankly, there’s probably two people that I owe a huge thank you for for helping the Raiders Report get to where it’s at right now. But when I first started doing this show, hit that like button if you remember the old Chucky Head days. When I first started doing this show, I created this whole Chucky head idea because I would talk about rumors and I recently saw an article from Hondao Carpenter where he discusses the idea of not only bringing back John Gruden, but also bringing back Derek Carr. According to Hondao Carpenter, Mark Davis could make the classic Al Davis type of move, bringing back Ruden, bringing back Derek Carr. Hondo also did say in this article that just because he is discussing the idea of bringing back Ruden, he is not advocating for the Raiders to fire Pete Carol. I have had a lot of people send me this article and at this point of the season, the Raiders are 2 and 11. I want to be able to provide content that you guys wanted me to talk about. And I would say over the past month, over the past year, every single different Raiders hiring cycle, which we fire and hire probably better than anybody, well, we fire better than anybody. We definitely don’t hire better than anybody. The one name that always gets brought up to me is John Gruden. And should the Raiders go out and bring back John Gruden? If you’re a loyal watcher, you’re going to know where I stand on this. But I also know that we’re starting to get a lot new people to the Raiders Report YouTube channel, which I love to have it here. But here’s what Hondao Carpenter had to say on the Raiders hiring Gruden and doing a Al Davis type of move. If billionaire Mark Davis decides to pay another person yet again, millions of dollars not to work for him, what would Al do? It is not a secret that Raiders most significant success came under Mark’s father, the legend. If Davis wants to shake up the NFL and his team, there is one move and only one that would instantaneously bring back the aura of his father and the swagger back to Raider Nation. This one move would be a dose of Viagra to the soul of the Raider Nation, restoring the swagger, the luster, and the pride and passion of his incre in increasingly apathetic fan base. I’ll say this right now. Chug said it in my ear and I agree. I literally the thought of Hondao Carpenter saying Viagra makes me want to throw up. So coming up here on the show, I’m going to try to get rid of this boner here and we’re going to talk about why the Raiders should bring back John Gruden, why the Raiders should bring back Derek Carr, or ultimately why the Raiders should not bring back Gruden. And I say this because again, I know what he is. I know what he represents, but at the end of the day, I want people to subscribe to the Raiders Report for good content. And I want people to subscribe to the Raiders Report because I am advocating for Las Vegas to fire Pete Carroll. I know Hondo is probably too afraid to admit it. And Hondo maybe doesn’t believe it, but if you’re going to sit up here and tell me that you think Pete Carol deserves to come back, I’m gonna I’m just going to respectfully disagree with you. But watching the Raiders report, you’re going to become a smarter fan. If you’re going to read that SI article, you’re not going to become a Smarter fan. If you want free videos every single day, we don’t put up a payw wall like of other a lot of other Raiders beat reporters do. We have the number one Raiders community in the world. And Raider Nation, I mean it. I know what Hondo has said. I I’ve see it everywhere on social media. Raider Nation should not want John Gruden back with this organization. And I’m going to prove it to you today here on the report. I know I’ve talked about this hundreds of times on this show when I go live when we talk about different head coaching carousels, but I really want to be able to lay out all the numbers because I get that Gruden is a personality and I understand that John Gruden right now in media circles is a very very prominent figure. But like let’s be honest with ourselves here. It doesn’t make any sense for the Raiders to bring back John Gruden. And I kind of rolled my eyes making this video because I want fans to hold themselves to a higher standard of content. And reading an article that the Raiders should bring back John Gruden that you’re advocating to keep Pete Carroll and also bringing back Derek Carr. I mean, let’s be honest with ourselves here. That type of content is a joke. And I know that Raiders beat reporters are proving every single day with their media questions, with the coverage of the team. And I’m not speaking about all of them. I have good relationships with people in that building that cover this team. And yeah, I don’t have great relationships with some others, but I think an article like that from Hondao is proof that just because you’re in the building doesn’t mean that you really know this team all that well. And I’m making this video today because people ask for my opinion. And I’m kind of sick and tired of saying it over and over again that it doesn’t make any sense for the 2026 Las Vegas Raiders to bring back John Gruden. And if you watch today’s show and you still think that John Gruden makes sense, you probably also want to keep Pete Carroll as your head coach. Let’s go to the very first reason of why the Raiders should avoid Gruden and they shouldn’t bring him back. How does anybody forget how bad Gruden was in the draft? And don’t get me wrong, he found Hunter Renfro. He did a good job getting Nate Hobbs. He also did a a phenomenal job getting Max Crosby. But how many people actually remember all the reports and all the stories that came out back in those days? Because from what it was, it was Mayok got roll and got control of all the rounds outside of round one where John Gruden because the way that they did it, Gruden had 51% power. Mike Mayok had 49% power. Final say always went on Gruden, but Gruden got to call the shots in round one. for an organization that’s got 10 draft picks, for an organization that needs to hit on their first round pick this season. Like, why the f are we gonna tank? Or why the f do you want the number one overall pick? You’re telling me you’re going to trust John Gruden to take the Raiders next quarterback? You’re telling me you’re going to trust John Gruden with our first round pick this year? With all due respect, it is an idiotic thing to think about. And if you want to get this team going in the right direction, you got to be able to build properly in the draft, which is some that John Gruden failed multiple multiple multiple times with. Let’s talk about free agency. The Raiders this off season have $115 million in salary cap space. The second most money in the National Football League. How do y’all not remember how brutal of contracts Gruden did? I mean, I got a list here of just some right off the top of my head. I’m looking at Trent Brown, Cory Littleton, Carl Nassam, Nick Wakowski, LaMarcus Joiner, and I guarantee you this, there’s a lot more into the mix. But what Gruden did when he was head coach of the Raiders, he overspent on bigname players, those players came here and they were garbage for the Raiders this off season. It’s so important for you to hit on the proper offensive lineman. It’s so important for you to hit on the right guys in the trenches. And what’s really important is you can’t overspend on old players that when they get here don’t give a flying flip. And I know that Grudin is somebody that fires people up, but when you look at that that he failed in the draft, he failed in free agency. Do you want to hire a coach when we have all this draft capital, we have all this free agency? Not only did he fail in those two areas, he failed in trades. And when you’re talking about being as bad as what we are right now, it’s going to take everything. And it’s going to take everybody. We’re going to have to crush the draft. We’re going to have to crush free agency. And if we need to make a trade, we need to be able to do it. I mean, he traded away Khalil Mack, traded away Omari Cooper, traded for Antonio Brown, traded for Martavis Bryant, and there were other deals that this team made. So, like, we want to give a coach who we already tried to rebuild with. You gave John Gruden everything that you possibly could have wanted in a rebuild where you trade away Khalil Mack. Like you’re telling me right now you wouldn’t be a little bit worried that John Gruden would trade away Max Crosby? You’re telling me right now that you wouldn’t be a little bit worried that he would trade away a guy like Brock Bowers? Cuz if you trade away Amari Cooper, why wouldn’t you trade away Brock? If you traded away Khalil Mack, why wouldn’t you potentially trade away Max Crosby? And you gave this guy all this money. you gave this guy all this draft picks and he failed miserably. The other thing that the Raiders got to be able to do this season, you got to build that offensive line. Like with all due respect, I don’t give a who our quarterback is, who our running back is, who how great our tight ends are. If you don’t have an offensive line, it’s going to be really, really difficult. So for us, why are we going to bring somebody in that did a bad job with the Raiders offensive line? So, I just want to read some numbers here because the biggest reason and Derek Carr was obviously talented, but the reason why Derek Carr in 2015 and 2016 was really truly able to be his best self is because of that offensive line that Reggie McKenzie and our group really did a good job being able to build together. But in 2016, they allowed 18 sacks. In 2017, 31 sacks. The very first year that John Gruden took over for the Las Vegas Raiders, the Raiders went from allowing 31 and 18 sacks to 51 flipping sacks. And that’s with a lot of really good pieces like, you know, you had the Donald Penn, you had Gabe Jackson, you had arguably maybe the greatest Raiders center of all time. And I know that that’s probably upset some people, but Rodney Hudson from a pass blocking standpoint. The metrics prove it, the analytics prove it, but we had a really good offensive line. And Gruden didn’t do a good job keeping them at that still high level. And I get it. You know, he’s still invested in Colton Miller, which I was happy that he did. And then the next three years, 29 sacks, 28 sacks, 40 sacks, it’s not nearly as bad, but like I want the Raiders to draft a quarterback in round one. And for John Gruden to be bad in the draft, bad in free agency, bad in trades, bad with our offensive line. I mean, that sounds like everything that we need to be able to hit a home run on this off season. And then let’s go to the biggest reason here, and this to me is, I would say, the number one thing that Raiders fans must forget. John Gruden was always terrible at the end of the season. And think about it in football terms. Think about this year, especially, even last year, the Josh McDaniels year. How many times have you seen the Raiders this year score on their first drive and then do absolutely positively nothing for the rest of the game? Do you know why? It’s because you can scheme for that first play and then you don’t make adjustments in the remainder of the game. John Gruden was essentially that but for a whole football season. He was unbelievable in September. But when it really came down to the biggest moments in December and January, he was atrocious. So, this is a stat that I’ve put on my own social media. I put it out there multiple times. Josh Dubau is the person that I found it from. 55 coaches since the merger have had 35 plus regular season games in December and January. John Gruden’s win percentage, which you can see right there, the 388. It ranks 54th out of 55 qualifying coaches. And the reason is very simple. Gruden would come up with good plans in the beginning of the season, but then he could never figure out how to make the proper adjustments at the end of the year. Once teams figured out what John Gruden wanted to be able to do, Gruden staffs were never good enough to make those proper adjustments in December, in January. And I’m going to be honest with y’all, like if we’re going to hire a coach, I want a coach coaching his best football in December, in January. And you can tell me that he was a Super Bowl winning coach, but like how many times are we gonna hire a guy based off an old resume instead of hiring a guy that like what’s important right now? John Gruden just a few years ago showed you that he was already already past his prime. So now you want to bring back a guy that was past his prime a few years ago and you want to try to bring him back to the NFL again. Like Raider, it just doesn’t make any sense at all. So like to me, John Gruden was given $100 million, right? 10 years, 100 million fully guaranteed. I also want a head coach that stands for what he believes in, stands for his word. Gruden said, “If I fail,” he said, “If I fail, I’ll give the money back.” You failed, Gruden, and you didn’t give the money back. You know, like to me, I think it’s actually hilarious how many times people sit up here and they go, “Well, Mitch, would we have like we’ll just be able to have John Gruden back?” He’s going to want another contract. Like why would he sign up and do a job if he’s already getting paid for that job? Can you show real quick the the numbers for like how he finished the year? Because like again, if I’m going to pay a guy 10 years, $100 million, I want him to be coaching the best football at the end of the year and then you’re already paying him. You want to give John Gruden two contracts cuz that’s what it’s going to take. So when you look at what John did, okay, with the Raiders 2018, they were a disaster. They’re 4-12. After they literally traded away Khalil Mack, they tried to do this rebuild and it was a disaster. In 2019, they started 3-2, but they ended the season 7-9. In 2020, started 6 and three, ended the season 8 and 8. So, when I hear people saying, Mitch, the Raiders were going in the right direction with John Gruden. How can you say that? How do you know that? We started three and 0, then we lost two games, then he had to end up resigning. If I had to guess what the track record is going to be, I’m going to guess that John Gruden was trending in the exact same direction that he did in 2020, in 2019. So, my biggest point here is this. When it comes to Gruden, the Las Vegas Raiders need to be able to crush the draft. The Las Vegas Raiders need to be able to crush in free agency. You need to be able to crush in trades. You need to be able to build your offensive line. And you need to be coaching your best football at the end of the season. Gruden already failed at one rebuild. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over. And for somebody that’s in that building that covers the Las Vegas Raiders to even come up with the idea of bringing back John Gruden, it scares me because Mark Davis might listen to somebody like that. And Mark has made really bad decisions over and over. My job here on the Raiders Report is to have a good time. We always say here at Chat Sports, entertain and inform. You’re not going to find anybody that’s going to enter entertain you more around the Las Vegas Raiders. But I’m also really starting to get sick and tired of seeing beat reporters, beat rep writers in that building that put out type of information. And I’m going to say this one last time. I hope I never get asked this question again for the remainder of the year. It doesn’t make any sense for the Raiders to hire John Gruden because you would literally be doing the exact same thing over again. It’s insanity. And if you want Gruden back, then you didn’t watch this video and you haven’t learned from your past mistakes. I encourage you to learn from your past mistakes. Coming up next here on the show, we’re going to talk about Derek Carr again. Like, what year am I living in here? I can’t wait to talk about DC because talking about DC is fun to me. talking about bringing back John Gruden. And again, John, like I got nothing against you. Like I I like Gruden, the man. I would love for him to go coach in college football, but you got to understand from a Raider standpoint, it doesn’t make any sense. You know what could make some sense? Maybe even some dollar bills, too. Our spots are here. Prize picks. America’s number one fantasy sports app out there. The weather might be changing, but that Fiona being right, h it never gets old. So, keep the season rolling on Prize Picks by getting $50 instantly in lineups when you play your first $5. Price Picks is the only app that offers stacks, meaning that you can pick the same player up to three times in the lineup. You want to pick more on can he pick it passing yards, Kenny Pickicket completion percentage, cany pick it touchdowns, you’re going to be able to do it. The other reason why I love Price Picks is because they got personality. And I saw this. You can go more. You can go less. You can type more or less down below. But I saw Philip Rivers 152.5 passing yards up against Seattle. This is an actual picture for that prize picks posted. So if you want to get mad at me, just get mad at prize picks. Pick more, pick less. This link is going to be available to y’all down in the comments down in the description of today’s show. Download the Prize Pix app today. Use code seal and s to be able to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code seal and s to be able to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Price picks, it’s good to be right. So, reminder, this article is a two for one. Okay. Not only does he bring up the idea of bringing back John Gruden, but he also brings up the idea of bringing back Derek Carr. And I also will say this, Al Davis was one of the most unbelievably intelligent NFL owners. He was one of the greatest reasons of why the NFL is where it’s at now. And I almost think it’s a little bit insulting to think that he would do something as idiotic as bringing back John Gruden and Derek Carr. You can think that if you want, but to me, I again, I considered Al Davis a smart man. Hondao must not. So, my question to you is this, because we’re going to get in to Derek Carr here in a second. Would you want the Raiders to bring back Derek Carr, I want you to type DC for yes, or if you’re over the car conversation, just type over down below for no. And I want to be very, very clear what I’m about to say. I like and respect Derek Carr a lot because, you know, back in the old days, Derek Carr was literally like our logo. He was the player ahead of the Raiders Report logo. It’s my very first Raiders jersey. There’s no other player on the planet that has helped this show and my personal career grow more than Derek Carr. I know the whole Carr family had me block on social media. And I don’t blame you because, you know, those last few years it was difficult, but Derek never blocked me. I like to believe that if Derrick and I were in the same room together, we’d be able to have a professional conversation because he still shows love to Raider Nation. He still shows love to the Raiders. And for that, I will always appreciate and love DC. But we got to talk about 2026. We got to talk about the now. And the Raiders should not bring back Derek Carr. I want the Raiders to draft a quarterback. I’m not going to get into all the other reasons about DC. And to me, it’s do you want Derek Carr or do you want them to draft a quarterback? I want them to draft a quarterback. I also want to stop the veteran cycle, right? Like the idea of bringing back John Grun is insanity because you’ve already done it. the idea of wanting to bring back another veteran quarterback, right? Jimmy Garopolo failed. Gardenner Mchu failed. Gino Smith failed and is failing. So, you want to bring back a guy who sat out last season who didn’t play at all and you want to bring him back cuz if you’re bringing back Derek Carr, you still got to make that trade with the Saints and with the amount of money that it would cost, like that’s your starter. Now, you could still draft a quarterback and have him learn underneath Eric Carr, but like at the exact same time, do I want to pay DC $50 million or do you just want to roll with Aiden Okonnell? And you know, you might roll your eyes about Aiden, but Aiden’s a damn good quarterback number two at a fraction of the price. And I I I know that Gruden apparently has worked with some quarterbacks in the past, but like again, man, it doesn’t make any sense unless New Orleans goes, “We’re just going to eat your entire contract.” And Trace is sitting over here laughing at me right now because it they’re not going to do it. No NFL team would do it. So you’re telling me I I’m going to give up drafting a quarterback. I’m going to do another veteran cycle. I’m going to give up even more draft capital when I already have an Adiden Okonnell quarterback number two. Like Fernando Mendoza, Adiden Okonnell. That sounds like a way better recipe for success to build my future. And I know Raider Nation is a loyal fan base. And if there’s one thing that I’ve learned from doing this show that I never really expected to learn, it’s the, you know, there are certain players where it’s like the whole once a Raider, always a Raider, and fans really latch on to certain guys. And fans are always like, “Let’s bring back Jack Del Rio. Let’s bring back Derek Carr. Let’s bring back insert somebody’s name that used to be a Raider.” And I get that we, you know, like these players and we we we, you know, we root for these guys, but at some point it’s like you just got to leave John Gruden in the background. At some point, you got to leave Derek Carr in the background and we got to build our future. Like what type of head co like no good head coach is going to want to come in here if Derek Carr is the quarterback. And that’s not a knock on DC. It’s just you should build for the future. And that’s what I want the Raiders to do. This has absolutely positively nothing to do with Derek Carr. You could have put any veteran quarterback’s name in. You could have put in Philip Rivers, Kurt Cousins. I literally don’t Ryan T. I don’t care who it is. Give me a veteran quarterback. I would have said don’t do it because at this point I want to build for our future because I believe getting a young quarterback helps us get the best head coach possible. So again, my message to DC, I miss Derek Carr. I never thought I would ever say it. U I never really truly did. I’m sad that I’m saying it because that means the Raiders have been so bad. But I will say this right now. I appreciate everything he’s done for Raider Nation. I appreciate everything he still says because that’s a guy who has still shown nothing but love to the Raiders and you can tell he is a Raider at heart. He will always be a Raider at heart. I hope that he gets the opportunity to retire a Raider and I would love for him to be able to do that. Hell man, I might even go live on this show, but DC shows loves to us. I’m going to show love to him. But I also think that there are times where it just makes sense to just both sides separate. And I hope that you don’t hate me for saying that, Derek. But uh I again, man, you I hope that you know I I will always have a special spot for you. Now, if Dererick wanted to come and join the team as an adviser, I’d be okay with that. Now, what is that advisor role really necessarily entail? I’m not 100% sure. But the number one reason why I would bring back Derek Carr is because if there’s one thing that this organization has failed at, it’s bringing in quarterbacks. It’s bringing in leaders that really truly know what it means to be a Raider that actually wear that shield with pride. Gino Smith spits on our face every single day. Gardenner Mchu was a good guy but obviously did not do it well. Jimmy Garopolo, Josh McDaniels, the quarterback position has been a big- time issue. So to me, I would bring Derek Carr in to be an adviser but also be a culture builder. Like the reason why one of the reasons why Pete Carol was hired is to build the culture. You want to bring in a guy where fans are going to go to the stadium, where fans are going to want to rally, put Derek Carr in some sort of advisor role. And if you like that idea, I hope you hit that like button. So, in conclusion here, the Raiders should not bring John Gruden back. The Raiders should not bring back Derek Carr. Gruden failed once and he failed when essentially we’re going to try to do all the same things again. Draft free agency trades, build an offensive line. It doesn’t make any sense. Let’s go get a new young innovative head coach. Let’s go get a new quarterback to build with our future. That’s the path to success for the 2026 Las Vegas Raiders. And anybody that thinks that John Gruden should be a part of that success, with all due respect, you’re a

Raiders rumors on Jon Gruden & Derek Carr coming at you from today here on the Raiders Report. Today’s Las Vegas Raiders Report show is presented by PrizePicks. Head over to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS and use code clns to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! Raiders Beat Reporter Hondo Carpenter believes the Raiders should consider bringing back Jon Gruden and Derek Carr if Pete Carroll is fired.

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Las Vegas Raiders YouTube videos to watch if you love the Silver & Black:
– 🚨BOMBSHELL Raiders Rumors: Geno Smith Wants Out Of Las Vegas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ammnqB_JEP4
– Las Vegas Raiders 2026 Draft Plan Revealed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7LoPolE1sI
– Top 10 Las Vegas Raiders Head Coach Candidates In 2026 Once Pete Carroll Is Fired: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30p5tgNJWmQ

Jon Gruden Back & Carr back to LV?
Hondo Carpenter: Mark Davis could make this classic AL Davis move
The move: Bringing back Jon Gruden & Derek Carr
Hondo: We are not advocating for the Raiders to fire Pete Carroll

Hondo Carpenter On Raiders hiring Gruden
“If billionaire Mark Davis decides to pay another person, yet again, millions of dollars not to work for him, what would Al do? It is no secret that the Raiders’ most significant success came under Mark’s father, the legend. If Davis wants to shake up the NFL and his team, there is one move, and only one, that would instantaneously bring back the aura of his father and the swagger back to the Raider Nation. This one move would be a dose of Viagra to the soul of the Raider Nation, restoring the swagger, the luster, and the pride and passion of his increasingly apathetic fan base.”

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Gruden Terrible in Dec & Jan
55 coaches since merger have had 35+ regular season games in December & January
Jon Gruden’s .388 win percentage ranks 54th
Gruden couldn’t make in season adjustments

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My message to Derek Carr
I miss DC & appreciate everything he’s done for the Raiders
Carr is a Raider & would love for him to retire a Raider
Derek continues to show us love, but it’s time to move on

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#Raiders #DerekCarr #Gruden #CSPP2025 #AD