Eagles

Jon Gruden Mobbed by Eagles Fans at Airport, is (Allegedly) Interested in Coaching Again

By Kyle Scott

Published: Nov 8th, 2012 · 1:29 PM EST

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Reader Christian sent along this photo, allegedly taken Tuesday morning, of Jon Gruden at the New Orleans airport, where he was "mobbed" by Eagles fans.

You can imagine what came up:

Coach Gruden is mobbed by Eagles fans begging him to come back through Philly. Really nice and friendly with everyone. Basically was told that he needs to come back to Philly. He joked you already kicked me out before? Took pictures and answered questions.

 

Credit to Chucky for humoring what was likely a few dozen angry-hangovered Eagles fans at 9 a.m., but it doesn’t sound like he was willing to answer the question: Would you want to coach the Eagles?

Charlie Campbell of WalterFootball.com may have done that for him.

According to this report, Gruden is, not surprisingly, considering coaching again. He’s also, apparently, eyeing potential staff members. One of them? A Juanderful choice.

One coach that Gruden is said to be interested in is fired Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Juan Castillo. The long-time Eagles assistant was on the same staff with Gruden in Philadelphia under former head coach Ray Rhodes. Castillo was an offensive assistant and tight ends coach while Gruden was the offensive coordinator. Following Gruden's departure for Oakland, Castillo remained to work under Andy Reid as a tight ends coach, offensive line coach and defensive coordinator. Reid and Gruden have also coached together, and Castillo carries a significant endorsement from Reid. 

Sources have said that Gruden's return to coaching is dependent on it being a perfect situation. He isn't interested in smaller-market teams like those he has coached at previously. Gruden wants a big-market team with good ownership and some talent on the roster. Thus, teams like Dallas, Philadelphia and the New York Jets could be potential landing spots if they make a change. 

 

That’s a fairly vague, and somewhat obvious. And I’m mostly unfamiliar with Campbell’s track record. But, how goddamn hilarious would it be for Gruden to take Reid’s spot and then bring back fired defensive coordinator Castillo to coach on offense? Juan gets the laugh jaja!

Related: Reader Adam, a "business analyst" who probably spent way too much time on this email at his place of employment, doesn't want Gruden, and he did a nice job of backing up his stance. Read it after the jump.

Adam:

People who want him as Head Coach are out of their God Damn minds!!! 

A quick visit to www.pro-football-reference.com is all that is needed.

Take a look at his teams W/L records.  He had two straight good seasons with an Oakland Raiders team that was loaded with HOF veterans who were in the final chapter of their careers.  A good indication of how much a coach didn’t matter on those Oakland teams is that Bill Callahan took that very same team to the Super Bowl the year “Chucky” left.  Yes, the same Bill Callahan who went 27-22 at Nebraska and was canned after 5 subpar seasons. 

Gruden followed up those two decent years at Oakland with a 12-4 season and a Super Bowl courtesy of Tony Dungey, who was responsible for building that Buccaneers team.  Jon quickly took that team from Super Bowl Champs to back to back sub .500 seasons.  He had one last good year in ’05 when Cadillac Williams took the league by storm as a rookie and Chris Simms surprised a lot of people with his solid play. 

He then promptly when 4-12 with the same team he won 11 games with the year before.  Then people forget the HUGE mess he created at the QB position when seemingly started collecting every scrap heap veteran available.  He completely screwed over Jeff Garcia after the success he had filling in for the Eagles.  And if anyone has paid attention to the last 3+ years of MNF Jon Gruden is certifiably NUTS.  That dude is f’ing bat shit and he is the LAST person that should be replacing Andy Reid. 

I am driving the “Fire Andy” bandwagon, and I’ve been on it for years, you know this, I even sent you a re-cap of his draft picks a few years back, highlighting how terrible they were.  But if I were given the choice of keeping Reid or hiring Gruden, I’m sticking with Andy.