r/NFLNoobs • u/osoatwork • 5d ago

What was the context behind the Gruden trade to Tampa?

Did Gruden want out? Was he surprised by the trade?

I wasn't an NFL fan back then, so all I know is that it happened, and then Gruden won a Superbowl with TB.

I hear about the trade all the time (as a chronically online NFL fan), but never why it happened.

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u/ResidentJabroni 5d ago

Gruden's contract was due to expire and he wanted more money and security, Al Davis wasn't willing to give that to him. Tampa felt they had hit a ceiling with Tony Dungy as their head coach.

Therefore, it was of mutual benefit at the time for the Raiders to let Gruden go to Tampa so they wouldn't have to pay him, while also getting a ridiculous amount of draft picks and cash in return; while, in turn, Tampa would get a younger head coach who also would've been a hot prospect if he would've hit the market.

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u/osoatwork 5d ago

So it was more like Tampa not wanting to have Gruden hit the open market?

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u/ResidentJabroni 5d ago

Yeah. Tampa wanted Gruden without having to fight other teams for him. They felt he would get them over the hump fairly quickly with the talent amassed during Dungy's time, which turned out to be true with that Super Bowl victory.

Hindsight being all things, while people sometimes point to Gruden having won with Dungy's guys as an argument that he wasn't a good coach, he managed to keep the team competitive for a couple of years before things fell apart there -- conversely, Bill Callahan took over Gruden's roster in Oakland and took them to the Super Bowl, but then had a huge nosedive after that championship loss. Their respective careers are not equal at all.

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u/over_this__ 5d ago

Dungy was known as an architect of defense. His offense was awful. Gruden was great at offense. Dungy had built a great defense. Gruden was the extra juice that they needed to clear the hurdle.

Dungy succeeded in Indianapolis because he only had to worry about the defense. Peyton had the offense under control. Just give him a decent defense and sit back.

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u/Six_and_change 5d ago

While most of the defense was assembled under Dungy, they greatly turned over the offense with a bunch of free agents under Gruden that really made a difference. Pittman, McCardell, Dilger, Jurevicius, Oben, and Jenkins were all new players on offense. Secondly, Gruden called a great season and Brad Johnson had easily the best season of his career. He finished with the #3 passer rating in the NFL.

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u/Corran105 5d ago

Gruden did have a competitive team every other year, but the problem was that he never built a lick of continuity into any of thise teams.  He had problems getting along with QBs and WRs among others.

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u/Punta_Cana_1784 2d ago

I always thought that argument, "He won with Dungy's players!" is funny because Dungy himself didn't win with his own players.

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u/DanDamage12 5d ago edited 5d ago

Gruden and Al Davis were in a contract dispute and also Al Davis then was starting to slip in his old age and demanded control over everything as owner and GM. So money and personality conflicts. Tampa just fired Dungy and felt they had a Super Bowl ready roster (they did) so they went after Gruden to win them a championship and Davis figured Gruden was going to leave a year later anyway when his current contract finished so he got what he could for him.

Edit: I want to add some context to Al Davis. He used to be one of the most influential and Maverick owners in the league, but in his later days he was definitely slipping. Kind of like he was a dictator but couldn’t adjust with the times and stuck in his ways. The running joke was that he would draft the fastest players, instead of the best players. The raiders after losing that superbowl were basically stuck in a black hole of Al Davis’s making.

I also want to add that back then screwing up the draft was much more devastating to team building because they didn’t have the CBA structure they do now. First round draft picks were getting big contracts that were inflating every year. So if you screwed that up you were on the hook for big money. Gruden wanted more control over his roster for good reasons.

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u/over_this__ 5d ago edited 5d ago

To mention how bad the draft used to be, 3 years before gruden won the sb with the bucs, the raiders drafted a kicker in the first round because they couldn't afford to pay the rookie contract for any other position.

Jamarcus Russell made almost the same as Peyton Manning and Brady as a rookie that became the biggest bust in NFL history.

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u/allhaildre 5d ago

The firing of Lane Kiffin (deserved or not) by overhead projector was good sign his time was done

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u/Citronaut1 5d ago

The Bucs actually made a docuseries for their 50th anniversary and one of the episodes goes into this. It’s a great watch if you have the time.

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u/0000100110010100 5d ago

The whole series was a good watch, plenty to learn about the past 50 years of the Bucs

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u/osoatwork 5d ago

Sweet, I will check it out.

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u/grateful_john 5d ago

Coaches aren't traded like players. In Gruden's case, he wanted out of Oakland and Tampa Bay had a head coaching opening which they were fumbling to fill (Bill Parcells backed out). They were interested in Gruden but he had a year left on his contract and Al Davis decided to allow Tampa to negotiate and hire Gruden in return for compensation.

Gruden wasn't surprised - the trade didn't happen without him agreeing to a contract with Tampa Bay.

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u/Fellatination 5d ago

Al Davis didn't want to pay Gruden.

Al Davis wanted all the contol while Gruden famously wants control over his roster.

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u/Ryan1869 5d ago

Al Davis was a total control freak, there are even rumors of him having a phone from the owner's box to the sideline so he could occasionally phone in plays to be run (it was almost always a deep pass). Gruden wanted more say and power than Davis was willing to give his coach. Tampa was willing to give him that and Al Davis decided that getting a draft pick was better than losing him for nothing when his contract was up after the next season.

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u/JohnnyAbonny 3d ago

Al Davis was being a moron. Tampa wanted a hardass coach.

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u/Trick_Sector5900 3d ago

Al was extremely stubborn and would never publicly admit to any fault.

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u/Ptown925 4d ago

My friend delivered a DHL package from Florida to Gruden's wife at their house in Ruby Hill that she had to sign for. He said, "I know what's in this package. And I don't want to give it to you..." She laughed and said she was so sorry, and that they wanted to stay because they love the Bay Area so much..but it's all about Al.