The Jon Gruden to Tampa Bay Buccaneers rumors haven’t lost any momentum in recent weeks, despite Gruden’s recent claims that it’s all a bunch of smoke. In fact, if anything the rumors are only picking up steam.
Per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, “There’s a growing sense in league circles, as explained by multiple league sources to PFT over the past two days, that Gruden will return to Tampa Bay as the next coach of the Buccaneers.”
The Bucs do need a new spark. Perhaps the old spark will suffice.
Dirk Koetter, despite his claims to the contrary, has lost his locker room, and he lost it early in the season. He’s also seemingly lost the ability to effectively communicate with young quarterback Jameis Winston, who has been a guy Gruden has been excited about since his rookie campaign.
As we all know, Gruden helped the Buccaneers win a Super Bowl after being traded from Oakland. Then he retired and has been doing work as an NFL analyst for ESPN ever since. He’s been the guy everyone talks about whenever a new coaching job opens up, and he’s done nothing to quell rumors with his ambiguous comment like, “you never say never.”
If the Bucs are looking to move on from Koetter, they could do a lot worse than bringing back Gruden, who still is as plugged-in as ever before to what’s been going on around the league.