Raiders QB Derek Carr opens up on what it's like to play for Jon Gruden
If the Oakland Raiders hope to recapture the success they enjoyed in 2016-2017, when they went 12-4, newly hired head coach Jon Gruden and quarterback Derek Carr are going to need to get along.
Last season, the Raiders disappointed, as their 6-10 record led to the firing of coach Jack Del Rio and the return of Gruden. After a great 2016 season, Carr took a step back, throwing just 22 touchdowns compared to 13 interceptions.
A change is what they needed, and it seems that’s what they’re getting with Gruden, a notoriously unfiltered coach who is known for pushing his players.
So how does Carr, an outspoken Christian, feel about his new coach’s intense nature and often unfiltered language?
“I think we both found it pretty amusing,” Carr said Tuesday, referring to the first time he heard Gruden get a point across in his own unique way. “If they were to sit down in a room and hear us talk and get after it, they would see we’re eerily similar.”
“Obviously just because they haven’t heard me say the `F-word’ before, they assume I can’t handle hearing it,” he added, per the Bay Area News Group.
As the team’s star player, Carr has been spending a lot of time with Gruden, and the quarterback said they have yet to “clash.” Still, he did note the challenge of playing under such a detail-oriented coach.
“I meet with him every morning,” Carr said. “He’ll say something to me at 5:30 and won’t bring it up the rest of the day. Then he’ll throw it at me in practice, making sure I’m still on top of the little thing he gave me in the morning. He just continues to push me and get everything out of me and it’s been really cool.”
The Raiders are currently in their second week of non-contact practice sessions, and Carr and his teammates seem to be getting used to Gruden’s spontaneous leadership style.
“He’s trying to make you uncomfortable, giving you the toughest looks,” Carr said. “He doesn’t want everything to be perfect every day, and game-like. It’s so uncomfortable that when we get to the games, it’s going to be nice.”
Gruden doesn’t hesitate to criticize his quarterback when he sees the need, but Carr isn’t offended because he knows it will help him become a better player.
“When (Gruden) gets after me, I probably deserve it, and secondly, I love it because I know he wants to get the best out of me,” Carr said. “He’s training me to think like him, and it’s fun.”
Gruden has not only had an effect on Carr; he is impacting the rest of the team as well.
Tight end Jared Cook, for example, likes what Gruden has brought to the table.
“Absolutely,” Cook said when asked if he felt rejuvenated. “You kind of enter it cautiously a little bit at first. But, I think he definitely has guys buying in. I mean, I bought in for sure, because he knows what he’s talking about. You can tell a difference in a coach that knows what he’s talking about and a coach that does not. He knows what he’s talking about.”
Defensive end Bruce Irvin, meanwhile, emphasized how intense Gruden is, but said he’s motivated by that.
“He’s a great motivator,” Irvin said, according to ESPN.
“He talks s— like I talk s—, so we get along,” he added. “We’ve got a great relationship. He speaks his mind, I speak my mind. I come to work, he comes to work. You couldn’t ask to work with a (better) person like that. A guy who is football, football, football. That’s all it’s about — winning and football. That’s the type of coach you want in the building.”
In his second go-round, Gruden, it would seem, is a hit in Oakland.
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