With free agency a week away, everybody wants to talk about Tom Brady. Except Jon Gruden.
The Raiders coach, appearing recently at an event in the team’s new hometown, bristled at a question about the team’s interest in the six-time Super Bowl winner.
“You’re killing me, man,” Gruden said, via John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We love our quarterback. Our quarterback’s a really good player, Derek Carr. I want to reiterate that to everybody here in Vegas. We’ve got a good, young quarterback, and the film, the statistics and analytics prove it.”
Gruden may want to reiterate that to G.M. Mike Mayock, who continues to say that the Raiders are always looking to upgrade at every position. Including quarterback. Then again, Gruden said the same thing.
“We’re going to be in the market to try to improve at every position,” Gruden said. “That’s what we’re gonna do.”
The Raiders previously have been linked to Brady, nearly a month has passed without any significant reporting linking Brady to Las Vegas. If the Raiders were plotting a run at Brady, more reports to that effect likely would have emerged, especially since Gruden (as former Gruden pupil Chris Simms has surmised in the past) would be unable to not bounce the possibility off of others, who would then be tempted to tell a reporter or two that Gruden is talking about chasing Brady.
Either way, Gruden was smart to not comment on Brady. Even if the tampering rules are rarely enforced, teams are prohibited from publicly expressing interest on players who are under contract with other teams.