Former Buccaneers HC Jon Gruden Reportedly Drew Interest From AFC Team

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been busy with their own assistant coaching searches this offseason, hiring OC Zac Robinson and special teams coordinator Danny Smith, with more assistants on the way. Elsewhere around the league, though, a legendary Bucs head coach was getting some interest for an assistant coach job of his own.

Jon Gruden has been with Barstool Sports since 2024 and has been out of coaching since 2021, but one AFC team contacted him in an effort to bring him back to the sidelines. Per a new report, the New York Jets were interested in bringing Gruden in — just not as head coach.

New York Jets Wanted Jon Gruden On Staff

Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden looks on during the second half against the Los Angeles Chargers | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Per The Athletic's Zack Rosenblatt, the Jets reached out to Gruden to potentially have him join head coach Aaron Glenn's staff. Reportedly, Gruden wasn't interested.

The #Jets reached out to Jon Gruden about the idea of joining Aaron Glenn's staff, according to multiple sources. Gruden wasn't interested in the job. pic.twitter.com/2clDfvTXDr
— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) January 28, 2026

Gruden left the NFL in 2021 when a controversy around newly-unearthed emails that featured sexist, racist and homophobic comments caused him to resign as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Since then, he's been with Barstool Sports, and while he's made a name for himself as a content creator, he's expressed interest in returning to coaching multiple times.

This, however, didn't seem like an opportunity Gruden wanted. It's possible that he simply wanted a head coaching job and didn't want to be an offensive coordinator (or even lower on the totem pole) in New York, but it's also possible that the publicly dysfunctional staff Glenn is running isn't all that appealing, either.

There would likely be some legal hoops to jump through if Gruden were to return to the NFL. Gruden sued the NFL after those emails came out, and that case is continuing after the NFL was unable to force it into arbitration. Should any team want Gruden to coach there, both parties would likely have to deal with that first.

For now, though, Gruden remains with Barstool. He still lives in Tampa and was recently let back in to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Ring of Honor after being removed from in after the controversy, and he's still looking for one more shot at football coaching — just not with the Jets.

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