Raiders Jon Gruden Bluntly Declares, "I stunk."
Henderson, Nev -- Coach Jon Gruden of the Las Vegas Raiders is a lot of things, but disingenuous is not one of them.
He was recently asked at training camp if the third year in his system and more weapons equaled expectations of a breakout season for quarterback Derek Carr.
Gruden had none of that. In today's pass the buck era, he went right to the head of the team, the man he sees in the mirror every day and called himself out.
"We need a healthy supporting cast," Gruden said. "It helps when Trent Brown plays. It helps when Gabe Jackson is healthy. It helps when we have Josh Jacobs back there. I think a healthy Tyrell Williams, the addition of some of these receivers will be helpful."
Gruden then added: "We stunk last year, I stunk inside the 1-yard line. That will really help our offense if I can call some better plays and give these guys a chance to poke it in from inside the 2- or 3-yard line. That's where your points per game and all the statistics will improve. We got stuffed twice in Green Bay. We got stuffed against Denver. We got stuffed against Tennessee. We got stuffed too many times down inside the 2-yard line. That's all my fault. We have to address our tight, tight, tight goal line offense to be a good scoring team."
I have written this offseason repeatedly that Derek Carr can't catch the passes that he threw last season. He couldn't block for Josh Jacobs on the offensive line after handing off.
While Gruden isn't paid to execute the plays, that is up to his high compensated players. But when the injury bug struck in 2019, there wasn't much he or Carr could do.
That is why Gruden's mea culpa was refreshing and fair.
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