If Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis had his way, Jack Del Rio would have never been hired as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders.
According to Del Rio himself, the former USC All-American linebacker knew going into the job that he was Davis’ second choice.
Del Rio recently joined Woody Paige on The Woody Paige Podcast and detailed the whole thing.
“Well, it’s really simple. Mark Davis has always been fascinated with Jon Gruden.
When he signed me, believe or not, he said, ‘you know if I could’ve gotten Jon Gruden we wouldn’t be doing this.’ And I was kind of like, ‘well, that’s a weird thing to say, but okay.’
I then asked him, ‘did you try to get Jon?’ He said, ‘oh yeah, I tried. But I couldn’t get him.’ That was kind of weird to say, but it was the truth, and he was always honest with me.
He (Davis) paid me well, and he’s still paying me well, and he was always honest. In his mind, if he had any chance to get Jon, then he would do anything necessary to make it happen. That’s really what it was.”
Needless to say, Del Rio never truly had any sense of job security in Oakland. In his defense, he had done a far better job in rebuilding the respectability of Raiders than any of his predecessors not named Jon Gruden since the turn of the millennium.
In three years (2015-2017), Del Rio posted a 25-23 overall record with one playoff appearance — the Raiders’ only postseason trip since the 2002 season. More importantly, he had help assemble a roster that had Pro Bowl talent at three key positions — quarterback (Derek Carr), edge rusher (Khalil Mack), and wide receiver (Amari Cooper).
This didn’t exactly help ease the sting of losing his job after only three seasons.
“In my three years we had a winning record, and the Raiders were a long way from winning anything when I got there,” Del Rio, who grew up rooting for the Raiders, said. “We left him (Gruden) a pretty good team, even though he ended up making some moves to weaken it. We left him what I thought was a pretty good team.”
Del Rio hasn’t ruled out a return to coaching someday, but his immediate future lays in the studios of ESPN as an analyst on NFL Live.
The interview with Del Rio can be heard in its entirety on The Woody Paige Podcast on Apple Podcasts and PodcastOne.
