Jon Gruden and Derek Carr reunite in the Big Easy

Jon Gruden returned to the NFL in an informal manner this week and it was a reunion with one of his former Las Vegas Raiders’ players.

According to Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen (like Gruden, a former Raiders’ head coach) had Gruden at the team’s OTA sessions this week to help work Derek Carr into the Saints offense.

The Raiders released Carr this offense and he signed to be New Orleans’ starter. So, Gruden is there to help with the transition. Carr and Gruden were together with the Raiders from 2018-21. Carr has solid success under Gruden and the two were close. They were also neighbors in Las Vegas.

The work with the Saints is reportedly Gruden’s first work with any NFL team since he was forced to resign as the Raiders coach in October, 2021 because of an email scandal. Gruden has a pending lawsuit against the NFL.

For now, it seems Gruden’s work with the Saints was just that of a consultant and was temporary. It will be interesting to see if anything more formal comes of it and perhaps Carr and Gruden will reunite on a permanent basis at some point.