Jon Gruden didn’t want to hear about Amari Cooper at Antonio Brown’s introductory press conference

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ALAMEDA — Jon Gruden got angry for a moment during Antonio Brown’s introductory press conference.

Brown, 31, is a seven-time Pro Bowler who has gained at least 1,200 receiving yards and caught at least eight touchdown passes six seasons in a row. The Raiders acquired him in a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers in exchange for a third-round pick and a fifth-round pick, a shrewd deal for the Raiders.

A reporter had asked Gruden if he plans to adjust his conservative passing game, which emphasizes short throws, to accommodate Brown, an explosive wide receiver down the field. But the reporter prefaced the question by mentioning former Raiders wide receiver Amari Cooper, whom the team traded last October. Gruden didn’t like hearing about Cooper.

Here’s why.

This article has 44 Comments

    1. Grant as Iron Man, taking on Thanos (Gruden). Coming to a theater near you ‘GrantCohn – Endgame‘…

  1. It’s funny how much Davis disliked the WCO short passing game (no surprise since he made his bones with a vertical passing game in the 60’s and 70’s) yet was such a big influence on Bill Walsh the creator of the original WCO. I think the two were still professional friends (or at least respected each other as professionals…with Walsh acknowledging Davis’ influence)…especially after Walsh retired from coaching the 49ers.

    Gruden must be lacking sleep (no surprise for an NFL Head Coach). He could have easily ignored the Cooper part of the question and emphasized how awesome he thinks Brown is and how well he’ll do in the offense (which he sort of did after is initial irritable response).

    1. Gruden’s record is way overblown. Harbaugh gets down graded because he walked into a situation where most of the heavy lifting was done by others prior to his arrival. Deserved or not? I say probably not. But Chucky literally was handed a Bucs team built by others and, aside from not screwing it up, really has not done near enough to be considered one of the best HCs in the game. Davis is trading on his star quality and trying to leverage it to get the team into Las Vegas (as some have accused Jed of doing with Harbaugh). He is what we call a legend in his own mind and, I completely agree, could have easily just stonewalled and answered with anything he wanted to say.

  2. I don’t like the question. It smacks as a gotchya type question. There are many reasons to trade a guy. Bad work ethic. Bad fit in the locker room. Bad attitude with coaches. Lack of production. You can say Cooper is the same type of receiver as Brown but Brown has had significantly more on-field success. Plus if they are the same type of player then Gruden basically kept a better version of Amari Cooper and turned a 3rd + 5th round pick into the 27th pick in the first round. What does the draft chart say about that trade? Seems to me the Amari Cooper trade is working out in the Raiders favor. At the end of the day though, I don’t give a damn. It’s the Raiders.

    1. whine country and Houston 9er – actually the question is legitimate because Gruden was sitting on stage with the other ESPN gel heads on draft day and espoused that Cooper was a franchise WR and definitely the receiver the Raiders needed to reestablish their deep passing game.

      Forward to the fall of the 2018 season where there was a concern by Gruden and others about Cooper’s agent, Joel Segal, being a stickler for renegotiation of contracts for Cooper, Mack and Joseph. Mack was shipped off to Chicago and Cooper traded to the Cowboys. Mark Davis then comes out and claims that Cooper was traded because Amari did not fit Gruden’s system, which is known to be a conservative pass offense.

      Then, Gruden goes out and trades for Antonio Brown, who is a multi-year product of success featured in the Steelers deep passing offense with Big Ben hurling the ball down the field, quite contrary to Chucky’s backyard pass offense.

      Obviously, such a trade for that style of a deep threat player following the trade of Cooper because of lack of fit in the system brings about the question asked.

      Additionally, what is all of the hype about a coach who is 49-63 for a W-L % of 43.75 since he won a Super Bowl in Tampa with Tony Dungy’s players? 10 years for $100Million is a bit outlandish.

      How many other NFL coaches still are employed after that 8-year record on their resume?????

      Jeff Fisher is out there somewhere wondering, why not me? 173-165 in regular season play for a W-L % of 51.2% and a post-season record of 5-6 with 1 SB loss.

      Gruden’s regular season W-L record is 99-93 for a W-L % of 51.5625% Post-season is 5-4 with a SB win

    1. Two professionals just doing their job and one loses it and acts like a fool. Guess which one? (Hint – it wasn’t Grant)
      Maybe Gruden hurt his arm while patting himself on the back too hard.

      1. Not a Gruden fan, but the question was too long and instigative. I in no way alluded to Gruden’s reaction as satisfactory, but he could have been much meaner. Such as, “Amari Cooper? Amari Cooper?(insert voice inflection as in ‘Playoffs’?) Is he even here? No he’s not, because I shipped him out! Antonio Brown is here now”. Gruden turns and points at Brown. “I’ve got Mr. Big Chest, and there’s nothing he can’t do. He’s the best WR in the NFL, and you want to talk about a player that’s not even here? Next question”.

        In other words Mr. Whine Country, he treated Grant with kid gloves when he could have given him the slap down….

  3. Sure sign of a fragile ego, can’t handle having his motivations questioned.

  4. Okay, okay. Gruden has a frail ego and Grant ‘Iron Man‘ Cohn nailed his butt–and made sure we knew about it. Five points for Grant.

    Can we get back to the 9ers, like what may be developing FA-wise over the next several days?

  5. “No, we won’t have to adjust anything. We didn’t have to adjust much with Amari. But this is not about comparing receivers.”
    ———
    It’s too bad you didn’t get to follow up with pointing out that the question wasn’t about comparing receivers but instead questioning why he would replace receivers in a system that doesn’t utilize the two players talents to their fullest.

    The second part about finding the best receiver is a bit of a slap in the face to the receivers already on the team. He basically told them that they were good but the unit wasn’t great until the one player joined them. Nice team building there friend.

  6. Grant nailed it, but sometimes, the truth hurts.
    .
    Imagine, if a media person can make Gruden lose his cool, what will an opposing HC do?
    .
    Grant was just doing his job, and doing it well.

  7. Hey Grant the look on Grudens face after you asked that question was priceless lol

  8. Grant do the other media members get mad at you when you make Gruden uncomfortable like that? It seems like the other bay area media members kiss Grudens butt

      1. I bet they didn’t like it even there insider Scot Bair doesn’t ever challenge Gruden it’s like he’s scared to lose his job lol

      2. Grant didn’t get the memo, haha. Glad he didn’t, lol.
        Oh…Golden Tate gone to the Giants 4yr/$37M..$23M gaur.

    1. That was great Grant….He very well knows what the point of your question was, you just spelled it out what he said earlier. That look, his eyes and smoke coming out of his ears was priceless. You hit him right between the eyes, no other writer has the b***s to ask him that.

  9. No wonder KS is afraid to give Grant a one on one interview. he probably does not want to end up like Gruden.

  10. Gruden is the most overrated Coach in NFL history, he was handed a Buc’s team, like Barry Switzer was handed a Cowboys team. He has next to nothing skills in selecting top talent in the draft, only picked one pro-bowler in 6 or 7 years of drafting for the Bucs. When are we going to hear from Grant, that Gruden should be fired, lol ?

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