Jon Gruden was on the sidelines Monday in Allen Park, where the branches of his coaching tree continue to grow. The former head coach of the Raiders and Buccaneers stopped by Lions training camp to watch practice as he plots a comeback to the NFL and saw several of his proteges doing their thing in Detroit.
Lions offensive coordinator John Morton, passing game coordinator David Shaw, quarterbacks coach Mark Brunell and offensive assistants Bruce Gradkowski and Marques Tuiasosopo "all were with me at some point in time," said Gruden, either as coaches or players.
"So it's cool to see them out here working," said Gruden, 61. "I have no doubt that the Lions are in good hands on offense."
Morton, 55, got his start in coaching in 1998 when Gruden hired him as an offensive assistant with the Raiders. He wound up being roommates with Shaw, who was an offensive quality control coach on the same staff. Morton spent four years under Gruden learning his version of the West Coast offense and considers him one of his foremost mentors as a coach. They reunited with the Raiders two decades later during Gruden's second stint as head coach.
Morton said he "thought I knew football" until Gruden started assigning him various projects in his first year with the Raiders -- "Go do this, go do that" --and "all of a sudden you start learning football." Morton credits Gruden for being the first coach to diversify the traditional West Coast offense with "different formations, shifts, and motions and things like that. He just opens your eyes to the whole aspect of everything."
Gruden expects to see the same concepts in Morton's offense in Detroit, which will place a lot of pre-snap decisions on the shoulders of Jared Goff.
"A lot of compressed formations. I mean, he was here with Ben Johnson before, he helped put the offense in initially. Jared is going to do a lot at the line of scrimmage," said Gruden. "You're going to hear RCE a lot. I used to have hats made. Recognition leads to communication, and if we can do that, we're going to execute at a high level.
"You're going to see a lot of pre-snap movement where you're trying to recognize what's going on, and you're going to see communication. Then you'll see Gibbs and St. Brown and LaPorta execute at a high level, I have a feeling."
Gruden chatted for a bit with Goff and a few others after Monday's practice. Asked about the Lions' 30-year-old quarterback who's coming off the best season of his career, he offered some extremely high praise.
"I hate to throw comparisons out, but the number (16) and continuous movement that he plays with, he always reminded me of (Joe) Montana, from the days I was with the 49ers," Gruden said. "My dad coached at Notre Dame with Joe. There was a similar personality, a similar playing style. He is one tough cat in the pocket."
As for Morton, Gruden said that on top of his offensive creativity, the Lions are getting a coach whose work ethic is almost unmatched.
"This guy is nuts. People thought I was nuts. This guy is freaking nuts, man," said Gruden. "He loves it, he's a creative guy, he's a great competitor, and I can't wait to see the Lions open up the season."
And who knows. While Gruden has been out of coaching since his second stint with the Raiders ended in controversy after an investigation into the Washington Commanders for workplace misconduct unearthed offensive emails that Gruden had sent to the team's former GM, he's aiming to return to the sidelines in the NFL.
"Hopefully I'm not done," Gruden said. "I'm about to make a comeback. I'm working hard to get one more shot. Hopefully, some of these guys that have fallen off my branch, if you say it that way, maybe they can hire me, because I'm looking for a job."
Gruden said that at his home office in Florida, he's still digesting the game like a coach: "I still study all the tapes and make my cutups. People come down and we study film. I've been to a few training camps and I love it. I miss it. I'm still the biggest football fan out there." And when he visits teams around the league this time of year and watches them practice, "it just gets me going."
"I wake up in July and August and I get the shakes," he said with a smile. "You know what I mean? It's just awesome hearing the pads popping, the snap count, see the guys struggling physically, fighting through stuff. It's just really, really a great time in my life. I spent most of my life doing this, and it's really an honor to be back here."