Jon Gruden relishes role as Raiders’ free agent closer

ORLANDO, Fla. — When wide receiver Jordy Nelson visited the Raiders, he signed.

When linebacker Tahir Whitehead and cornerback Rashaan Melvin visited, they signed.

Defensive end Tank Carradine visited the Raiders on a Thursday and the Seattle Seahawks on a Friday. He then returned to California and signed. Linebacker Emmanuel Lamur visited the Raiders with the full intention to visit the Miami Dolphins the next day. The South Florida native arrived, looked around and instead signed.

Coach Jon Gruden scrunched his face Tuesday into a mischievous grin.

“You come in,” he said. “You don’t come out.”

The Raiders aren’t quite batting 1.000 on their free agency wish list. But if the team finishes games in 2018 as well as it’s closed on free agents, it figures to improve upon last season’s 6-10 record. Gruden discussed his approach to such visits while adding Tuesday that the Raiders aren’t finished bolstering their roster with veterans yet.

A mixture of honesty and effort is required.

“We put a lot of work into it,” Gruden said. “We might put together a video. We might show them how we’re going to use them, and I try to convince them, ‘If there’s a better deal, take it. I’m not going to beg you, but if you’ve got a better deal than this, the one I just showed you, take it. Good luck to you. Congratulations.’ You want to be honest with these guys. You don’t want these guys to sign up for your team and have them come in and go, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’

“You try to show them what the plan is, a specific plan, and then you try to reel them in and also encourage them to look elsewhere if it doesn’t feel right. I ask them to interview us as much as us interviewing them. I want them to be totally comfortable with where we’re going.”

Some of the Raiders’ signees committed before visiting.

The team’s ability, however, to convert interest into action during visits helped it officially sign an NFL-high 19 players this month, including three from the 2017 roster. That is not when including tendered exclusive-rights free agents or safety Reggie Nelson, who agreed to terms last week but had not been formally re-signed.

By comparison in the AFC West, as of Tuesday, the Kansas City Chiefs totaled 11 veteran player acquisitions in March. The Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers were at seven and five, respectively. Last year, the Raiders signed four players in March: tight end Jared Cook, quarterback EJ Manuel, offensive tackle Marshall Newhouse, linebacker Jelani Jenkins and long snapper Jon Condo.

This month was not perfect.

Wide receiver Ryan Grant (Indianapolis Colts) and defensive tackle Clinton McDonald (Chiefs) visited the Raiders but signed elsewhere. Wide receiver Eric Decker visited but remains a free agent. Nose tackle Ndamukong Suh was scheduled to visit last week, but he canceled the visit before committing Monday to the Los Angeles Rams on a reported one-year, $14 million contract.

Work remains. Gruden identified interior pass rush, secondary, wide receiver and offensive tackle as among the top needs. The team remains in talks with Drew Rosenhaus, agent for linebacker NaVorro Bowman. There also is the April 26 to 28 draft to serve as an opportunity to supplement the roster.

March 15 might be remembered as the signature day of the Raiders’ 2018 free-agency rush. Whitehead, Jordy Nelson, running back Doug Martin, safety Marcus Gilchrist, fullback Keith Smith and tight end Derek Carrier all signed that day.

Gruden had met with Martin in Florida earlier in the month.

“It was exciting,” Gruden said of the six-player haul. “We did a did a good job of when we got a guy on site, for the most part, we signed him. We got him. We were able to wow him.”

Players spoke highly of their interactions with the new Raiders coach.

Smith said his conversation with Gruden made him feel “ready to be out there on the field, right then and there.” Martin said that, during their visit, Gruden shared his expectations for Martin in 2018.

“He has that type of effect on people that he got me very excited,” Martin said. “He got me very excited to come here.”

Same goes for Whitehead.

“What really attracted me was Jon Gruden,” Whitehead said. “Great guy in the league. Grew up watching some of the teams he’s coached. That right there in itself was enough for me to be motivated to come out here. And when I got here, first visit and only visit, I felt good about the coaching staff. I felt good about the energy in the building. Everyone that I bumped into, it was a good feeling.”

They visited.

They signed.

Contact reporter Michael Gehlken at mgehlken@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GehlkenNFL on Twitter.