Q&A: Jon Gruden talks Raiders at NFL meetings in Orlando

OAKLAND, Calif. — All NFL head coaches were required to meet Tuesday with reporters from 7:15 to 8:15 a.m. inside a hotel ballroom during the league’s owner meetings in Orlando, Florida.

Jon Gruden started about 10 minutes early. He stayed a few minutes late.

Talkative and animated, the Raiders coach lived up to his reputation as a morning person. Here are some snippets from his conversation, beginning with the topic of Josh Johnson. The team signed the backup quarterback this month. He was drafted to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2008, Grudens’ last year there as head coach.

Josh Johnson. Just as you remember him?

Gruden: He’s an Oakland Raider. Oakland ties. I’m bringing in — if you’re from Oakland, you’ve got a chance to sign with the Raiders. I’ve got Doug Martin. I’ve got Josh Johnson. I’ve got Marshawn Lynch, Oakland’s finest. … Josh was coached by Greg Olson, our offensive coordinator. Josh was coached by my brother after I had him, so hopefully he got better after I tried to screw him up. … He’ll compete for the backup job, and right now, it’s wide open.

“Oakland ties.” Why does that mean so much to you as you establish the culture you want in the locker room?

Gruden: A big reason I’m here again is I love Oakland. I had a son in Oakland. It’s my first head coaching job. It’s my team as a kid growing up. I had Fred Biletnikoff and Willie Brown on my coaching staff. I want to give the Raiders fans here in Oakland the best football we can give them, and if it’s one of their favorite sons doing it, I say it’s even better.

What do you remember about Derek Carr in the pre-draft segment together in 2014 on ESPN?

Gruden: I was shocked he wasn’t a first-round pick, but he put on a passing display that was eye-opening, for sure. … We put Go-Pros in the (passing targets’) bull’s-eye. We had four verticals, so you put the cameras in the bull’s-eye at the seam area, 18 to 20 yards deep on the numbers. And you have a free safety in the middle of the field, and you tell the quarterback to look off the free safety and throw that ball at that target.

Most quarterbacks didn’t even hit the target. He hit the bull’s-eye in the target. Smashed my Go-Pro. Ticked me off. Then he looked off the free safety and smashed the other Go-Pro. I said, ‘That’s a wrap! That’s a wrap!’ That was the greatest show of all-time. I’m surprised we didn’t win an award for that.

If there was one rule or part of the game you could change to make it better, what would it be?

Gruden: Just try to keep the game the same as it has been. I don’t like a lot of these new rules. I don’t understand them. It’s getting awful technical. I’d like to eliminate instant replay, honestly. That’d be my No. 1 thing. Let the officials call the game. That’s just my opinion. … If you threw that Slo-Mo (replay) out, I think you’d get back to common sense. Let the naked eye determine some of these calls.

What do you miss most about Al Davis?

I just miss his presence. There’s a presence of Al Davis. If you haven’t been around him, you have no idea what I’m talking about. He walked out of the locker room on Sunday, and he’d point to the Black Hole. It was just a presence that he had. In the meeting rooms with the coaches, when he talked to players, around the league he was well respected. And he knew the game. He was not an owner that just owned a team. He could come into your office and draw punt protection. … We imitate him. We have plays in the playbook that will be named after him. It’s pretty cool.

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