Jon Gruden on rumors Raiders wanted to draft a QB: ‘I don’t understand it’

Jon Gruden is entering his second season in his return as coach of the Oakland Raiders, and make no mistake about it: he’s building this roster.

So naturally, questions about whether Derek Carr is his preferred choice at quarterback began this offseason and spiked during the run-up to the NFL Draft. The Raiders were pegged as a team that could potentially trade up for Kyler Murray or simply wait and select Dwayne Haskins (or even Drew Lock) with one of their three first-round picks.

Instead, Gruden and general manager Mike Mayock selected Clelin Ferrell with the fourth overall pick, Joshua Jacobs with the 24th selection, and Johnathan Abram at No. 27. In fact, the Raiders didn’t select a quarterback at all in the entire 2019 draft.

Gruden spoke with NBC Sports’ Peter King about the team’s alleged interest in this year’s quarterbacks and described it as, well, confusing.

“I kept watching a guy on NFL Network saying we’re going up to get Murray. Then he says we’re going up to get [Dwayne] Haskins,” Gruden told King. “Then he says we’re going up to get [Drew] Lock. We’re trading [Derek] Carr. I don’t understand it.”

It’s obvious that this isn’t Gruden’s first rodeo. He knows he has to be deliberate with his answers about the quarterback position, especially with a player like Carr who by all reports is well-liked and respected in the locker room.

And let’s not forget Carr has a cap hit of more than $27 million this year.

The Raiders can move on from the former second-rounder in 2020 with little financial consequence; his dead cap figure drops to just $5 million next season. So if there’s any year Oakland (or, soon-to-be Las Vegas) is going to move on from Carr, it’ll be in next year’s draft. There was no chance it would happen this year.

It’s good timing for the Raiders, too. The 2020 NFL draft has several quarterback prospects who could end up as legitimate first-round prospects like Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and Oregon’s Justin Herbert, and Georgia’s Jake Fromm has all the makings of a strong Day-2 prospect with starter’s upside.

Carr is essentially entering a prove-it year, one in which he won’t have to look over his shoulder because of a highly drafted rookie waiting for an opportunity. And that’s a good thing for the Raiders, who could be a team ready to make a surprising playoff run in 2019.