Oakland Raiders fire head coach Jack Del Rio after season finale
The Oakland Raiders headed into their season finale against the Los Angeles Chargers with high hopes of ending the year on a high note with a win over their division rivals. Unfortunately, it didn’t go that way with the team losing in convincing fashion and their head coach Jack Del Rio getting fired promptly after the game was over.
According to Nick Shook of NFL.com, the Raiders are moving on from Del Rio.
Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio announced after the Raiders’ 30-10 loss to the Chargers that owner Mark Davis had informed him that he had been fired.
“We appreciate Jack’s effort in building the foundation of this team for the future,” Davis said in a statement released by the team. “Thank you to Jack, his wife, Linda, and his daughter, Aubrey, for their important contributions to the Raiders and our local community in Oakland. We wish them all the best.”
With the team officially parting ways with Del Rio, the attention turns to the Raiders brass and their rumored pursuit of Jon Gruden. All signs point to the team reuniting with Gruden as he seems finally ready to step away from the broadcast booth and head back to the sideline in the NFL.
As a result of the Raiders moving so quickly to fire Del Rio, many believe that Gruden may be a done deal for Oakland, including ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
"Jon Gruden is going to be the next coach of the Oakland Raiders." – @AdamSchefter pic.twitter.com/S4RiYzHXTq
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 1, 2018
It’ll be interesting to see how things pan out in Oakland as the team makes the transition from Del Rio to Gruden or another candidate that may emerge. The real question at this point may be how long it’ll take until the Raiders make it official that Gruden is their next head coach.
