Raiders Received Four Picks and $8 Million For Jon Gruden

Published on April 20th, 2024 3:02 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


On February 18th, 2002, the biggest trade in the history of the NFL involving a head coach went down.

On that day, Jon Gruden was traded from the Oakland Raiders to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In return, the Raiders received:

First Round Pick in 2002
First Round Pick in 2003
Second Round Pick in 2002
Second Round Pick in 2004
$8 million cash

Both teams were looking to make a change at the time.

The Oakland Raiders were months removed from the "Tuck Rule" game, and Jon Gruden's contract was about to expire.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers felt like they were close to taking the next step, and had just fired Tony Dungy after yet another unsuccessful trip to the playoffs.

The Buccaneers had interviewed a number of other top names, including Marvin Lewis, Nick Saban and Norv Turner. The Buccaneers had also attempted to lure Bill Parcells out of retirement, but had failed.

The Buccaneers were getting fairly desperate, and the Raiders certainly weren't against the idea of moving on from Gruden.

Negotiations started between the two teams, and a deal was reached to send Gruden to the Buccaneers.

The Raiders received an absolute haul for their head coach. They felt as though they still had an excellent team and that the bundle of assets that they had received back was too much to say no to.

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In the end, the move paid off for the Buccaneers, as they ended up winning the title at Super Bowl 37 on January 26th, 2003.

Their opponents? The Oakland Raiders.

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The Bucs would never match the same level of success during Gruden's reign, and he would end up getting fired in 2008.

Gruden did help to bring the Buccaneers a title, however, and that made their massive gamble worth it.