Gruden visited Saints after Allen sought ideas for Carr-led offense
New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen turned to Jon Gruden to see if the former Las Vegas Raiders sideline boss had any tips for the Saints' new Derek Carr-led offense.
Gruden, who coached Carr for three-plus seasons with the Raiders, spent last week with the Saints after the team sought his input on his former signal-caller.
"Obviously, Jon's a guy that has a lot of experience with Derek, and Derek has had his most success under Jon Gruden," Allen said Tuesday, according to ESPN's Katherine Terrell. "And so we felt like bringing him in, having a chance to sit down and visit with him as an offensive staff with the quarterbacks, and just getting some new thoughts and ideas of things we might be able to implement."
Despite the move, Allen pushed back on the notion that New Orleans' offense could undergo a drastic change with Carr under center.
"I would say, offensively, for a long time that I've been here, we've been pretty effective," he said. "So I don't see us putting in a whole new offense or doing something dramatic. But if there's a few ideas that we could take from (Gruden), we felt like that would be beneficial."
Gruden resigned as the Raiders' head coach during the 2021 season after reports revealed he sent emails using racist, homophobic, and misogynistic language while working for ESPN as a football analyst from 2009-17.
Carr threw for over 4,000 yards in each of his three full seasons with Gruden from 2018-20, posting a career-high 101.4 passer rating in 2020.
The Saints signed Carr to a four-year contract this offseason in hopes of improving an offense that finished 22nd in scoring during a 7-10 campaign.