Does Jon Gruden deserve a second chance as an NFL head coach?

With the 2024 NFL regular season heading into its final week, the league's coaching carousel has been circulating names as potential replacements. On Tuesday, NFL Network's Tom Pelissero added a "surprise" candidate to the swirl of possibilities — Jon Gruden.

According to Pelissero, "multiple teams" are considering the 61-year-old Gruden as their next head coach and are doing "extensive homework" on "him as a coach, him as a person" since he resigned as Las Vegas Raiders head coach in 2021 after "offensive emails were leaked to the media."

"I would not be surprised at all if in the coming weeks you see Jon Gruden's name popping up (and he is) interviewing for a head coaching job," Pelissero said.

“My understand is that if [Jon Gruden] had wanted the [Saints] offensive coordinator job last year, he could have had it.”
- Pelissero on Gruden’s potential in the head coach carousel this offseason. #Saints also mentioned around Mike Vrabel again here as well. https://t.co/KxQFJYNi5C
— Ross Jackson (@RossJacksonNOLA) December 31, 2024

Gruden's emergence as a candidate should not come as a surprise. A second chance, at least the consideration of one, was just a matter of time. The rehabilitation of his image was inevitable.

In August, Gruden appeared at Kansas City Chiefs training camp as a guest of head coach Andy Reid, a longtime friend, and in October, the Super Bowl LV champion with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers launched a YouTube channel and a TikTok account to reconnect with the masses and talk football. With whispers of his NFL exile coming to an end, Gruden joined Barstool Sports as its football analyst in November.

Gruden's emails — which included homophobic and misogynistic language and a racial trope to describe NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith, who is Black — prompted his abrupt departure five games into the 2021 season. The NFL teams who are reportedly considering him to be their head coach obviously feel he has paid enough of a price for the scandal.

The interested NFL teams also must reconcile the mediocre record in Gruden's second go-round with the Raiders.

Coaxed by owner Mark Davis to leave his "Monday Night Football" analyst role and return to the Silver and Black on a 10-year, $100 million contract, Gruden had total control of the roster. He presided over three-plus seasons — the first two in Oakland where his Raiders rebuild began with the controversial trade of Khalil Mack to the Chicago Bears — and managed a 22-31 record for a .415 winning percentage.

No interviews have taken place, but what exactly do these "multiple teams" see in Gruden? Are options that slim for NFL owners and front offices? Bill Belichick couldn't get a top job in the league. Could Gruden, another demanding head coach, really be hired again?

NFL teams doing "extensive homework" on Gruden will be enamored by the trademark passion and energy in his videos. However, when they've completed their research, they'll have to come to grips with some glaring red flags from his past — on and off the field. And the big question they'll have to answer is this: Is Jon Gruden still fit to be a leader of NFL players?

Don't be shocked if the answer is a resounding "yes."