The Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Rams made some drastic changes during the NFL offseason. The Raiders focused their efforts on defense while the Rams made a major change at quarterback by acquiring Matthew Stafford.
Raiders legend Rich Gannon recently chimed in on the Rams making a move to trade for Stafford, making an interesting comparison for the new coach-quarterback combination in Los Angeles.
Gannon sees similarities between Sean McVay and Stafford duo in Los Angeles to himself and Jon Gruden when they were together in Oakland in an interview with Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times.
“You look at Sean and you look at Matthew. … I see some similarities to when I went to Oakland with Jon Gruden. I was at a point where I had bounced around a little bit and no one ever really. … I mean it’s different; he was the No. 1 draft pick and I kind of had to find my way. But he’s going to a situation where he’s a got a young head coach who’s a really good play caller, very innovative, really involved in coaching that position. And that’s where Jon was with me, and we just hit it off. We never looked back.
“I think Matthew is going to buy in and be all invested and be there and be that leader. It’s not going to take Matthew Stafford a season to take ownership of that team. The minute he walks in the building, that’s going to happen.”
With the Stafford-McVay duo having yet to play a game as coach and quarterback, it remains to be seen whether it will work out for the Rams in the same way it did for Gannon and Gruden.
Gruden helped resurrect Gannon’s career in Oakland as the Raiders became one of the best teams in the NFL at the time, with the veteran quarterback winning an NFL MVP award in the process.
