Cincinnati Bengals offensive coach Jay Gruden says will not pursue prospects elsewhere – NFL news
The Cincinnati Bengals have good news on the front of their offensive assistant coach, Jay Gruden, following his assurance on Wednesday, January 11, 2012, that he will not be pursuing job prospects with any other team in the National Football League (NFL).
Gruden was reported to have been pursued by a few teams, looking to hire a head coach, including Jacksonville Jaguars and St. Louis Rams, both having fired their full-time coaches.
However, the Bengals' offensive co-ordinator said that he was not interested to go anywhere else and therefore has pulled himself out of the rumoured contentions.
His assertion to keep working with the Bengals comes after reports that Jaguars have hired a full-time coach, disclosed to be Atlanta Falcons' assistant coach, Mike Mularkey.
Following the build up in the hype and speculations that Gruden was keen on exploring the opportunity of going elsewhere for the head coaching position, he cleared the air by writing on the team's official website: "decided to stay here and not pursue any
other job."
The news has been welcomed by the team players, who said it will allow them to focus more on the preparations with the next season on mind.
"We were going on the fly with no offseason workouts, and we're looking forward to being able to sit down and get to know it better," wide receiver, Andrew Hawkins, said.
"A change is something that could have killed your quarterback. Or take a guy like (tight end) Jermaine Gresham. It would have been his third system in three years. That's tough."
Meanwhile, their centre, Kyle Cook, called it awesome news.
"It's awesome that he would want to stay and build on what we've got here. Look at what he did here in just one year", Cook said.
Before joining the Cincinnati Bengals, Gruden has performed coaching duties at Tampa Bay Buccaneers for consecutive seasons, from 2002 to 2008.
He then went on to spend two years as an offensive co-ordinator in the United Football League (UFL).
He is with the Bengals since his departure from UFL, and as per his assurance, will be with them for at least another season.
The Bengals ended the 2011 regular season at a rather positive note. Having been out of the playoff race, they ended up pulling of an expected chance for a wild card into the second round of NFL.
They, however could not get it past further and ended up losing against the Houston Texans in the first phase of the postseason.
The team's management is still proud of its players to have achieved so much, as coach, Marvin Lewis, called it a chapter in the success story of his side.
"We're closing a chapter," he said. "The book's still being written."
They were the third team from the AFC North to have reached the playoff this season.
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