Jon Gruden Reportedly Ready to Return to Sidelines in 2012

Jon Gruden is currently a member of the Monday Night Football announcing team, but according to Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com, Gruden is prepared to return to coaching in 2012.

Gruden signed a new, five-year deal with ESPN, but he may not honor any of that contract if Florio's report turns out to be true. Florio and Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune have speculated that Gruden might follow San Diego Chargers general manager A.J. Smith to St. Louis in order to coach the Rams.

This is, of course, contingent upon Smith getting fired by the Chargers, but that seems likely after a second straight non-playoff season for San Diego. Florio also believes that if Smith stays with the Chargers he could fire current head coach Norv Turner and bring in Gruden, although the St. Louis scenario looks to be the chief one at this point.

Despite speculation to the contrary, ESPN maintains that Gruden is going to be in the fold for the foreseeable future.

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Jon signed a multi-year extension with ESPN this fall, ESPN said in a statement provided to PFT. He remains committed to being a part of Monday Night Football for many years.

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St. Louis may turn out to be an ideal landing spot for Gruden. Depending upon what the Rams and the Indianapolis Colts do in Week 17, the Rams will have either the No. 2 or No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft. This means the Rams could either draft Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck and trade him for assets, or draft Luck, keep him, and trade quarterback Sam Bradford for a solid return.

Either way Gruden will have a promising young quarterback to work with, along with plenty of other talent. The Rams may only have two wins on the season, but they came within a tiebreaker of winning the NFC West last year and simply need to make some improvements along the offensive line and on defense.

Gruden has long been known as an offensive guru, especially when it comes to mentoring quarterbacks. He was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders for four seasons and he last coached for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2008.

In his first season with the Bucs in 2002, Gruden led Tampa to its first and only Super Bowl Championship with a win over the Raiders. In his 11 years as an NFL head coach Gruden has had only three losing seasons, so his winning mentality would certainly be welcomed by the beleaguered Rams.