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Jon Gruden Bites His Lip on the Shotgun

There's no two ways around this. Jon Gruden is lying through his teeth.

"I love the shotgun. I like being under the center and we fumbled one of those, too," Gruden said. "No matter what happens, we're still going to snap the darn ball to the quarterback, whether it's in the gun or underneath."

Right. Jon Gruden loves the shotgun formation the same way Drew Carey loves the Baltimore Ravens. He's spent years avoiding the use of the shotgun in his offense because he's always been of the school that thinks the further away a quarterback is from center, the more opportunities there are for things to go wrong.

Last week's preseason game against the Jaguars highlighted that. Jeff Garcia and Matt Lehr made a mess of two shotgun exchanges, which must have had steam coming out of ol' Chucky's ears. The only reason he's committing to it now is because he needs to do something with this offense, and using the shotgun could help Garcia be a little more productive.

Gruden can say he doesn't have a problem with it all he wants. He's only saying that for the same reason he's using the shotgun in the first place -- to save his job. If it doesn't work, rest assured he'll never use it again if he can help it.

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