Raiders make it official: Jon Gruden is their new coach

The worst-kept secret of the week has been confirmed: Jon Gruden will return to coach the Oakland Raiders.

The NFL club took to Twitter on Saturday afternoon to offer its former coach a “welcome back.”

It had been reported from a number of media outlets that Gruden would return as coach and receive a formal introduction Tuesday during a news conference.

Gruden had said earlier Saturday during a national broadcast of the AFC wild-card game between the Titans and Chiefs in Kansas City that “nothing’s official yet” when play-by-play broadcaster Sean McDonough wished him well in his new endeavour.

The Raiders fired coach Jack Del Rio after the team went 6-10 this year, following a season in which they made the playoffs with a record of 12-4.

Gruden reportedly will receive a 10-year contract worth $100 million. He last coached with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2008.

The Raiders released a one-sentence statement with their tweet:

“The Oakland Raiders will host a press conference at noon on Tuesday, Jan. 9 to officially introduce Jon Gruden as the new head coach of the Silver and Black.”

Gruden had a record of 38-26 in four seasons with the Raiders, who traded him to the Buccaneers in a rare move before the 2002 season, when Tampa Bay met Oakland in the Super Bowl and won, 48-21.

Gruden has an overall coaching record of 95-81. He went 9-7 in each of his last two seasons with the Buccaneers.