I feel like the problem is more like that we are never in a rebuild, except for Gruden’s start. And even then we kept the QB. Which other coach traded away several stars for first round picks? Usually every new coach tries to win with the roster someone else build and gets that one big name signing, that gets us excited and wins us 6-7 games. It’s always “The team is not that bad, we can compete now” even if we suck for twenty years. Then we hit a ceiling because we didn’t do the proper rebuild and shortly after the coach gets fired again.
If Gruden hit on some first round picks, this could have been a Super Bowl team by 2021. But we are too impatient to try it again. The obsession with “competing now” leads to us never making the steps to get competitive in the future.
I think we could have kept him, if McDaniels wanted him as ST coordinator. He was under contract. But usually new head coaches fire almost everyone and bring in their own people.