Is Jerry Rice thinking of joining Jon Gruden-led Oakland Raiders?

Imagine seeing Derek Carr throw a touchdown pass to … Jerry Rice.

The 55-year-old Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver threw that notion out this week on “The Adam Schefter Podcast.”

If Raiders coach Jon Gruden wanted to sign Rice, would he go?

“I would be on the football field in a heartbeat,” Rice said, laughing. “I wouldn’t even give it a second thought, because, you know, I played it for over 20 years and I still think I played it the right way because I was like a little kid on the football field.”

Rice played for the Raiders from 2001 (Gruden’s last season of his first stint in Oakland) until 2004 when he was traded to the Seattle Seahawks.

He spent his first 16 seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, a career that saw three Super Bowl wins.

Rice was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010, his first year of eligibility.

Schefter’s question apparently wasn’t all pie-in-the-sky. Rice shared a conversation he says he had with Gruden at the coach’s introductory news conference.

“I was joking around with Jon Gruden about this because I told him, I said ‘Jon,’ I said, ‘Look, I still got about 80 catches in me,” he said, laughing. “And he was like, ‘Don’t joke with me ’cause, you know, we’ll seriously sign you, you know, back to the team.’ It’s a whole different game now. It’s more of a passer game now and it’s an ideal situation for wide receivers.”

This story was originally published January 24, 2018 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Is Jerry Rice thinking of joining Jon Gruden-led Oakland Raiders?."