DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Winless Redskins fire coach Jay Gruden

first firing of the season, boys!!

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/27790170/winless-redskins-fire-coach-jay-gruden

ASHBURN, Va. -- The Washington Redskins fired coach Jay Gruden on Monday during yet another disappointing season.

Gruden entered the season on the hot seat, and after Sunday's 33-7 loss to the New England Patriots dropped the Redskins to 0-5, it became clear he would not continue as the team's coach beyond this season. Team owner Daniel Snyder and team president Bruce Allen met with Gruden early Monday morning at Redskins Park to deliver the news.

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"Through the first five games of the 2019 season, the team has clearly not performed up to expectations, and we all share in that responsibility," the team said in a statement. "Moving forward we are committed to doing all that we can collectively as an organization to turn things around and give our Redskins fans and alumni a team they can be proud of in 2019 and beyond."

EDITOR'S PICKS

Jay Gruden is out, but Redskins' underlying issues go much deeper
Redskins assistant head coach/offensive line coach Bill Callahan will be the interim head coach, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Speculation on Gruden's possible firing began to surface before a Week 4 loss to the New York Giants and intensified.

Gruden had one more year remaining on his contract after this season because of a two-year extension he signed during the 2016 offseason. He is owed $5 million for 2020.

The Redskins retained Gruden in part because of their record after nine games last year, when numerous injuries started to hit. They were 6-3 when quarterback Alex Smith suffered a broken leg in a loss to Houston that might have ended his career. They ended up starting three more quarterbacks last season and finished 7-9. But the organization felt it could return to that higher level with good health and one or two moves, so it gave Gruden one more chance.

Gruden lasted longer than any of Snyder's six other coaching hires, with none coaching longer than four years under him. Gruden was in his sixth season.

Gruden becomes the fifth coach fired by Snyder, joining a group that includes Norv Turner, Marty Schottenheimer, Jim Zorn and Mike Shanahan. Steve Spurrier and Joe Gibbs resigned. Spurrier did so after two years but was unlikely to return; Gibbs retired after four seasons.

No coach has finished with a winning record under Snyder, who bought the team shortly before the 1999 season. Schottenheimer was fired after going 8-8 in his only season in Washington. Under Snyder, the Redskins have finished first in the NFC East three times, including in 2015 with Gruden. They have finished last eight times and third seven times. The Redskins are headed toward their ninth season of at least 10 losses during Snyder's tenure.

Washington went 35-49-1 under Gruden.

The Redskins have a young talent base to provide a new staff, and will be expected to have a high pick in the 2020 NFL draft. They have seven defensive starters who are 25 years old or younger. They drafted quarterback Dwayne Haskins No. 15 overall in April, and rookie receiver Terry McLaurin has emerged as a threat. But they have major questions at other areas offensively.

The Redskins had high hopes for their defense this season, but that group has underachieved, allowing three straight games of 30 or more points to start the season. Offensively, two of the Redskins' top players didn't provide help: Tight end Jordan Reed hasn't played this season because of a concussion, and perennial Pro Bowl left tackle Trent Williams remains a holdout. Starting running back Derrius Guice tore the MCL in his right knee in the season opener and was placed on injured reserve.

The organization did not feel Haskins was ready to start immediately, leaving the coaching staff with a choice between Colt McCoy and Case Keenum. McCoy at least knew Gruden's offense well, but his right leg, which he broke in December, gave him problems in training camp, and he missed the first four games of the season. Keenum, starting for a third team in three years, started the first four games.


Gruden started McCoy for the Week 5 game vs. New England, bypassing Haskins, who relieved the injured Keenum the previous week.

Snyder had wanted the Redskins to draft Haskins, but multiple sources said there had been no push by the organization to play him and it wasn't a main factor in the firing.

Keenum was the fourth quarterback to start a season under Gruden. When the Redskins hired him in 2014, they wanted him to help turn Robert Griffin III around. That didn't work, so Gruden turned to Kirk Cousins. After three years, and with Cousins heading toward free agency, they traded for Smith.

Before getting the Redskins' head-coaching job, Gruden had spent the previous three years as the Cincinnati Bengals' offensive coordinator.

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we know all too well what 0-5 feels like around here.

I know that not many will agree w/this, but I think Gruden is a pretty good coach. He kept that team competitive for quite awhile when they had no business being competitive.

I think he was almost hoping to get fired recently. He made some comments that were pretty much....."Screw you..."

I feel sorry for their fans because Daniel Snyder is a complete jerk.

Seemingly an early start to the coaching carousel...

j/c:

Not surprised by this.

Surprised Bruce Allen didn't join him.

That's definitely a good sign your coach is on the way out. Wow.

That said, I think Gruden is a pretty good offensive coach. He'll catch on somewhere that needs an OC, and he'll do well if he has a decent QB that can get the ball out.

I think Gruden wanted out and was in IDGAF mode.

On a side but somewhat related note, not one word of dysfunction in the Browns organization this year. Not even a hint. I find this extremely encouraging considering the somewhat uneven start to the season. No LaConfora reports to debate, nothing. No "where there's smoke there's fire" issues to discuss.

I like it.

Seems like it was probably mutual ... Redskins are a dumpster fire, and have been for the better part of the last 15 years

FIFY... :-p

We've had plenty of dysfunction so far. You could say it's all media-created and fueled (and I'm not sure I could argue you if I wanted to). We had the whole "who's offense are we running" thing, and we had Kitchens getting more into offensive meetings and installs in training camp.

We've been able to work through it so far, but there have been rumblings and grumblings. It'll take us longer than roughly a calendar year to put all the dysfunction and bad energy behind us.

Not surprised... felt like he mailed it in recently....

I think Gruden is a good coach. Would not surprise me if he went somewhere else as a HC and had success. That roster is not good and yet with Cousins and Smith they held their own, even made the playoffs. Never had a bellcow on either side of the ball, but won games.

I wonder if he winds up in Oakland the rest of the year

Wow. Seems early for a bonfire. Not a good game for them last night.

I disagree. That's not dysfunction you're talking about. Those are natural questions that come up after a loss. The things I'm talking about...infighting, players not buying in, disagreements between FO and coaches, etc...things that have plagued this team before...you are hearing nothing about. Even OBJ is quiet and you know he's not happy with his production.

We have stability at FO and QB and hopefully at coach. We are usually 0 for 3 on those items.

Just a different feel to me. Maybe it's there and they're just not talking about it. But I would consider that a positive sign as well.

TomAto/Tomato, perhaps....


I just think the positivity is far more tenuous than your post sounds. We need to get the offense and defense more solidified and then enjoy a lot more winning and success before we can say we're stable.

It really wouldn't take a whole lot to kick off all those awful things you just listed in your last post.

I feel bad for Colt McCoy. For such a nice guy, he's been thru a lot of crap in his NFL career.

Me too. Seems like a good guy who has worked hard to stay in the league... with a dark cloud following him everywhere he goes.

Washington is basically an impossible situation. Daniel Snyder is one of the two worst owners in sports and he enables his terrible GM, Bruce Allen, to make the team horrible.

I think Jay Gruden is probably a fine offensive coach that got a raw deal.

I agree, and I bet Gruden is glad to be out. He’ll get to start fresh as an OC next year then become a HC with 2-3 years IMO

I know their pain. Firing Gruden will not fix what is wrong with the team. I don't care enough to look at their front office but that's usually where the rot begins. Gruden will go on to find a functional team and will eventually be a winning NFL coach, he's got talent.

Awful GM and awful owner ..... so fire the coach.

/thread. Simply and accurately stated.

Almost all of Washington's problems over the years are related to how terrible Daniel Snyder is as an owner.

He is meddlesome. He is stubborn. He has enabled people in the building to talk bad about other people in the organization. All of this has created a toxic culture.

I feel bad for their fans. They are very rabid about their team. They remind me of Brown's and Steeler fans. They don't deserve the crap that Snyder has given them.

Yet another case of the sacrificial lamb.

One more thing about the Washington situation.

They drafted Haskins w/the 15th overall pick [I think that's right.] I'm betting ownership wants to play him now. I bet this was some of the disconnect between Gruden and the guys upstairs.

I really like Haskins as a qb prospect. I am a HUGE Buckeye fan and I saw some good things in him. However, there are some things to consider.

--He only started one season in college.

--His OL gave him a lot of time to throw.

--His receivers were far superior to the secondaries the team faced.

--Ryan Day is a great offensive mind.

--Haskins does not have much experience [like many collegiate qbs] at quickly reading coverages and going through progressions. Playing only one year magnifies this point.

Thus, I think that Haskins should be brought along slowly. Let him learn more about reading defenses and coverages. Give him some time to work on the mental part of the game.

Consider that he will be playing w/a bad OL, substandard WRs and TEs, and not a good RB. I could see this ruining a potentially good young qb. It's about as bad of a scenario as one can imagine.

Now, watch Snyder impose his will and force the coaching staff to play Haskins before he--or the team--is ready. And the narrative will be that Haskins stinks.

Two rumors I’ve seen floated on Twitter (for what it’s worth haha)

- They want Tomlin
- They want Urban

I was thinking kind of the same thing. He did decent when he had a reasonable QB.

A team with no talent rarely wins much anyway regardless of the coach.... And yes, I know, there are exceptions to be found...

Trying to remember where I've seen that before... Oh wait....

Basically, he ended up like Rosen. Drafted in a dysfunctional team with little talent and/or experience.

Feel bad for Haskins.

Usually top picks end up on teams with little talent and/or experience. Haskins is a weird case as he was picked mid-round, normally he would be in a better situation. But alas, the skins buck the trend lol.

I can only imagine if his agent was like - "if you go into the draft this year, youll end up on a better team if you slide a bit, so its a win/win!"

I can agree with that thinking. I believe Haskins needs to season up somewhat and learn better judgment as far as the NFL level of play. His time at OSU was not representative of his NFL team. Pretty simply, his worst college day is almost every day in the Bigs as far as speed and talent. He is not exactly awash there. I wouldn't rate him as career ready yet, but he has some monstrous skills potentially if they don't wreck him by marching him into the meat grinder too soon.

The best is the Gruden video afloat, him drunk (some say high too)...catering to 20 year old girls lol

lol yeah, that wasn’t the best look either

I don't know how good of a coach the guy was, but Snyder is a owner who hasn't evolved in to a good owner.


Jimmy was kind of like him, but Jimmy kept getting better every year. Dan and stayed the same.

People might bicker about if Jimmy is a good owner or not, but he isn't a bad owner. He spends money and seems to have given up control over football operations and lets Dorsey make the calls.

As with any owner, he still has a voice and he should, he owns the franchise. Randy might have been the only ambivalent owner I have seen.

Snyder should sell the team, the new owner should get rid of the name, and they should have a new logo.

I agree. I think he is a good coach. He was a pretty solid OC in the Nati. I would not mind if we hired him here as the OC. Doubt he would come unless he called the plays.

I wouldn't mind if he was our OC. I think Baker would be better suited to be playing in the WCO.

I think other coaches around the league are watching our offfense and thinking WTF?? ... we’ve completely tailored the O away from his strengths

If I were Gruden, I'd bet on getting re-hired as a HC. I don't see him having to go back through the OC process to get his next crack at a HC gig.