Redskins hire Jay Gruden as Head Coach

So the Washington Redskins have hired Jay Gruden as the head coach for the team for the 2014 season.  Before coming here, Jay was the OC for the Bengals.  While there, the Bengals have had a potent offense, being in the top 10 in scoring per game.  Jay's offense could and did move the ball down the field, and had plenty of deep plays, and they scored a lot.  Under Jay, the Bengals scored an average of 21.5 points per game in 2011, 24.4 ppg in 2012, and 26.9 ppg in 2013.  And each season, they moved up one spot in their division, winning it last year.  Granted, some of those number are attributed to the changes to rules for defensive players, as well as the decline in defensive strength of the other teams in their division, but the Bengals were still able to put up points and stay in games.

Those numbers look pretty good, when looking at them as a Redskins fan.  The first problem is the QB situation.  Would RG3 fit the style of offense that Jay runs?  From what has been reported, Jay wanted to get Andy Dalton instead of Collin Kaepernick, which ended up happening.  It would seem that Jay prefers to have a more traditional QB, who stands in the pocket and reads the defense and delivers the ball, and not so much a mobile, running QB.  Would he prefer to have RG3 or Kirk Cousins?  Now I'm sure the Redskins would not have hired Jay if he had said he wants to start Kirk over Robert, since they have invested their future in Robert and hopefully would not be giving up on him that quickly.  But the question will remain if Robert can learn and adapt to the style of Jay's offense.  I for one don't think there will be any problems with Robert learning the system, since he himself has said he wants to be a pocket passer and not a running QB.

Another question is how would Alfred Morris fit the system.  Morris is more of a zone-blocking type of RB, which was the system Shanahan was utilizing.  Jay's offense is more power running, and not so much zone-blocking.  Having said that, Morris is a power runner, who can break tackles and move the pile, so even though his style now might better fit a zone-blocking offense, there should be no problems with him leading a power running system.  But that brings to question the offensive line.  The current O-line, except for Trent Williams, are undersized quick linemen.  They have proven they are not able to overpower a defensive line, given how neither Robert nor Kirk had much time in the pocket against a good pass rush.  So I would think the first change would be to bring in new linemen and strengthen the O-line.  This will be the only way the Redskins can run a power running system, as well as give the QB enough time in the pocket to pass the ball.

Next down the line is the defense.  As it stands, it appears as though Jim Haslett will continue to be the Defensive Coordinator of the team.  During the season last year, most of the fans wanted him fired because of the failures of the defense.  But once Shanahan was fired, it seems as though a lot of people have either forgotten about Haslett, or are appeased enough to be ok with Haslett staying on-board.  Whatever the case, if Haslett does stay the DC, I would not be surprised if the Redskins go back to a 4-3 defense.  They do not have the proper players for a 3-4 defense, which is one of the reasons they have been aweful this past number of years.  They are not able to create enough of a pass-rush to cause the QB to make bad throws, which would turn into INT's.  The only way they have put pressure on the QB has been to blitz, which leaves the DB's shorthanded and vulnerable, unless they are damn good at covering WR's, which they are not.  So by going to a 4-3, the Redskins would be able to, in theory, bring more pressure and give the DB's a chance to make a play on bad passes.  Assuming that they have the same players, and do not make any changes, the defense would look like the following for 2014 :

Left DE - Kerrigan
Left DT - Cofield
Right DT - Bowen
Right DE - Orakpo

 

Left LB - Tapp
Middle LB - Riley JR
Right LB - Jackson

 

Left CB - Hall
FS - Meriweather
SS - Doughty
Right CB - Amerson

To me, that would be a pretty good defense.  It would put Kerrigan and Orakpo back into their natural spots they played in College, with their hands in the dirt, which would allow them to put more pressure on the QB.  The interior line would be very good at blocking the run, with Carriker and Jenkins as backups.  The three LB's are good enough at covering any receiver to be able to stay with them, and possibly make a play on the ball, and they are sure tacklers.  The CB's are both ball-hawks who are good at covering a WR and spotting the ball while in the air.  Both Safties are good tacklers, and although they aren't the best at coverage, they are able to recognize plays and not be beat on a pump fake or play-action.  That is all considering that they not only keep the players they have, but they also do not get any help from the draft or free agency.

The next problem would be the special teams.  There are no mentions of who would be heading the special teams as of now, so no telling how they will be.  However, they will have Richard Crawford back from injury, who was very good at returning punts in 2012.  I just hope that Niles Paul is not returning kicks, even if he is on the team.

The remaining question is, who is calling the shots now?  Is it Dan Snyder?  Or Bruce Allen?  I highly doubt Jay Gruden will be anything like Mike Shanahan, and want to be in total control.  So it would fall on either Bruce Allen, who is the GM, or back to Dan Snyder, the way it was before Shanahan came into town.  From the way things are looking, it appears to be Bruce Allen making the calls, since the coaching staff is now full of guys who have worked with and are friends with Allen from previous jobs.  That can be a good thing or a bad thing, only time will tell.

One thing is for sure:  No matter what happens, no matter how good or bad the Redskins are, no matter if they make great decisions or horrible decisions, if the Redskins have any Monday Night Football games, there will be plenty of talk, true or not, about how good the team is doing during the game, as well as how great the QB is performing, by the new head coach's older brother, Jon Gruden.

2014 QB Situation

So the 2013 NFL regular season has come to an end for the Washington Redskins, with them finishing in last place in the NFC East with a record of 3-13.  That is a huge disappointment, specially considering that this same team won the division in 2012.  What happened to the team is more than just a simple QB issue with the injury to Robert Griffin III from last year, but the Washington area fans being who they are, people were blaming him for how the season turned out and clamoring for the backup QB.  This is a trend that has been going on in this area for years, and I do know it happens in other fan bases as well, but it seems to be more prevalent here, simply because the Redskins had been bad for many years.  The fans always fall in love with the backup QB, no matter who is starting and who is the backup, and they believe he will be the savior of the team and the season.  The list is pretty interesting when you look at it, going all the way back to 1994 :

Starting QB	Backup QB
Robert Griffin III	Kirk Cousins
Rex Grossman	John Beck
Donovan McNabb	Rex Grossman
Jason Campbell	Todd Collins
Patrick Ramsey	Mark Brunell
Brad Johnson	Jeff George
Gus Frerotte	Jeff Hostetler
Heath Shuler	John Friesz

In most, if not all, of those cases, the backup QB did not turn out to be the savior the fans thought they were.  There is usually a reason a QB is backup and not the starting player, and that is because they aren't as good as the starter.  Are the exceptions to this?  Of course there are, there are exceptions to every rule, but in most cases, the backup QB is not as good as the starting QB, or else they would have started from the beginning.  The only difference this year was that the backup QB can actually play and can be a starter on some of the teams out there.

Robert spent all of the off-season rehabbing from the knee injury, and not spending time with his receivers, and it showed.  He was not good.  A lot of his passes were off target, and he made some bad choices.  He was slow in delivering the ball at times, and other times he telegraphed where he was going to throw the ball.  But was all of that on him, or was part of it on the coaching staff and the play calling?  If it was on him, then starting Kirk would have alleviated those problems.  However, if it wasn't all on him and the play calling and coaching was also at fault, then you would end up with the same results with Kirk behind the center.  So let us take a quick look at the two QB's and how they performed this year. Robert played in 13 games, and Kirk played in 5.  Following are the stats for their performances :

QB	Comp	Att	Percent	Yards	TD	INT	Fum	Sacked
Griffin	247	456	60.1%	3203	16	12	4	38
Cousins	81	155	52.3%	854	4	7	3	5

So just by looking at the numbers, it does appear that it wasn't all on Robert.  Kirk was less accurate than Robert, his TD/INT ratio was worse, and he had more fumbles lost per game.  Granted, some of that does fall on the receivers not catching the passes, but Robert had the same receivers and the same issues.  So simply putting in a QB that had experience in a pro-style offense, and was not a "gimmick" QB did not solve the problems.  On top of those stats, the scoring was a sign as well.  In the 13 games Robert started, the Redskins scored an average of 21.5 points, but in the 3 that Kirk started they only managed 18.3, and those 3 games were against the worst defenses in the league.  So the problem is most obviously elsewhere, and I believe that was the play calling.

I am well aware that Mike and Kyle Shanahan claimed that they were calling the same plays for Kirk that they did for Robert.  Now I am not an expert, nor do I have the luxury of looking at game tape and figuring out if they were in fact the same or not, but looking at the games, it sure did look to me like they were different plays being called.  For starters, Kirk seemed to do a lot more bootleg and rolling out than Robert did, which does not make sense to me, since Robert is the more athletic QB out of the two.  Also, with Robert in the game, the majority of the plays had one or two RB's as well as a WR or TE in the backfield with him.  This meant that if the play was a passing play, Robert would only have at most 2 receivers running routes, which made it a whole lot easier for defenses to cover.  Yes he would have the option to run the ball more in that formation, but with his knee and the brace on it, everyone knew he wasn't as big a threat running the ball as he was last year.  I also don't recall too many, if any, 5 WR formations when Robert was the QB.  Kirk had more targets to throw to, which forced the defenses to keep more players back to cover those receivers, which in turn meant that Kirk had more time to stand in the pocket and throw the ball.  Which was another major difference that I noticed.  The Offensive line was not able to stop a pass-rush whatsoever.  This was true for both Kirk and Robert, but Robert barely had time to step back and look downfield before a defensive player was in his face.  This was most likely due to the fact that the defensive players only had to worry about a couple of receivers running routes, and could blitz more to get to Robert.

So the lack of time in the pocket was mainly because of the poor Offensive line.  But here is where the blame falls on the coaching staff.  If you know your O-Line can't protect your QB, and believe me, EVERYONE knew that, then you get creative.  You run more bootleg plays.  You move the pocket.  You spread the defense.  Those things did not happen when Robert was in the game.  They only showed up mainly when Kirk became the starting QB.  Which again doesn't make sense to me, because if you do any of those things with Robert, not only will you give him more time to stand and look off safeties (Which was a knock on Robert, that he wouldn't do that.  But how can you when you only have one or two receivers?), but you would also give him more opportunities to run and make plays with his legs, which he was able to do, even with the brace hindering him.

Now they can say that Robert wasn't able to grasp the offense at the level that Kirk did, which is why they called different plays.  I don't believe it personally, but fine, I have no problem with that reasoning, since I'm not in the meetings and I don't know exactly what Robert can grasp and what he can't.  But then again the blame would fall on the coaching staff for not changing their style and play calling to fit their QB.  This had been an issue with this team for many years, the coaching staff would try and fit the players they have into their system, instead of working their system around the players they had.  This was true for the Shanahan regime as well, until last year.  Last year they showed that they can change their system to suit the weapons they have, and what was the result?  The Redskins went on a 7 game winning streak and won the division.  But they stopped doing that this year, and the result is another basement occupation by the Washington Redskins.

We as fans are looking forward to the 2014 season, and are hoping for a better result, since we will have a new coaching staff in town.  Hopefully with their departure, the lack of change in play calling is gone as well.  Regardless of who is coaching this team next year, and what system they will run, the chances that the team will start Kirk Cousins over Robert Griffin III are slim to none.  You do not use 3 first round picks for a QB only to not play him when he is healthy and has an offseason of workouts under his belt.  That does not mean that the Redskins should trade Coursins this offseason, because he is a good QB, and is very good at coming in as a backup for Robert.  What is so wrong with having two good QB's on your team?  So even if the team does not trade Kirk Cousins this offseason, there is not going to be a QB controversy next year, at least as far as the team itself is concerned.  The fans, on the other hand, will always be looking at the backup QB and salivating, even the the backup QB happens to be an undranfted rookie coming out of college with having played only 1 game during his college career.  It is a good thing the fans don't make the calls on who starts, well, at least those of us who don't happen to own the team.