I’m not giving up on Jay Gruden. Let me tell you why.
by Alex Zeese
He’s a hard worker…
I’ll admit I’ve had a soft spot for Jay Gruden for over 10 years. It goes back to 2004 for me. Back then, football was the only sport I really cared about. We didn’t have the Nationals yet in DC and I still hadn’t got over the whole Wizards name change, so in the offseason I watched the AFL on TV.
That’s when I first heard the story of a coach who by day was working for his brother’s team down in Tampa, but then would drive 80 miles up to Orlando to be a player and head coach for that AFL team. So here was a guy, working 2 full time jobs because of how much he loves the game. How many coaches at any level of sport have that level of enthusiasm, that kind of passion? You can read Jay Gruden’s life story and see that he has been kicked in the face more times by the game of football than almost anyone, even when he’s had success, and he still keeps getting back up.
He’s willing to learn…
If there was one move that the head coach should have made his first year, it should have been to replace Jim Haslett. Haslett’s defenses over his 5 years as coordinator probably go down in team history as some of the worst we’ve ever had. His schemes were flawed, he couldn’t make adjustments, and he threw players under the bus. There have been several stories about why Haslett kept his job: that it was due to misplaced loyalty, or the team’s front office not wanting the extra expenses that come with firing a coach before his contract is up, or that it was simply an attempt to keep some stability between coaching staffs. It is safe to say the team probably could have won more games with out him.
But what did Jay Gruden do at the end of the season? He fired Haslett. Friends or not, Gruden parted ways, and most of the defensive staff was also replaced. But the fixing didn’t just stop there – in each of the mistakes we had last year, you can say that Gruden was proactive in trying to fix the problems this off season.
Word is that he lobbied the front office to hire a real talent evaluator, and we got Scot McCloughan. He realized he was wearing too many hats in his first year, and hired a QB coach. Arguably his biggest move was bringing in Bill Callahan to fix what was a disaster of an offensive line.
In these ways, Gruden has also shown to be a different kind of coach than some of the ones we have had in the recent past. He has shown a willingness and ability to realize that he has made mistakes and has done what he can to try and fix them, not by trying to take more control of the team, but by bringing in people who can help him be better at his job.
He’s not burning bridges…
The ’13 season, was a dumpster fire, resulting in one of the most fractured relationships between a quarterback and coach in recent memory. The problem was so big that it impacted the whole organization. If Gruden was here to do one thing first and foremost, it was to fix Griffin’s relationship with the team by being a QB friendly head coach. Gruden historically has come off as a player friendly coach, which is what the team thinks RGIII needs. Nothing makes that more clear than the fact that the Gruden family moved into the same neighborhood as Griffin. For better or worse, that relationship will determine whether this team wins or loses in the long term. The front office has hitched its wagon to their QB.
Griffin was showing some signs of progress to start the season. Though the team lost a close game to the Texans to start the year, Griffin’s play was consistent, with over 250 yards and a 78% completion rating. Then in week two we had the nightmare scenario play out, in which RGIII dislocated his ankle. In that moment, the entire plan for the team’s season went right off the rails, and when he came back, he wasn’t the same player. Things between the two did seem to be fractured by the end of the year.
Did Jay demand that McCoy start in 2015, as some speculated he would? No. Did he demand that the team draft a new QB this year? Nope. Whatever issues that may have been Gruden and Griffin, they both seemed to have moved passed it, like a real man would after a bad year. Word out of camp is that Gruden has worked to fix the relationship. In fact, he has brought in extra help by adding a QB coach to the staff. In spite of their struggles last year, the coach is keeping his ego in check for the team’s best interest.
Give him time and he can improve this franchise
Jay Gruden was very successful in his minor league career, winning 2 championships. As a coach, he has an 82-54 record in his 9 years in the Arena League, and went 5-3 in the UFL for one year. Now, a lot of people say those kind of things don’t count because the AFL is not pro football. To an extent I do understand that, but some elements of coaching are the same at every level. The ability to get through to your players is a universal skill.
But ok, the NFL is still the big daddy of them all, like a great white swimming in an exotic fish tank. So, let’s look at those four years he had as the offensive coordinator in Cincinnati and in Washington. In those first three years as an offensive coordinator the team was very successful, going 9-7, 10-6, and 11-5 each season. Granted that the overall team success is going to be due to Marvin Lewis’ defense and head coaching, but nonetheless, Gruden deserves some credit.
Now I know Steve loves numbers, so let’s look at the stats Gruden’s offense put up with Cincinnati and DC:
|
Passing
|
Russing
|
||||||||||||
| Points | Total Yards | Attempts | Yards | TD’s | INT’s | Attempts | Yards | TD’s | Scoring% | ||||
| 2011 | 344(18) | 5118 (20) | 534(20) | 3340(20) | 21(16) | 14(12) | 455(10) | 1778(19) | 10(22) | 32.5%(16) | |||
| 2012 | 391(12) | 5323(22) | 540(19) | 3578(17) | 28(7) | 16(18) | 430(17) | 1745(18) | 11(18) | 35.4%(15) | |||
| 2013 | 430(6) | 5891(6) | 587(12) | 4136(8) | 33(3) | 20(24) | 481(8) | 1755(18) | 14(13) | 32.3%(18) | |||
| Redskins | |||||||||||||
| 2014 | 301(26) | 5738(13) | 547(18) | 4047(11) | 18(27) | 18(28) | 401(21) | 1691(19) | 15(9) | 29.7%(25) | |||
Granted, 4 years isn’t a huge sample size, but a few things are clear. No, he never had a dominating offense – it was much more middle of the pack and even below average stats-wise. But there was a steady improvement in many categories every year. His offense overall improved by around 40 points a season and put up more yards each year due to an improving passing game.
In spite of what many fans thought last year, historically, Gruden is not nearly as pass happy as some think. His team in Cincinnati seemed to be towards the top half of the league when it came to rushing attempts. In fact it looks as though his time in DC was an outlier when it came to rushing the ball. I think if we give him time here, we will see similar results in a year or two.
Gruden didn’t have the dream start that I think fans had hoped. Yes, the team struggled last year. 4-12 isn’t an acceptable record, but outside of one good season in 2012 this team has been terrible for a long time before he got here. Let me also say this though: I don’t think there is any coach who could have come in and turned that team around in one season. I’m not even sure it can be done in less than 3 years. The team Gruden was hired to coach was historically bad before he walked in the door. Maybe if more had been done in his first year to add more talent to the coaching staff and on the defensive side of the ball, we might be talking about a 6 or 7 win season last year. But Gruden is learning on the job and this team is clearly improving in his second season because he was pro-active in changing what needed to be changed.