The Washington Redskins finished 7-9 again for the second straight year under head coach Jay Gruden. With no better options available, Gruden should remain.
The Washington Redskins wrapped up another subpar season on Sunday with an embarrassing 24-0 home loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. While there wasn’t much on the line for Washington, the Eagles were fighting for a playoff spot and the beat-up Redskins offered no resistance in an easy Philadelphia win.
Now that we’ve had a few days to digest another 7-9 campaign for head coach Jay Gruden it’s fair to ask should he stay or should he go?
It’s easy, Gruden should remain in place for 2019 because no better options currently exist. That doesn’t mean his entire staff should remain in place. Gruden should return as head coach as long as he can make some suitable changes to his coaching staff, specifically at defensive coordinator.
One major reason why the Redskins should not fire Jay Gruden? A quarter of the league is going to be hiring a new HC. Washington's opening would not stack up favorably. You wouldn't land any of the 5 or 6 best candidates.
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen) December 31, 2018
There’s a good argument against Gruden that a coach entering his sixth season shouldn’t get to pick a fourth defensive coordinator. It’s clear he hasn’t made good decisions, first inheriting Jim Haslett from Mike Shanahan’s former staff for one season before making the decision to hire Joe Barry, once the coordinator for the worst team in the modern NFL era.
His last hire, Greg Manusky, didn’t inspire a lot of confidence but he wasn’t Barry so that was deemed an improvement from Washington fans. Also, Manusky had been a coordinator before, although a middling one, at best. In two years as defensive coordinator, Manusky’s defense had its moments but faltered during the second half of the season despite relatively good health on that side of the ball.
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One argument for Gruden is the number of injuries on the team. Last year, the Redskins had 24 players on injured reserve and led the league in 2019. It was on offense this season with both quarterbacks, Alex Smith and Colt McCoy, suffering broken legs, while rookie running back Derrius Guice was lost before the season and starting right guard Brandon Scheff’s pectoral injury was almost as big a blow as Smith’s broken leg.
In the season finale, the Redskins were on their 11th and 12th guards. You can’t win that way and it’s tough to blame Gruden. It’s time for Washington’s inept front office to discover why there are so many injuries the last two years. What can be done to prevent the staggering amount of injuries, specifically along the offensive line?
Back to the defensive coordinator hire, was it even Gruden making those hires? Was he forced to keep Haslett just because there was a previous relationship there and team president Bruce Allen didn’t want to fire Haslett with time remaining on his contract? And with Barry, he had spent time with both Gruden and Allen dating back to their time in Tampa Bay.
These things wouldn’t happen in a normal organization, but the Washington Redskins are anything but normal. Based on his win/loss record alone and having just one playoff appearance in five years, Gruden should be fired. After all, other coaches with winning percentages similar to Gruden were let go earlier this week.
But, again, this is the Washington Redskins and Gruden has done a good job of navigating a difficult situation, and with two years remaining on his contract, keeping him is probably the best move for owner Daniel Snyder in 2019.
Bringing back Gruden isn’t going to inspire Washington fans and rightfully so, but with Allen still in place, Gruden is likely the best this team is going to get right now and that’s an average coach.
And average is much better than bad.