The Washington Redskins have fired head coach Jay Gruden after an 0-5 start to the season and having only made the playoffs once since 2015.
Jay Gruden Fired by Redskins
It comes as no surprise to anyone in the NFL that Jay Gruden has been fired by the Washington Redskins. Since 2015, he has only led the team to one playoff appearance. After starting this season with an 0-5 record, he left the team with no choice but to make a change. Judging by his press conferences during the season, it seemed like he was expecting to get fired.
His overall record with the team during his tenure was 35-49-1 which is not the worst record but it certainly isn’t good. There never seemed to be a clear identity and he has never been able to settle on a quarterback. Part of that was not his fault with the injury to Alex Smith but at the same time, Smith was never the answer.
The Redskins Have Let Go of a lot of Good Coaches
Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan and Matt Lafleur have all been a part of the Redskins coaching staff at various points in their careers. Now all of them seem like they are very good head coaches for other teams. It’s ironic that the Redskins now need a head coach while they let three of the best and youngest in the game walk out their front door. That is the best indication of where they are as an organization.
The firing of Jay Gruden does not come close to solving their problems as a franchise. Their owner Daniel Snyder is one of the most disliked figures in all of professional sports. While that doesn’t make them a bad team, when was the last time you heard of a bad owner having a good team?
The front office and the on field personnel are definitely on the same pages. Until they fix this lack of communication they have little chance of improving their on field product. They are a mess of a team on all levels with not one unit on their team performing up to expectations.
What’s Next for Jay Gruden?
This might be a one and done situation for Jay Gruden as an NFL coach. While he wasn’t terrible, he was only an offensive coordinator at the NFL level for two years. Before that, he had no NFL coaching experience at all. His future in the league is most likely as a coordinator. It’s probably best for him anyway as some years out of the spotlight might change his perspective on the game.
In the last two years in Washington he seemed really tired which is a bad sign for a coach that only has a few years’ experience. It’s hard to condemn him as a terrible coach because the reality is, the Redskins are a terrible run franchise. It never seemed like they made the right decisions during his tenure and it also didn’t always seem like they gave him their full support. The overall culture in Washington needs a complete overhaul. The firing of Jay Gruden was only step one.
