Jay Gruden is currently unattached, with the Jaguars hiring Urban Meyer last month. Darrell Bevell is the team’s new offensive coordinator. Gruden, who coached Washington from 2014-19, remains interested in returning to the sidelines.
However, the longtime NFL play-caller does not expect to coach this season. Gruden, 53, said, with staffs having mostly filled up over the past few weeks, he will likely sit out in 2021 before reassessing his options, Ben Standig of The Athletic notes (subscription required).
Gruden made some noise recently when he made a candid remark about Washington owner Daniel Snyder‘s draft involvement. The six-year Washington HC indicated the team’s owner “would come in off his yacht and make the pick” after Washington’s coaching staff and front office prepared for the draft. Gruden expanded on that assessment.
“Well, first and foremost, he is the owner. So if he wants to come off his yacht, or if he wants to come off his tennis court, wherever he’s at and make a pick, he has that right,” Gruden said. “(Dan) has the ultimate say, and that’s not going to change until he decides he wants to change.
“So I guess he’s given up total responsibility and total power to coach (Ron) Rivera, which is a good thing, I think. But when I was there, that wasn’t the case. He had final say over everything. He and (former team president) Bruce Allen would talk about it, and they would make the decision. I signed up for that. I knew that was the case going in, and that’s just the way it was.”
Like Gruden, Allen is no longer with the franchise. Snyder dismissed the 10-year team president after the 2019 season. But the Snyder-Allen-Gruden power trio was in place for nearly six seasons. The last of those, a 3-13 season that involved Gruden being fired after an 0-5 start, transpired after a controversial draft.
It has been long reported Gruden was against drafting Dwayne Haskins, a Snyder- and Allen-driven move. Gruden said one of the team’s plans involved taking Montez Sweat at No. 15; Washington later traded back into Round 1 and drafted the edge defender at No. 26. Gruden also mentioned being high on safety Darnell Savage, whom the Packers drafted at No. 21 overall.
“We knew we needed a quarterback, though. I mean, so at the end of the day, it’s not like Dwayne was not a good prospect. He’s a young football player with a lot of talent. So it’s not the end of the world we took Dwayne,” Gruden said, via Standig. “We just didn’t think we had to take him that high. It’s just what we thought … if we lost Dwayne that there were a couple of other ones later we might be able to get to come in and maybe compete with Case. Plus there was still hope in the back of our minds that Alex would come back.”
Coming off a 50-touchdown pass 2018 season at Ohio State, Haskins was viewed as a surefire first-round pick. The Giants were connected to him at No. 6 overall, though they surprised most by drafting Daniel Jones. Haskins fell to No. 15, becoming the third quarterback off the 2019 board. Some in Washington’s organization were believed to have placed a third-round grade on the quarterback.
Gruden said during the interview Haskins “wasn’t quite ready” when a Case Keenum injury first summoned him into action in Week 4 of the ’19 season. The organization quickly soured on the quarterback, benching him early in the 2020 season and putting him on the trade block. The Rivera-led regime waived Haskins in December of last year.
Snyder overruled Washington football-side brass on other occasions, Gruden said. Washington now has Rivera, Martin Mayhew and Marty Hurney atop running football ops.
“For the most part, I’d say 85-90% of the time, we were making pretty much football decisions that were good for the football team, and they were (decisions) that everybody agreed on. … The majority,” Gruden said. “But there were a few picks (during my time) that we had nothing to do with it.”
The currently unattached coach also discussed Kirk Cousins‘ exit. The Allen-led Cousins negotiations led to animosity, two franchise tags and the quarterback’s departure in free agency in 2018. Rather than a trade haul, Washington only received a third-round compensatory pick for its four-year QB starter.
“For the most part, I was given every opportunity to succeed there. We just didn’t get it done,” Gruden said. “There are some decisions there that I wish we could have had back. Obviously, we should have gotten more for Kirk Cousins. That’s the biggest thing, that I think we should have got more for Kirk Cousins than a third-round pick.”
Well, first and foremost, he is the owner. So if he wants to come off his yacht, or if he wants to come off his tennis court, wherever he’s at and make a pick, he has that right,”
This coming from a guy making multimillions annually. Gruden can afford a yacht or country club prices.
Who cares? Being rich is good, not bad. Making draft picks when you don’t know what you’re talking about is the problem.
Bingo
the owner is the main issue with the team . it’s his team but he ran it into the ground . y pay people money to coach and run the draft just to say screw it and pick for the team it’s wasted resources. he pick the qbs that busted and wasted years of the team . it’s sad it took the guy years to change but the draft hasn’t passed yet so he might just make the pick himself . I’m completely fine with him making the picks cuz he’s garbage at it n it helps my team lol
Haskins was a surefire 1st round pick? I dont remember seeing that grade on him but i could be wrong.
I did; I remember Hearing that He was the #1 passer, then he’d ‘fallen’ to 15; I was Certain also!
Yes, he was locked in as a first round pick….was he a sure fire star? No
Actually, I do remember that many guys were upset when the Giants took Jones over him. Washington getting Haskins at #15 was considered some sort of steal by many back then.
Gruß,
BSHH
The only guys upset that the Giants didn’t take “The league done messed up”…you know the surefire first round pick… was by everyone who doesn’t own a team, or coach a team or those who are associated with Ohio State…just all the arm chair QB’s who comment (just like me too) on this site or comment in the media like they know something which generally they don’t!
He was a 14 game wonder who benefitted from an incredibly strong supporting cast of players at OSU, and then let his press clippings influence how good he thought he was!
The Giants, were only connected by the group I mention above….don’t really believe they saw this guy as the heir apparant of the franchise taking over for Eli!
could of just had cardale jones with the ohio state eye test and ended up saving some money.
Snyder has run this team into the ground… 20 years and this guy totally screwed this team up with bad choices… just a bad owner, and has always been!
Let’s keep some perspective here: the Redskins record during the Daniel Snyder era includes 4 division titles. 150 wins over 21 seasons, at an average over 7 wins per season. Don’t forget that Snyder’s ownership co-incided with the implementation of the salary cap. The absence of a salary cap had been the Redskins advantage in the Joe Gibbs era and before. Like the Cowboys, the Redskins were always one of the rich NFL franchises.
This is not to say Snyder is a good owner: he’s not. But he’s not as bad as Redskins fans make him out to be and he’s not on average much worse than other owners. Redskins fans simply were spoiled until the salary cap came in.
Snyder may have turned the page when he hired Ron Rivera. Team is being run more efficiently now. And Snyder seems to keep a distance.
Until he doesn’t. Snyder gave Marty Schottenheimer the same team management power(s) and then fired him when Marty wouldn’t acquiesce to making a yacht-boy pick.
Well kinda. Marty wanted to cut Darrel Green. Snyder didn’t want that to happen so out of the blue he called green up to his office and gave him a 5 year deal. Green was 38 or so. Marty was going to still cut him and take the cap hit. A few days later there was the meeting saying snyder was taking back control, fired Marty and hired the Ol’ ball coach. Espn had a nice docu about it. You may be able to find it on YouTube. It’s revealing about just how sneaky snyder is.
Getting rid of the very successful Schottenheimer on slim grounds was perhaps the worst move of the Snyder era.
I love the fact that Jay Gruden fails to mention that he ruined Alex Smith career because he was jealous of a secretary..
There was a lot of extra activity at One Loudoun or Redskins Park….
link to awesemo.com
Huh?
If that story is true – did Kapri Bibbs really tell that story – it certainly explains the inexplicable waiving of Bibbs (the only running back showing any urgency or inspiration that year outside of Chris Thompson). Not sure Bibbs makes the block that Byron Marshall missed, but he might have. Great find – thanks for the link.
Jay Gruden is an awful coach, who dialled it in the last two years in DC. Appears to prefer his cups to the hard work of coaching. Early and sudden middle-age. Should never have been promoted beyond offensive co-ordinator.
Dan Snyder should stick to fantasy football.
Dan Snyder should stick to fantasy football.
Dan Snyder should stick to fantasy football.