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What Gruden Doesn’t Understand About AP

Bulldog

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On the surface sitting a 34 year old back in an opener might not cause much of a stir in most NFL cities.

But the circumstances in Washington starting the 2019 season are somewhat different than most and as usual Jay Gruden was caught behind the curve on this one.

First, it seemed clear last season that the Redskins 6-3 start was as much due to Peterson's play but more importantly his leadership on a team that didn't have too many vocal leaders.

AP trains in the offseason like no one else. He comes prepared to play and is a perfectionist, criticizing himself for a blown pickup in pass pro after having a 100 yard game.

He sets the kind of standard for himself that Belichick sets for the Patriots.

Other players see that and find motivation in his example even as Gruden fails to set that tone as the HC.

Gruden should be smart enough to know that a lot of games in the NFL are won from the neck up. Talent is often sprinkled around these rosters with few teams having a consistently dominating presence. Even New England lost 5 games last year.

Against the Eagles we didn't seem to have any leaders on offense once the game tightened up. And 31 yards rushing overall? You aren't going to win many games that way.

Would Peterson have accounted for another 14 points against the Eagles? No.

But he might have helped settle guys down earlier in the game after Philly scored and the Redskins might have been able to erase a couple of Philly possessions by extending drives. Peterson has the uncanny ability to make something out of nothing at times in the run game even at 33 last year.

So, that is point #1 .

Point #2 is there were other ways to cover special teams on Sunday without sitting AP with Guice, McLaurin, Harmon, etc's plating their first NFL game.

We didn't need to panic over Reed and activate Holtz from the PS for this game.

With Smallwood active as well and Davis still on the roster that accounted for the additional special teamer to fill out the coverage units.

There was no reason the Redskins could not have gone with two tight ends in Philly pending Reed's re-evaluation for Week 2.

Besides Holtz didn't show me any ST, receiving or blocking skills that required the Redskins to protect him by moving him up so quickly, ie for Week 1.

I would like to see Gruden make the case that the league saw big potential in Holtz or that he figured on using Holtz in the game plan on offense.

To me what happened was Gruden was subtlely trying to ‘go back' on several moves the front office made during final cut downs.

Gruden didn't want AP on the team any longer despite there being no real backup forGuice in case he goes down. Smallwood was a nice pickup as depth but he has something like 400 yards rushing in his career. He's not an every down replacement for Guice. And the FO cut Gruden's love child Samaje Perine.

Gruden also didn't want to pull the plug on the Doctson experiment because he and McCloughan were in on the pick and he didn't want to admit defeat there.

So, he was able to move Holtz from the PS and cut a player that was popular with others in Robert Davis.

Gruden is petty. That's not a great trait in a leader. The fact he would have left the Redskins without a veteran to take over for Derrius Guice in case he got hurt is almost criminal.
 
Well, I wasn't going to elaborate much, on gameday. My only comment was, it was a mistake to make AP inactive.

You summed it up pretty good BD. So, all I'll add is, it was another move that feeds the impression that Gruden is far too often, clueless.
Has no leadership skills, whatsoever. And is more reliant on blind luck to win. I doubt he could consistently win with an All-Madden roster.

But I'm still hopeful the players can make up for his, and his staff's, many shortcomings.

**** Dallas!!!
 
I agree! Gruden does seem like he is petty. Hmmm, we'll see what happens now. Is he too prideful to start AP now? Guice hurt again:


Ian Rapoport
@RapSheet
Sources: #Redskins RB Derrius Guice had an MRI this morning on the other, non-ACL knee and he's likely to miss some time. The hope is he does not need surgery, but the team is doing a full evaluation. He gained 18 yards on 10 carries, looking like he wasn't himself.
 
Gruden obviously can't make the right decision on his own.
AP starts next week.

Gruden = Dead Man Walking
 
Norval Gruden won't make it through the season. He simply can't. I'm surprised he made it to this morning, really. Wouldn't shock me if he sat AP again next week, even with a hurt Guice, because he's still acting like a little bitch after Perine being cut.
 
Not a huge fan of firing most people, in-season.

Gruden isn't most people.

So then, it's Monday, lemme see.....

Fire Gruden, and Manusky.


Promote Callahan to interim HC.
Promote Tomsula to DC.
 
The truth is in a football sense both Gruden brothers are stealing the money.

These guys have been living off that Bucs Super Bowl win for 17 years.

That team was 90% built by Tony Dungy and he picked almost all of the HOF defenders off that team.

After that Super Bowl Gruden never won another playoff game in 5 years as HC.

Jay Gruden got a ring as a quality assistant on that team.

In Cincinnati as OC the Bengals were 0-4 in the playoffs while he was there.

Bruce needs to get rid of his own acquisition.
 
I certainly haven't paid a ton of attention during the pre-season, so I'm wondering if I missed something with the Perine, Doctson, etc cuts. I'm a little bit surprised at the insinuation that Gruden wasn't in on those decisions if not the driving force. Do we have any hearsay from insiders on this or is this pure speculation?
 
Perine and Doctson were guys Gruden wanted to keep and was overruled by the front office to instead keep Peterson and Robert Davis.

So, Gruden it appears has been active in Week 1 trying to fight back and get his pound of flesh.

But now with the Guice injury he had to backpedal in his presser and talk about Peterson like he was a favorite son.

But no one is fooled.

Although I admit watching him squirm was fun 😆😆😎😎
 
Perine and Doctson were guys Gruden wanted to keep and was overruled by the front office to instead keep Peterson and Robert Davis.

So, Gruden it appears has been active in Week 1 trying to fight back and get his pound of flesh.

But now with the Guice injury he had to backpedal in his presser and talk about Peterson like he was a favorite son.

But no one is fooled.

Although I admit watching him squirm was fun ������������������������

Is this conjecture or do we have reporting that Gruden was overruled? I'm not a defender of Gruden by any means and think he's pretty lost, but this idea seems a little over the top without some decent reporting.
 
Just about every local reporter has mentioned Gruden wanting to keep Perine & Doctson. And, to jettison AP. No confirmations that I know of. But they have mentioned it numerous times. Gruden's words/actions appear to back that up.


On a side note, can you imagine if this thread was simply titled, "What Gruden Doesn't Understand".
 
The whole thing stinks of pettiness and Gruden/FO politics. AP is a future HoF player and if you can't figure out how to build a game plan to take advantage of a player with his ability, well then you are just a sorry excuse of a coach. We don't owe AP anything. But you resigned the guy, he was one of the few ‘gamers' we had last year. What in God's name is Gruden thinking?

Honestly - if this is some powerplay ‘you can force me to have him on the roster but I control who plays' bullshit - I'd can Jays ass right now. Because what that says is that it's more important for him to assuage his ego than it is to win games.

The fact that he'll now need AP to be the bigger man and come to our rescue is dripping with irony.

While fans freaked out at the idea that Jay felt the right long-term call was to keep Perine, that wasn't necessarily as crazy an idea as most believe. But once that decision is made, you don't make some kind of petty statement and take actions that hurt your football team and embarrass a future HoFer.

Gruden seems to realize he ****ed up but it doesn't alter the fact that he is now the one creating unnecessary drama and dysfunction.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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Ryan Grant, Rob Kelley, Doctson, Perine,Colt McCoy, etc.

Jay has proven he doesn't have the ability to properly evaluate talent.

He showers time and attention on mediocrities and then makes life difficult for those like AP that just go out and play.

Gruden lost Allen to injury and made AP inactive.

Those are the team leaders whether Jay wants to admit it or not.

Without them the team faced adversity and pretty much collapsed.
 
Good thing you made this things Gruden doesn't understand "About AP" because if you had made it just things Gruden doesn't understand, then it would be way too much stuff and would crash the server.
 
I keep coming back to what I've felt about Jay for several seasons now ... in the week before a game, the man generally puts together a pretty good game-plan, and generally has his team "ready to play" coming out of the gate.

It's his inability to make effective in-game adjustments, and perhaps more importantly, rally the troops when the other team gets in a punch or two and gets momentum, that is and has been his failing.

It's a script we've seen over and over again, and saw in bright neon letters on Sunday.

So the good news is, the roster has gotten younger and shows some promising talent. There may even be a future franchise QB on board.

The bad news? We are still front-runners, with no grizzled, wise corner man or ability to take a standing eight-count and come off the ropes pissed.

Just a matter of time til Jay is another former Redskins coach ... and we once more hope against hope that whoever gets the job next can take the ingredients we have and make them into something greater than the sum of their parts on Sundays.
 
Someone ran the numbers for the Skins yesterday in terms of how many first half's they've ‘won' during the Gruden era vs. second half's...

I didn't catch the first half % but his overall winning % is around 44% while we've only won something like 34% of 2nd half's.

So it's not our imagination :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
It's definitely not our imagination. Om hit it right on. Good initial game plan and team plays well until the opposition adjusts. Gruden is incapable of adjusting. No foresight which speaks to the lunacy of having AP inactive. Doesn't take a genius to see how that would work out.
 
It came out late yesterday through that sponge called Redskins Park that Gruden is the only one in the building including Callahan that thinks Guice won the RB job in camp and the preseason and should be starting right away.

Gruden has to back track fast now.

Imagine if we had cut Peterson. With Guice hobbled we would be down to starting Smallwood, a back that was #4 on the Philly depth chart and cut in September.

What a way to run a team.

Marx Brothers.
 
Norval Gruden is dead man walking at this point. There's no other way it can be. Brucie Boy and Dan can follow.
 
I know it's easy, and convenient, to keep bashing Snyder and Allen for every wrong in the world. I know many say we'll never win until all 3 are gone.

Well, Poppycock!

This is a playoff capable team. Lacking only a coaching staff that's more talented than the roster.
 

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