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Skins Quotes 10/4: Jay Gruden

Boone

The Commissioner
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October 4, 2014
Redskins Park

Head Coach Jay Gruden

On the injury report:
“Tracy Porter will be out. He did not practice. Obviously, he’s out. Trenton Robinson was limited. He’ll be questionable. Kedric Golston was limited. Akeem Jordan was full. Shawn Lauvao was full. Niles Paul was full. Jordan Reed did not participate today. We’re going to make sure he gets another full day of rest and we’ll evaluate him tomorrow again. Trent was limited – Trent Williams. And then everybody else was full – Chris Baker, [Jason] Hatcher, DeSean [Jackson], Jarvis [Jenkins] and Rak [Brian Orakpo].”

On if there is a chance tight end Jordan Reed could play:
“There is a chance. We’ll see him tomorrow. Today we didn’t want anything worse to happen, so we’re going to take a look at him tomorrow, do a nice workout and go from there.”

On if Reed had a setback:
“No, he feels OK. It’s just I know how these things are, so we are just going to take it another day and give him another day of rest and evaluate him tomorrow.”

On if Reed has run full speed:
“He’s been running, but full speed I can’t tell. I haven’t seen him run in a long time. I don’t know what his full speed is right now. That’s what we’re going to look at tomorrow and see what he can do, let him stretch it out a little bit and if he doesn’t feel like he can run full speed then obviously we’ll hold him out. But we’ll take a look at him tomorrow. It’s 50/50 – that’s what questionable is.”

On quarterback Robert Griffin III:
“He’s making progress, obviously. He’s doing a great job working. We’ll see.”

Of if he thinks prime-time games can affect a player’s body clock:
“I don’t think so. I don’t know. I haven’t found that to be the case. The little experience I’ve had with the late night games in Cincinnati and here, we’ve only had one – well, we had the ones in the preseason and we were fine – so I don’t know if that’s an issue. I just think Thursday night, prime-time game against the Giants, we just didn’t play very well, we were a little bit beat up and the Giants came and took it to us. We’ve just got to understand that that’s the type of game we’re going to play every week and we have… to take it to somebody and not get it taken to us. So [it’s] very important for us to come out, play some physical football, play the way we want to play and worry about the results when they happen.”

On if he attributes quarterback Kirk Cousins’ mistakes to his mindset or his youth:
“I don’t know. Every interception is different. I think his mindset’s fine. You’ve just got to play and he’s got to see the looks, and some of them are going to happen. Guys are going to throw interceptions. If you throw the ball 35-40 times a game, you’re going to throw an interception or two every now and then. The big thing is you bounce back and you don’t force the issue the next one. You’ve got to learn from it and move on and continue to compete. And that’s what he’s going to do – that’s what he’s done all week. He’s competed, and learned from them, and studied the game plan. The Giants game is totally out the rearview window right now. We’re not even worried about the Giant game anymore. All we’ve been focusing on since Tuesday is the Seattle Seahawks, and he’s done a great job preparing for what type of defenses he’s going to see and how accurate and how good he’s got to be in the pocket moving forward. I think his mindset’s OK. I don’t think his confidence has been shaken, but we’ll see come Monday.”

On if he believes the Redskins were overconfident going into the Giants game:
“I think they’re OK. It’s not so much they were overconfident, I think. I just think the stress has been that we need to make sure that we play hard all of the time – all the time. First quarter, second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter – we have to continue to compete on every down, everybody. Not just one group – not just the defense, not just the offense, but everybody’s got to compete every down, and hopefully they understand that. Because every team in the NFL’s got talent – some teams have a little bit more than others – but the fact of the matter is all 31 teams can come in here and beat us on a given day, and I feel like we could beat all 31 teams. It’s just a matter of we need to make sure we compete, protect the football, and when adversity strikes we’ve got to hang in there and move forward.”

On if he’s a fan of the layoff from a Thursday night to a Monday night game:
“I was fan of it after the Thursday game. I needed a couple days off after that one, and I think our team needed a couple days. The negative on a Thursday: you don’t feel like your team’s ready to go after the Sunday game, but the positive is you get a couple extra days of recovery time for the next game. We used that as a positive, the extra couple days – gave them [the players] a couple days off, gave the coaches a couple days off, and then came back fresh and ready to roll, and the players got in the treatment room – the ones that needed it – and the majority of them have used that to their benefit. They all feel good and fresh, and hopefully that will pay off come Monday.”
 
Why not just cut Porter right now?

Hell, any hungry street free agent would be better than him. At least a guy like that would be available.
 
Why not just cut Porter right now?

Hell, any hungry street free agent would be better than him. At least a guy like that would be available.

That sounds good, but the reality is, who are we bringing in that's going to make a difference? NFL caliber DBs aren't just hanging around out there waiting for a call...
 
Any word on Niles Paul?
 
That sounds good, but the reality is, who are we bringing in that's going to make a difference? NFL caliber DBs aren't just hanging around out there waiting for a call...

True but Porter isn't making any difference in the cold tub either.

Neither one puts us over any hump but at least one would be available.
 
He's stating the obvious, that Reed is being 'careful' in his first return to practice, and that 's it's not clear how healthy he absolutely is. Reed is a pro bowl caliber TE if healthy. IF. That's a big 'if'. But lets not pretend he's not an incredible talent.
 
Well, I think you are tuning into something that's real. I think Gruden definitely is communicating that if you can't stay on the field, you aren't important. I generally agree with that mindset, but I think Reed is a possible game-changer at his position and maybe Gruden is under valueing him. I'd like to see a little more support for a guy who has been injured through no fault of his own and who is one hell of a player when healthy.

I get it. He can't help Gruden if he can't stay on the field. But he's also one hell of a player who deserves his head coach's support.
 
That sounds good, but the reality is, who are we bringing in that's going to make a difference? NFL caliber DBs aren't just hanging around out there waiting for a call...

Agreed, and there not "plug and Play" even if there out there.
 
Plug and Play would mean they would play more than a half of one game.

Tracy Porter did little to nothing in camp, played no preseason and played about a half last Thursday night.

Hell, they cut Sharpton for less than that.

Just don't understand why Porter's different.....

Wish I could get that gig.
 
Reservations for a ticket out of town:

Haslett- Goldmember has worn out his welcome here for obvious reasons
Foerster- exactly who in the blue hell has he ever developed?
Porter- always in the tub and not with the club
Polumbus- a staggering drunk could block better...Hey! Tryouts for Oline at the next BGO Tailgate!
Chester- age and injury have robbed him of ability

Who else?

Now boarding for Barstow...San Benardino and Kookamunga.............
 
I think some of the inevitable frustrations of being in a steep section of the learning curve of a first time NFL HC and actually having to absorb and deal with the particular and long-standing personnel "pecularities" of the Redskins are starting to bubble through Gruden's normally upbeat exterior.

As far as coaching "hired hands", I have never understood the good-old-boy mentality of populating staff vacancies with old friends regardless of the quality of their resume. You get hired to be head coach to make a winning football team not have a class reunion.
 
Well, while the 'good ol' boy' network is definitely not a figment of anyone's imagination, I don't think any NFL head coach, much less a brand new one, fails to realize that their head is potentially on the chopping block from day 1. So I would push back on the idea that any new head coach is hiring people purely based on previous association or friendship. It may appear that way, but I doubt seriously that's what's going on, or at least, that that's the only thing going on.

In Haslett's case, there obviously is a former association, perhaps even to the extent that Gruden may even 'owe' Haslett one. Regardless, I think it's much more likely that Haslett is still here for one of three possible reasons that easily trump a past friendship or returning a favor. The first is that the decision may have been a hiring requirement dictated by Snyder. He's already paying Mike and Kyle Shanahan to coach for someone else. I don't think it's a stretch to believe that Snyder didn't want to add a third highly paid party to that list. The 2nd possibility is the one I have put forth as the most likely reason - and that is that Gruden/Snyder highly prize Haslett's 7 years of head coaching experience and felt that his ability to assist Gruden in navigating the first couple of years as an NFL head coach might be as important as his ability as a DC. Finally, I think it's possible that the Redskins DID pursue a replacement for Haslett, perhaps even to the point of making offers, but that the candidates they looked at weren't interested (which would certainly be understandable given the drama the previous coaching staff had just gone through). This last possibility is one that Redskins fans tend to forget about, whether during player acquisition or coaching search debates.

All that being said, there is no doubt a 'good ol' boy' network phenomenon. It's really amazing how coaches get recycled and how even coaches with poor records seem to have little difficulty in finding their next job after failing in their current one.
 
Boone, thanks for providing plausible alternative explanations to my admittedly somewhat cynical brush-off of "Reasons Why Coaches Like Hazlett Still Have Jobs".

The last one you mention, about the attractiveness of being on the coaching staff-or being an FA scouring the landscape for a new gig, with the Redskins, while likely being an unpleasantly accurate depiction of the result of long-term poor decision making, still takes a bit of the heat off those beleaguered with "Well why haven't you righted this ship yet?" questions.
 
Just curious, tr1 ... who in particular are you referring to?
 
That was ... five years ago? And not a very compelling facepalm hire anyway. I was fine with Allen--as were a huge percentage of fans and 'expert' observers as I recall. He was a huge step in the right direction given where we were at the time. Plus, given he's a front-office guy, was not damaging or a risk in terms of cap space or draft picks. Seems to me if we're trying to evidence that the "re-treads come to DC to get paid" accusation still holds water, we'd need a slightly more eyebrow-raising Exhibit A?
 
I think you missed my point, tr1.

Had. Not has. Had.
 
To me, Allen's report card here is at best incomplete. Particularly since by all accounts 2014 is his first year as an actual GM.

But that's not what I was asking you about anyway. My question was what hires, specifically, were you thinking about when you invoked the "retreads come here to get paid" rubric. If Allen was who you were thinking about, ok---you're right, we'll have to disagree.

Who else?

To me the Redskins and Snyder have grown a LOT in the past few years in terms of football hires. Haslett notwithstanding. The "retreads getting paid" thing dates back to Deion Sanders, and Bruce Smith, and ... who else? Anyone more recent? I'm honestly asking the question.

If the thesis is "retreads (still) come here to get paid"," is Bruce Allen really the best exhibit?
 

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