I know I'm late to the party on this, but I think I might be the only one who actually liked how Gruden handled the QB situation last year, lol. I certainly acknowledge that I don't hold a popular position on this at all, so I understand how annoying what I'm about to say might be to some.
For me, I really couldn't care less about the media in general or the headlines he generated. The so-called "drama". As far as I'm concerned, Robert created that atmosphere as soon as he got here. It was fine while he was executing an offense built around him by the Shanahan's amazingly well, but once he got hurt against the Ravens in 2012 it became a massive weakness.
His athletic arrogance became, simply, arrogance. His confidence became self-deception. We saw a glimpse of "the turn" when he suited up for the Cleveland Browns the next week, knowing Kirk was starting for no reason other than to draw attention to himself.
We saw it when he openly gestured in the negative at Kyle Shanahan after a Read Option play-call against the Eagles. Even when those calls were protecting him from an Oline that struggles to handle a straight on pass-rush when executing traditional drop-back calls, by forcing the defense to hesitate as well as open huge holes for Morris.
He over-stepped when he thought he could tell the Shanahan's he didn't want to run the RO as much anymore and wanted to run the same type of offense they would call for Kirk. A rookie telling offensive masterminds what's best for him, after they worked together to the tune of arguably the greatest rookie season in history.
We then saw it come full tilt during the 2013 offseason, whether it was with his father's comments, his subtle jabs via social media, and then the ridiculous pressers contradicting the authority of his Head Coach. Now, Shanahan may have deserved a lot of the frustration that was directed his way because of how he handled that Seattle playoff game, but he was still Head Coach. He was still the authority and should've been respected as such, period.
Opposing that is what destroys any semblance of competent organizational hierarchy that is conducive to success, no matter how much you may dislike the decisions made yourself. Portis was right to be upset when Zorn changed the running game, but he wasn't right when he openly contradicted him on it and refused to practice, causing division within the locker room and, thus, insubordination from the likes of Haynesworth who were simply LOOKING for an excuse to get out of their responsibilities.
Enter Gruden.
The "player's coach". The one Robert said "has my back" a hundred times during the 2014 offseason. The one who was going to develop Robert into the QB he wanted to be, a drop-back passer in the NFL. Who was going to give, as Robert attested to himself, the freedom and trust to run the offense.
Gruden seemed to sour on him pretty quickly and, to me, that signified Gruden's willingness to recognize the issues with Robert right away. He didn't bench Robert after that terrible preseason. He called a Texans game that protected the heck out of him. He was trying to make it work, and then Robert got hurt. That'll put any Head Coach in a tough spot, but for Gruden that had to be incredibly frustrating. All that time spent working with Robert, while Robert was having a much tougher time grasping the offense than anyone expected... only to have to turn to the back-up the beginning of the second game of the season.
People seem to forget that bit. No, it's not Robert's fault he got hurt, per se, but it's also not the Head Coaches fault. It's super frustrating and everyone knows the first rule of being a good player in the NFL is actually being able to be relied upon.
When Robert returned healthy, he put him in immediately against the Vikings as the starter. He played well enough. But then he followed it up with two of the worst games I've seen from a Redskin QB.
I LOVED LOVED LOVED that he benched him there. It was the moment of the truth. Was Robert going to get away with everything, learning that he doesn't need to ever earn his way? Or was it time to face the consequences and be accountable?
For me, this was the best thing FOR Robert. It was a long time coming. It was the proverbial 5-year old boy who hasn't been disciplined at all by his parents needing that spanking.
I feel confident in that belief because we saw the fruits of it when Robert came back after McCoy got hurt against the Colts. He had a couple of decent-to-good games against the Giants and Eagles... and then in an all-around poor team effort against the Cowboys in the final game of the season he, at least, wasn't awful himself.
If anything, Gruden's handling of the QB situation may have turned Robert's career around. He didn't do anything wrong to Kirk, either. Kirk completely broke down mentally. Keeping him in there would've simply been torture at that point. McCoy was doing fine but got hurt, so not his fault, either.
For so long we've been asking for accountability from the Head Coach of the Redskins. We question why guys seemingly never got benched. Why changes weren't ever made. Here, Gruden was doing it at the most important position on the football team and only after a ton of evidence that it was needed. He disciplined Amerson by making him a healthy scratch after showing up late to team meetings. He may have "called players out in public", but according to the players it wasn't anything he didn't say to them directly beforehand. There was no surprise for them. Gruden certainly isn't the first coach in history to have that style, and there have been many who have been successful with it.
Now, maybe we should've seen more accountability from the Oline, but we just don't know how ready guys were. The team maintained from the start that Moses and Long were developmental players who they wanted to sit for a year. Leribeus seems like a perennial disappointment. Compton did replace Polombus, at least.
But just look at the moves this offseason. He brings in Callahan and let's Foerster go. Huge. There's your accountability for the Oline. Callahan is also an experienced play-caller, and will have a hand in developing the offense moving forward. That's a willingness to adapt there you rarely see from our Head Coaches.
He brings in Cavanaugh, acknowledging his mistake as a rookie HC by thinking he and McVay could handle the QB position themselves. All the time they spent during the offseason with Robert, only to see him get hurt the second game of the year, was a huge blow and without a QB coach made it an even bigger one in keeping the transitions seamless.
Although an altogether head-scratching episode, he accepts Haslett's resignation and later on hires Joe Barry, who then proceeds to assemble quite a decent defensive staff with Fewell as secondary coach over Morris while retaining our best defensive coach in Olivadotti and bringing in Akey at Dline to round it off. Question marks for sure, but the end result was change that was much, much needed.
I think it's time people recognize Gruden isn't the total failure they think he is. I think it's time they forgive him for what happened with Robert, something that was brewing way before he came here and something that really needed to happen, for everyone's sake. Something he could've, like so many Skins coaches before him, just let simmer perpetually at the expense of seasons and season of futility.
I think it's time we give him the benefit of the doubt proportionate to our legitimate excitement over having a true, football, GM in charge.
We simply can't acknowledge, as proven by our excitement, just how significant a legit GM is all the while ignoring that said legit GM wasn't in place for Gruden's first year, nor the previous years of the team he inherited. And that it had to have a MAJOR negative impact on his ability to coach.
Now get on board, you bastards! Snyder has us excited again and we're too stupid to see it, weeeeeeeee!
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