Hog Heaven has never been a Jay Gruden fan. Yet, he must have a third year as head coach of the Washington Redskins.
Here are five reasons why Gruden must stay beyond this year.
ONE. Continuity is superior to starting over.
First year coaches lose. Let me give you a series of numbers.
8-7-6-8-6-4. These are the win totals of first-year coaches since 2001.
Marty Schottenheimer and Jim Zorn squeezed a .500 record from Redskins teams that still had remnants of playoff talent. Joe Gibbs and Mike Shanahan both started with six-win seasons. They have five Super Bowl rings between them and they combined to lead the Redskins to four playoff appearances. Gruden kicked off with a weak four-win season.
A coaching change is always a reset to zero.
TWO. The Redskins invested in Gruden.
Daniel Snyder has a poor history with coaches, but he did a surprising thing after Gruden’s disastrous first year. He strengthened the coaching staff and he hired a legitimate football general manager.
Gruden was in over his head in 2014 and he guessed wrong about Jim Haslett and Washington’s defensive talent. Help on offense came with new O-line coach Bill Callahan and QB coach Matt Cavanaugh. Some of the best early performers on the team are players GM Scot McCloughan drafted or signed as free agents.
The investment is made. We need the time to see the returns.
THREE. The 3-year rule.
In team sports, you cannot see the progress until a coach’s third year.
We see this in our own work career.
In year one, we make mistakes as we face the full range of issues that come with the job. We cope better in year two when those challenges cycle back and, since we know they are coming, we make better plans to beat them. By year three, we are cooking with rice. (Do people still say that?)
Gruden has learned from mistakes. Why should another team use what he learned on our dime?
FOUR. Signs of improvement.
The Redskins have already won half the number of games they won all of last season. They beat division rival Philadelphia Eagles.
One sports pundit thinks Gruden is a Top 10 coach. We didn’t hear that last August. SI.com ranks the Redskins 17th on their NFL Power Ranking. We didn’t see that last year. The offense ranks 18th in total yards. They were seen universally as bottom feeders coming into the season.
Rejoice at small signs of progress.
FIVE: We can win with this offense.
The West Coast Offense has been around since the 1980s. Teams use it to win Super Bowls. Gruden wants to run a muscular version of the WCO and McCloughan is determined to find players that fit the scheme. We believe the scheme makes an ordinary man of RGIII, which disenchants many fans. Griffin was once the most feared man in the league. (That’s another topic.)
Washington can compete its way to a .500 record with Gruden’s offense. That is enough to buy him another year.
Avoid the dysfunction.
We think the ‘Skins hired Gruden because he has a famous brother. His first year was a disaster. His August training camp rivaled the best of those “Real Wives” reality TV shows. However, the team settled some important issues during that August goat rodeo when it settled the quarterback question.
Churning people out has not worked for Daniel Snyder. Gruden is the head coach and we are Redskins fans. Root for his success.
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