Redskins head coach Jay Gruden spoke at a press conference in Indianapolis this afternoon. Here’s the nine-minute video clip courtesy of Redskins.com or YouTube.
Here are the big points.
Robert Griffin III may not be the face of the franchise, but he enters the season as the starting quarterback.
“It’s up to Robert to continue to grow and up to us as a staff to get more out of him.”
Hog Heaven gets it, and so should you, that NFL coaches hate quarterback competitions. Every practice snap is budgeted by player. When quarterbacks divide snaps in practice, the eventual winner is less prepared for the season.
Its Hobbit Logic, but QB competitions hurt the team.
Forcing Robert to win his starting position via competition is the one approach the Redskins have never tried. There was a greater need to do so in RGIII’s second and third year.
Instead of competition, Gruden should give Griffin a lot of of preseason game snaps to perfect his pocket presence — or to expose beyond question an inability to get it.
The corollary is to task new QB coach Matt Cavanaugh to work both Griffin and Kirk Cousins. The Redskins have to keep one of them at the end of the season. We don’t yet know whom to keep.
My money is on Robert. The team needs to hedge that bet with Cousins. Gruden’s body language tells me he has not bought into the notion.
The Redskins will take the best player available in the 2015 Draft.
Washington has a lot of needs. Heck, they need everything. There is no area of strength with these guys. Gruden says “needs” can change based on getting to know “the guys” in interviews and meetings.
So, if Oregon QB Marcus Mariota is available when the Redskins make the fifth pick of the Draft, Washington is just as likely to take him as any team hoping to trade into the position.
Do not be impressed by the measureables that so impress the Mel Kipers, the Michael Irvins and other Draft blowhards you will hear at the Combine. Measureables only confirm conclusions that teams have drawn from video study and meetings.
Meeting players eye-to-eye, which Gruden enjoys to do, can convert a rookie from a prospect to a “need” player. Team weakness has little to do with it.
Gruden is not the only NFL coach to say so. More proof that coaches do not think like fans.
The best part of the Combine is the one thing fans never get to see, the interview.
“Jon does his own thing” with quarterbacks.
NFL quarterbacks visit Jon Gruden in Tampa during the offseason. Jon loves it, says brother Jay. But Jay had no advanced knowledge that Cousins visited Jon.
This is a huge point. If the Redskins pushed Cousins to Jon to do backdoor coaching for Jay during the offseason, the team would face the Wrath of God-dell. The CBA is very strict about coaching interaction before the OTAs.
The league has enough issues with the union to take on that one. Even the Redskins are not that stupid. I suspect the brothers will not be conversing about specific players before the first OTA. That does not prevent Jon from airing an opinion over his media platform when everybody can hear it.
Some people went way overboard on this snippet.
I doubt that Kirk went to Jon to strengthen his case with Jay. If he did, he could not have picked a more constricted path.
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