The 2013 Redskins in Review, Part 3: One More Time Around the Coaching Carousel

Parts 1 and 2 of this series went pretty bang-bang in my fury once the NFL regular season had ended, but time constraints and work obligations caused my blog posting to come to a screeching halt sometime around mid-January. If Part 3 happened in quick succession of the 1st 2 posts, it would have had an entirely different tone. As it is, it's going to come off lukewarm. In fact, so meh am I about Part 3's subject matter that I almost considered scrapping this idea altogether. This was supposed to be a scathing memorandum of Mike Shanahan's time in Washington, DC...a commentary on his ego, his shadiness, on his inability to perform at a player personnel level like he had as a coach, on his inability to coexist with his boss and those he was the boss of alike, and (most importantly) his record as head coach of the Redskins. A record in 4 seasons outside of a 7 game hot streak in 2012 that could only be described as miserable. For the record (rimshot, please), he departed with a mark of 24-40, leaving owner Dan Snyder perfectly within his rights to give him the boot on performance and merit alone. If you just take out that 7 game run of perfection, that leaves ol' Shanny a whopping 17-40.

I know, I know, Mike...that's awful.

This post was supposed to be about how Shanahan always seemed more concerned with power struggles within his own organization than with winning games. His years can be marked with the Albert Haynesworth implosion, the Donovan McNabb firestorm, and finally the RG3-pocalypse. Shanahan seemed to obsess more over making everyone else bend to his will than anything else. And yet if the Redskins happened to choose to bring Shanahan back for the last season of his contract, I would have at least been ok with it. He presumably would have had a healthy Griffin in 2014 and a couple replacements to some of their substandard level players

I know that's a meh reaction, but it's hard to get ecstatic about any coaching move that Washington makes anymore. They've pretty much run the gambit of hiring types since Danny boy has owned the team, all with similar outcomes. They've gone for old school defensive coach (Marty Shottenheimer), the hot offensive minded college coach of the time (Steve Spurrier), the bring-back of the most beloved and legendary coach in their own franchise's history (Joe Gibbs), the unheard of potential diamond in the rough (Jim Zorn), and the splashy multiple Super Bowl winning coach (Shanahan). I can't lie...other than Zorn, who I had never heard of previously, these all sounded like great hires at the time, and they all either fizzled-out eventually (at their best) or blew up in their faces at some point (at their worst).

So, excuse me for not being anything but meh about the team's decision to hire Jay Gruden. This isn't meant to disparage him at all. He appears to be a fine coach. He has pedigree, being the brother of another Super Bowl winning coach in John Gruden. The offenses he coordinated the last few seasons in Cincinnati were somewhere between good to very good with a quarterback who was average at best. He appears to be earnest, bright, hungry, and most other attributes you would want in a coach. But if the other guys who came before him are any indication, he's likely to last in Washington between 2 and 3 years before he gets canned with an overall record below 0.500. More meh from me, but it's tough to come up with another honest emotion regarding the coaching situation based on past history. Aside from prove me wrong, there's really not much us for me to say. Godspeed, Jay Gruden...Godspeed.

Looking good already, Jay.