Jay Gruden finds himself in an unusual place this offseason after spending the past decade coaching in the NFL: on the outside.
Gruden completed a one-and-done season as offensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars after a five-year-plus stint as Washington’s head coach. Known for his successful work with quarterbacks including Kirk Cousins and Andy Dalton, Gruden’s spirits remain high as the 53-year-old ponders the next step. Always considered a good quote, the coach upped his game in that regard during a lengthy interview with The Athletic.
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Topics ranged from Washington owner Dan Snyder’s involvement with football decisions, the draft selection of Dwayne Haskins, Tony Romo’s fortune-telling hype, Alex Smith and Gruden’s brother Jon Gruden’s upcoming quarterback decision with the Raiders.
This conversation has been edited and condensed. To hear the full interview, check out the “Standig Room Only” podcast on iTunes, Spotify or other podcast apps.
How was your first season being off the main podium as the head coach and being in this other role, working with a different team in a different place?
It was great. We had a lot of fun. Had a good staff and you know the players were good. It was just a tough year all around. You know, we had a lot of issues. Obviously, we didn’t have a great year the year before I was here, and I then made a change at the coordinator position. They have a lot of holes — a lot of youth on that football team, and we knew it was kind of a do-or-die situation with Coach (Doug) Marrone. You know, he’s on the hot seat, one of the hottest seats around in the NFL. We knew we had to win right away, and unfortunately, we didn’t get it done. But as far as going back to being a coordinator working with the coaches … and all the quarterbacks (Mike) Glennon and (Gardner) Minshew and obviously Jake Luton, it was fun.
What’s your deal going into next season?
I don’t know yet. I think football this year, probably out of the question. I think most of these staffs are filled up right now. So I might try my hand on the media part of it, we’ll see. I got a couple of things lined up. Maybe try my hand at commentating, studio, something like that. If I can get lucky enough to get one of those jobs it would be great to keep alive in the football world. I love the game. Love to talk about the game, love to be part of it. Sitting out is not really an option, but if that’s what I have to do then I’ll have to do that for a year.
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Do you have the Tony Romo predictive skills where you can see the play at the line of scrimmage and tell the audience what’s gonna happen?
I could do it every time. He’s only right like 30 percent of the time. Those are usually pretty obvious, I mean (laughs). Nobody talks about the times when he’s wrong, but when he’s right, holy cow, he’s a genius. Oh, come on, man. Sure, it’s a run. Nope, it’s a pass. Sorry, I was wrong.
Washington went 7-9 this season but won the NFC East, and now there’s a sense of momentum heading into next season. That’s partly because the roster has so many young players, many of whom were acquired during your time. Do you take some pride that some of these positive vibes started with your time?
I absolutely do. I love watching those guys play, and we drafted them for a reason. Not only for their skill as a football player but for their off-the-field (approach) and their mental makeup as a human being. There’s some great kids on that team. … Personnel-wise, just my last year there, none of them ever played. You lose your quarterback, your left tackle holds out, your right guard gets hurt. … (QB Case) Keenum got hurt (2019 Week 4) against the Giants. We had to play Haskins. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite ready, obviously. Defensively, we’re kind of limping around a lot. It would have been nice to coach there with a full tank of gas. My last two years there, we were really reeling with the injury part of it, 30-40 guys on IR every year. It’s tough. … But Alex (Smith) was the key. When you lose Alex, you’re 6-3 and you got a two-game lead (in the division and then) you lose your starting quarterback to a broken leg as tragic as that was and what happened after all that. Then Colt McCoy breaks his leg the week after, you’re not gonna have much success. I don’t care who you are as a coach.
Right when you’re bringing in guys off the street.
If you’re teaching a snap count Week 12, it’s never a good thing.
You spoke the other day with The Washington Post, after former VP of player personnel Kyle Smith’s exit from Washington’s front office, and gave an interesting quote about owner Daniel Snyder’s involvement. To paraphrase, you said the front office and scouts would spend significant time preparing for free agency and the draft, and then the owner “would come in off his yacht and make the pick.” Obviously, that’s a fun quote for all of us. Are you talking about any specific pick? We’re all sort of assuming you’re talking about Dwayne Haskins. But is there anything in particular that you’re talking about?
Well, first and foremost, he is the owner, let’s get that square. So if he wants to come off his yacht, or if he wants to come off his tennis court, wherever he’s at and make a pick, he has that right. I always tell people that, hey, if you have a problem with the owner, then get yourself $5 (billion) or $6 billion and buy your own team. Until that time, he’s the boss. So if he wants to pick somebody, he can pick them. At the end of the day, that’s what you have to live with. That’s the case probably 50-60 percent of the teams in the NFL. Some owners are active, some owners aren’t active. The ones that are active, you have to live with the fact they’re going to make the ultimate decision, whether it’s a high-paid free agent, a free agent we let walk, or what have you.
(Dan) has the ultimate say, and that’s not going to change until he decides he wants to change. So I guess he’s given up total responsibility and total power to Coach (Ron) Rivera, which is a good thing, I think. But when I was there, that wasn’t the case. He had final say over everything. He and (former team president) Bruce Allen would talk about it, and they would make the decision. We would live by it. And that’s fine. I signed up for that. I knew that was the case going in. And that’s just the way it was.
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I’ve reported on the 2019 draft, as have others, regarding Snyder overriding whatever you guys originally wanted to do with the 15th pick to take Dwayne Haskins. Is that effectively what happened?
Well, there are definitely other scenarios we would like to have gone by. We knew we needed a quarterback, though. I mean, so at the end of the day, it’s not like Dwayne was not a good prospect. He’s a young football player with a lot of talent. So it’s not the end of the world we took Dwayne. We just didn’t think we had to take him that high. We thought we might be able to get him later, which may or may not have been true. It’s just what we thought. … If we lost Dwayne that there were a couple of other ones later we might be able to get to come in and maybe compete with Case. Plus there was still hope in the back of our minds that Alex would come back. So it was a really tough situation really not knowing Alex and his comeback attempt. Was it a legit comeback attempt? I mean, the things that he went through, I didn’t think he’d ever play again, personally. But Alex is Alex, and he’s the toughest son of a bitch I’ve ever met. And he did come back.
You guys trade back into the first round that year to get DE Montez Sweat at 26. Was he the plan at 15 if you guys had not gone with Haskins?
Yes, Sweat was there. I remember (Darnell) Savage was there, the safety who went to Green Bay. Liked him a lot.
Haskins is the one pick that we all note where the owner got involved. Were there other moments during your time where the owner interjected himself into that decision?
Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, for sure. There were. But like I said before, he is the owner and Bruce is the president. And those two guys had the power. So if they wanted a guy or didn’t want a guy, then that was the case. You know, they would listen to the information they get from the coaches and from the scouts, but at the end of the day, they had final say. … At the end of the day, I will give my input. That is going to be a given. And I would know what I’m talking about because I did the work and didn’t get my way all the time. Sometimes that was a good thing. You know, sometimes I was wrong on a guy. I’ve been wrong on guys before, and I’ll be wrong again. But at least I put in the time and the work. And the guys that I’m arguing with, I want to make sure they put in the time of the work. Where it gets frustrating is the guys making the decision if they’re not putting in the work. You know what I mean? They’re just listening to the internet or watching the ESPN highlight or what have you. But for the most part, I’d say 85-90 percent of the time, we were making pretty much football decisions that were good for the football team, and they were a (decision) that everybody agreed on. … The majority. But there were a few picks in there that we had nothing to do with it. But I don’t need to go over all those … I think the thing I feel good about, I feel like I left the team in a better spot than when I acquired the team. …
For the most part, I was given every opportunity to succeed there. We just didn’t get it done. There are some decisions there that I wish we could have had back. Obviously, we should have gotten more for Kirk Cousins. That’s the biggest thing, that I think we should have got more for Kirk Cousins than a third-round (compensatory) pick (after he signs a free-agent contract with Minnesota in 2018). … We’re able to trade for Alex Smith, redo his contract, and unfortunately, he got hurt. That puts your franchise back when your $70 (million)-$80 million quarterback breaks his leg and is out for a long time. That’s gonna put you back.
I assume on some level you were paying attention to the Raiders this season. They have quarterbacks Derek Carr and Marcus Mariota. Both of these guys are interesting this offseason with regard to the quarterback musical chairs. There was a recent Carr rumor about trade interest in him, and it seems hard to imagine both return from the salary-cap perspective. What do you think about those guys just broadly and then specifically for a team like Washington that could use a quarterback?
I think Derek Carr had his best year just from an outsider. Obviously, my brother’s there (Raiders coach Jon Gruden), but I watched them as often as I could because we have similar type concepts and I might steal a play or formation from (Jon). … (Carr) was outstanding. They did a lot of things at the line of scrimmage where they would get man zone tips or read the safeties, get into a good run or get into a good pass and he would maximize the information and get the Raiders in a good place on third down, red zone. I think they’re very efficient. So I think had a great year, you know, unfortunately, defensively, they didn’t get many stops. Marcus came in that one game that Derek got hurt, and he played very well for not getting any reps. The issue you have with Marcus is long-term health. … (He needs to use) his speed, his elusiveness to have success, but he did do some good things in the pocket. I think both quarterbacks obviously deserve an opportunity. But I would jump on the (chance) to try to get Derek Carr. I mean, I think he’s one of the top quarterbacks.
You can just tell us: Do you think Jon is open to trading him?
I don’t know. I never know what Jon’s gonna do. But I’d be shocked, really. The way that Derek played this year, I don’t know why he’d want to get rid of him. But who knows, if there’s another guy out there that they really, really like, it is a business at the end of the day. You got to think about not only the year coming up but the future five, six, seven years. Jon’s going to be there for the next six, seven years so he’s got to think about that as well.
(Photo: Reinhold Matay / USA Today)
