Former Washington head coach Jay Gruden is a frequent guest on the local airwaves throughout the NFL regular season, offering his insight into the NFL and the Commanders.
Gruden, who coached Washington from 2014-19, was known for his ability as an offensive play-caller. So in an appearance on “Grant and Danny,” on 106.7 The Fan Tuesday, Gruden defended former Washington offensive coordinator Scott Turner, who the team fired.
“Not a fan of it personally,” Gruden said, “I don’t think Scott Turner had a lot to do with the offensive struggles, I think it was more personnel-related, especially at key positions, but that’s just me.”
Gruden went on to explain how the interior offensive line wasn’t very good, and the quarterbacks were either not accurate or lacked the arm strength to make the downfield passing game work.
The best part of the interview was when Grant Paulsen asked Gruden what he thought about Washington general manager Martin Mayhew’s comments about wanting to have a 2-to-1 run/pass ratio.
“Maybe Martin Mayhew and Ron Rivera should call plays,” Gruden said. “I mean, seriously, it’s embarrassing; you can’t just hand the ball off, two-to-one, and say you’re going to do that. The score dictates it, your line play dictates it, your tight ends; if you don’t have blocking tight ends, it’s hard. What are you gonna run, inside zone, you gonna run outside zone, you gonna run toss plays? It’s very difficult to maintain a two-to-one advantage if you’re trailing, or if you’re 2nd-and-12, or 2nd-and-11, multiples times throughout the course of a game.”
Gruden was then asked if he ever dealt with someone telling him he wasn’t running the football enough. His answer was fascinating and not surprising.
“Yeah, I had it every day,” Gruden said. “Every Monday, when I went into the office. We didn’t run the ball enough; I had a thing on my desk saying, ‘hey, the Dallas Cowboys are running the ball 2-to-1; they’re leading the league in rushing. That’s why they’re leading the division. I said, ‘well, they’re winning every game because they’re in the lead, they’re not behind, and they have a powerful offensive line and a great back.’
Who left the note on his desk? Was it owner Dan Snyder?
“Who do you think” Gruden responded. Grant Paulsen responded: “Goose [Bruce] Allen?” “Yeah, probably,” Gruden answered. “I don’t know; who knows? It was on my desk; I don’t know who put it there. I glanced at it and threw it right in the garbage when I was done.”
Gruden said it was color-coded and said there was no vanilla ice cream outside his office.
Gruden then explained his philosophy as a play-caller. He noted how it is every offensive coordinator’s dream to run the ball twice as much as you pass it because it makes the offensive line and defense happy, but it’s not possible. When he called plays, he used things like bubble screens, the quick game and RPOs to keep the defense off-balanced.
In another funny moment, Danny asked Gruden if he wanted Washington’s offensive coordinator position.
“I would love to coach again,” Gruden said after a pause. “Who’s the owner?”
“Something tells me Dan’s not going to be hiring you, Jay, Grant said.
“Something tells me I wouldn’t go back if he was,” Gruden responded. Gruden, Grant and Danny were all laughing.
Finally, Gruden gave a scouting report on rookie Sam Howell.
“I was impressed with him,” Gruden said of Howell. “That’s why you gotta give Scott some credit. I thought Sam Howell played very well. He used his legs, he showed some accuracy on the deep ball and did some really good things. Moving forward, I don’t know how much you can put into that one game, although it was a big game. It was against the Dallas Cowboys, who played everybody, and he played well.”
Gruden is clearly a fan of Howell and has seen growth from when he watched him at North Carolina.
Washington fans love to criticize Gruden, but he’s an excellent analyst, quick-witted and never takes himself too seriously, which makes him a fun interview every time.
