To replace the injured Colt McCoy — who replace an injured Alex Smith — the Redskins are signing a mobile quarterback who has experience playing for Jim Harbaugh … just not the one many believe is the most qualified for the job.

On the same day Jay Gruden told the media Washington was not interested in Colin Kaepernick, the team signed journeyman backup Josh Johnson (who last attempted an NFL pass in 2011) to sit behind Mark Sanchez, giving the Redskins, who remain just one game out in the NFC East, a quarterback room that screams We’re giving up on this season.

Here’s how Gruden explained the decision to pass on Kaepernick…

Jay Gruden said QB Colin Kaepernick was discussed but said there's "not a lot of time to get a brand new QB and a system installed and taught in a couple days. He's been talked about and discussed, but we'll probably go in a different direction." — John Keim (@john_keim) December 4, 2018

Gruden is saying that bringing in Kaepernick would force the Redskins to install a new offense in a matter of days and that’s just not possible. That, admittedly, would make a ton of sense if Gruden’s offense was not already very similar to the one Kaepernick ran in San Francisco under Jim Harbaugh.

But the two offenses are actually very similar.

Here’s Jay’s brother Jon saying as much back in 2008 after the Buccaneers drafted — wait for it — Josh Johnson out of San Diego, where he played under Harbaugh …

Via Bucs Nation:

“Josh has been running a system that is similar to ours, so I felt that the development process would actually be quicker. You see him having to make a lot of throws that you would have to make in our offense.”

Of course, Jay cut his teeth as an NFL coach on Jon’s staff in Tampa Bay. He has, by most accounts, run a similar offense to Jon’s throughout his career. The terminology is no doubt similar — if not outright the same — and terminology is generally the sharpest learning curve for a QB coming into a “new scheme” (the concepts are all pretty similar). Here’s another Harbaugh confirming that the Gruden brothers are running the same scheme …

Via The Washington Post:

“First off, Jay’s an excellent coach,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said this week in Orlando. “It’s a West Coast offense. I think the Grudens have their own patent on their own version of the West Coast offense because they built it so well.”

So Jay runs an offense like Jon Gruden’s, according to John Harbaugh, and that offense, according to Jon Gruden, is very similar to Jim Harbaugh’s, which Kaepernick ran in San Francisco — after replacing Alex Smith. Got that?

While discussing Kaepernick, Gruden also claimed that to best take advantage of the free agent quarterback’s skill set, the Redskins would have to install new run concepts. In other words, they’d have to run more zone read. But Washington was already running a lot of option run plays. Per ESPN, only six teams had run more before Alex Smith’s injury…

Some of those zone-read and option looks Gruden has adopted as he adjusted his West Coast scheme were ripped out of Chip Kelly’s offense — the same Chip Kelly for whom Kaepernick played his final season with the 49ers. Many of Kelly’s passing plays are actually West Coast-based, anyway … and while his play designs didn’t give him lasting NFL success, they did spread through the league. And he certainly helped the NFL change its mind on the idea that having QBs run read options was the stuff of unsophisticated college offenses.

After Washington’s Week 1 game in Arizona, we broke down how Smith’s arrival allowed Gruden to call more of those option plays. That post included several video examples of the Redskins running the kind of zone read plays Kaepernick ran in San Francisco, under both Harbaugh and Kelly. The “new” run concepts Gruden is referring to are already in Washington’s playbook. In fact, when Gruden spoke about the Smith acquisition during the offseason, he specifically mentioned how his mobility, and ability to run the zone read, would help open up the offense…

Via ESPN.com:

“His movement skills are very, very underrated. He can really, really run. He’s really a good athlete. That’s not to say we’ll run the zone read every time, but the ability to get on the edge and outside the pocket and do some of the college stuff [is appealing].

That quote could easily be about Kaepernick. And, if anything, it reinforces the idea that, in signing Sanchez the Redskins actually picked a QB who would force them to significantly alter their offense by removing plays that called for a truly mobile QB.

Now, if all of that isn’t enough evidence to convince you that Gruden’s reasoning for passing on Kaepernick is complete and utter nonsense, maybe the film will do the trick.

Gruden claimed the Redskins had brought in Sanchez because “he had some similar conceptual awareness that we had with Colt.” Basically, Sanchez was familiar with the passing concepts Washington liked to run.

Now that Sanchez has had a chance to play, we know what those passing concepts are. So we went through every passing play Washington called for Sanchez against the Eagles on Monday night and charted each one. Three of those plays were variations of “four verticals,” which can be found in any playbook. One was a running back screen, which is also in every playbook. And Washington ran a double-pass trick play, which isn’t going to be in the weekly game plan. We’ll just ignore those concepts and focus on the 19 reamining passing plays.

We then skimmed through Kaepernick’s film from 2014 to 2016, looking to see if he had run similar concepts. And wouldn’t you know it: We found examples of him running 15 of the 19 concepts Washington ran on Monday night.

That shouldn’t really come as a surprise. As we’ve covered, Kaepernick’s first few NFL seasons were spent in an offense similar to the one Washington is currently running. And Kaepernick continued running these same passing concepts under Kelly. And the concepts Kelly ran that can’t be found in a traditional West Coast playbook have been borrowed by West Coast teams, including the Redskins, over the last few years. Kaepernick has been running a West Coast offense for the entirety of his NFL career. And he’s been running the same core passing concepts that serve as the foundation of Gruden’s scheme throughout that time.

Let’s take a look at some examples of Kaepernick running the same plays Washington called on Monday night…

Spider 2 Y Banana

We’ll start with a favorite of Jay’s brother, which is run by just about every NFL team. It was the second passing play Washington called after Sanchez entered the game.

The Redskins called this same play three times on Monday night. The 49ers ran it just as often when Harbaugh was on the sideline.

Y Stick

This might be Gruden’s most common concept. He’s been running it with great frequency since his days as Bengals offensive coordinator. The Redskins called this play for Sanchez three times against the Eagles.

This also happens to be a favorite of Chip Kelly’s, and the 49ers ran it often during his one season in charge of the team.

Spot

On Monday night, the Redskins ran a slightly modified version of this concept that is used by pretty much every NFL team.

But they run the more traditional design, too.

Love the versatility Jordan Reed brings to the #Redskins offense. Same concept run on two different plays here. 1st, Reed runs the spot concept, makes the catch. 2nd play, Reed switches role and makes the catch on the choice route. More on that here: https://t.co/T7Yk0odLQ3 pic.twitter.com/Yl5QVgyvAF — Mark Bullock (@MarkBullockNFL) September 26, 2018

Kaepernick ran this one under both Kelly and Harbaugh during his time in San Francisco.

Hank

Hank is a West Coast staple. Every West Coast practitioner has this one in their playbook, including Gruden. And he dialed it up for Sanchez in Philly.

The 49ers ran this one a lot during Kaepernick’s time there.

Mesh

Pretty much every team is running this play after the Eagles ran it to great effect during their Super Bowl run. Washington called it once against the team that made it famous in the NFL.

The man who originally brought it to Philly? Chip Kelly, who was still running it after taking over the 49ers. Here’s Kaepernick throwing a touchdown on this play design.

Those are the basic concepts the Redskins ran on Monday night, but there were others that Kaepernick has run during his NFL career, including this high-low read with one receiver running a crossing route behind a hitch route…

Kaepernick ran this a ton under Kelly in 2016…

Here’s another high-low concept Washington ran for Sanchez…

And here’s Kaepernick running that same exact play under Kelly…

Here’s a mirrored concept the Redskins ran Monday night with the inside receivers running out routes and the outside receivers running vertical routes down the field…

Kaepernick ran this concept a number of times during his last season with the 49ers…

Thus far, we’ve only looked at plays the Redskins ran for Sanchez on Monday night, but there are plenty of other concepts the Redskins frequently call that Kaepernick has experience running, as well…

Dusty

Dusty stands for “Double Unders,” and it’s one of Gruden’s favorite concepts.

It was also in Kelly’s 49ers playbook.

Philly

This has been one of Washington’s most effective play-action passing concepts over the last few seasons.

It’s called “Philly” because Gruden picked it up from Kelly, who ran this play a bunch during his time with the Eagles. He ran it a lot in San Francisco, too.

Yankee

This is another West Coast staple and Washington has used it as a shot play throughout Gruden’s tenure as Redskins head coach.

Here’s Kaepernick hitting on a Yankee concept for a big gain in 2015.

RPO

The Redskins were running a lot of RPO’s when Smith was behind center, including this one, which packages a zone running play with a flare screen to the opposite side.

Here is Kaepernick running the same exact concept out of a different formation.

* * *

Gruden can claim that the decision to not sign Kaepernick is strictly a football one because signing such a quarterback would force him to overhaul his entire offense, but, as coaches love to say, the film don’t lie.

Washington is running almost all of the concepts Kaepernick was running during his best statistical seasons — seasons that the cast of failed quarterbacks the Redskins brought in for workouts can only dream of producing.

It’s obvious why Washington is passing on Kaepernick, and it has nothing to do with football. We’re talking about a team owned by a man, Daniel Snyder, who donated $1 million to the campaign of a president who has repeatedly said NFL players who kneel during the anthem should be banned from the sport. The same owner who said this during an NFL owners meeting focused on the national anthem issue.

Via ESPN.com:

As [Jerry] Jones spoke, Snyder mumbled out loud, “See, Jones gets it — 96 percent of Americans are for guys standing,” a claim some dismissed as a grand overstatement.

That does not sound like an owner who would even consider signing Kaepernick, no matter how well he fits into the Redskins offense or improves their chances to win football games. Unfortunately, he’s not alone.