Gone are the days when NFL head coaches entered their first season with the license to develop a team over the course of a few years. The firing of Cleveland Browns head coach Rod Chudzinski marked the third consecutive season of a coach being fired after their first year with a team. Nothing is promised by desperate front offices. In 2011, Oakland fired Hue Jackson at the end of his first season after posting the franchise’s best record since 2002. The bar is at an all-time high for new hires. Last season, three coaches (Andy Reid, Mike McCoy, and Chip Kelly) took their teams to the postseason in their first year, while Chicago’s Marc Trestman and Arizona’s Bruce Arians missed a playoff berth by just one game.

Seven teams parted ways with their coach this offseason, and all seven new hires know that there are immense expectations to not only win, but to win immediately. We’ll be taking a look at a different first-year head coach each week, determining what they bring to the table, and just how well they will fit in with the current personnel.

Jay Gruden, Washington Redskins

Coaching Experience

Nashville Kats (AFL) – 1997 (Offensive Coordinator)

Orlando Predators (AFL) – 1998-2001, 2004-2008 (Head Coach)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 2002-2008 (Offensive Assistant)

Florida Tuskers (UFL) – 2009 (Offensive Coordinator)

Florida Tuskers (UFL) – 2010 (Head Coach/GM)

Cincinnati Bengals – 2011-2013 (Offensive Coordinator)

Personnel

Jay Gruden has something of an easier task when it comes to first-year coaches. While most newly helmed teams experience complete turnover, the Redskins are returning twelve staff members, including defensive coordinator Jim Haslett, newly promoted offensive coordinator Sean McVay, and defensive backs coach Raheem Morris. This was an especially significant move for the start of the Jay Gruden era, since Haslett, McVay, and Morris all worked with Gruden at some point. Haslett was Gruden’s DC with the Florida Tuskers, McVay worked with Gruden in Tampa Bay and with the Tuskers, and Raheem Morris was in Tampa Bay for six of Gruden’s seven seasons with the Buccaneers.

The Good

Gruden is stepping into a stable situation in Washington. Though the Redskins went 3-13 last season, much has been chalked up to the efforts of Shanahan & Son. There are reports that Haslett’s effectiveness was severely limited by Mike Shanahan’s intrusion into defensive meetings and the changing of defensive game plans the day before a game, and Kyle Shanahan’s inability to get along with RG3 was well-documented in the media. Gruden is familiar with his staff, his staff is familiar with the roster, and that can only be a good thing for a coach with a limited NFL resume.

Gruden’s most attractive quality to the Redskins front office was his reputation as a QB whisperer and his ability to develop young players. Gruden arrived in Cincinnati after the reign of Carson Palmer and Chad Johnson had finally ended, and his first influence on the Bengals offense was in the drafting and development of A.J. Green and Andy Dalton. He took a young roster and managed to secure three consecutive playoff berths, while Dalton developed into a Pro Bowl quarterback and Green emerged as an All-Pro receiving talent. Cincinnati finished as a top ten offense in 2013, which was due to not only the Dalton-Green connection, but also the arsenal of young talent that Gruden surrounded them with. Gruden developed schemes around first- and second-year playmakers such as Giovanni Bernard, Tyler Eifert, Marvin Jones, and Mohamed Sanu.

Gruden’s strengths and the Redskins roster go hand in hand. The Bengals converted 84 percent of goal-to-go situations in 2013, which was the best in the NFL. That hugely impressive statistic can be attributed to Gruden’s devotion to the run game and his ability to exploit size-based mismatches in the red zone. Washington’s skill positions are stacked, and Gruden will have the convenience of premier receivers Pierre Garcon (who led the NFL in receptions last season) and DeSean Jackson, a deep backfield with Alfred Morris and Roy Helu, and an emerging talent in tight end Jordan Reed.

The Bad

For all of the talent that Jay Gruden had at his disposal, the Bengals offense had an alarming tendency to go flat in big games. In three postseason appearances, Gruden arrived with an utterly predictable game plan. In many key losses, the Cincinnati run game disappeared entirely. Dalton’s short career has been characterized by inconsistency. Although he posted career bests in 2013, Dalton reprised his tradition of postseason incompetence. He has thrown six interceptions to just one touchdown, and has a playoff passer rating of 56.2. Inconsistent play usually means an inconsistent coach. If Gruden’s main goal as Washington’s head coach is to tap into RG3’s potential, he needs to show more consistency and creativity when it comes to passing schemes.

Furthermore, Gruden has shown an inability to adapt his schemes to his personnel. In an offense that asked Dalton to continuously push the ball down the field, the size and hands of rookie tight end Tyler Eifert, as well as the presence of veteran Jermaine Gresham, should have been a security blanket for Dalton in the middle of the field. Instead, Eifert averaged fewer than three receptions per game, while Gresham posted career lows. This can be potentially troubling for the Redskins, especially since Gruden passed on Colin Kaepernick in favor of Dalton in the 2011 draft, citing scheme compatibility. Robert Griffin’s skill-set is obviously much closer to Kaepernick’s than to Dalton’s, so it will be interesting to see how Gruden adapts his style of offense.

Verdict

Gruden’s hiring almost seems to be a direct appeal to Robert Griffin III after Kyle Shanahan’s mishandling of the offense, and his development of young players into high-caliber contributors is certainly a cause for optimism. His offense took three years to crack the top twenty, though, and his post-season performance is certainly discouraging. The bottom line is that once again, Gruden simply has too many weapons to fail.