As it goes in Won’t Get Fooled Again by the Who, “Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss.” Will this ring true in Washington, D.C. as a new coach was hired for the Redskins?

We all know that Mike Shanahan was fired by the Washington Redskins after another tough season in DC. He never lived up to Dan Snyder’s expectations to make the franchise a frontrunner after moving up to draft Robert Griffin III (RGIII). The owner and their former coach also appeared to constantly butt heads during his tenure.  Their GM, Bruce Allen, seems to be taking a larger role in this hire, which ultimately gives Snyder a fall guy if things don’t go well.

Jay Gruden, the Redskins new head coach.

News broke today that the troubled team has found their next coach – Jay Gruden. I find this hiring both interesting and ironic. Gruden spent the last 3 years as the Offensive Coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals and has never been a head coach in the NFL. After the Bengals were eliminated on Sunday, several stories came out regarding their 1^st round pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. Per the reports, owner Mike Brown wanted to take Colin Kaepernick with the 35^th pick (he went 36^th to the Niners) but OC Jay Gruden was adamant that Andy Dalton was their guy because he would be a better fit for their offense. We all know the different roads these guys have taken since getting to the league, but Gruden wanted Dalton because “ he fits what I do.” What he “does” is run the West Coast offense – which makes his hiring by the Skins very curious to those who’ve followed the quarterback controversy in DC.

Since another knee injury at the end of last season, RGIII never looked like the player that everyone expected him be when he returned this season.. After the team traded up to draft him #2 overall in 2012, he had a pretty good rookie season before he got injured. Since then though, his NFL career has been full of drama. From a highly publicized recovery (did they rush him back too early? https://msmittensmound.com/2013/04/03/risky-business/), to clashes with the coach and team and struggles on the field…sophomore slump is an understatement. He was inactive for the final 3 games of the season to avoid injury before the 2014 season and also likely due to his performance and relationship with Shanahan. There were rumors before the firing that RGIII wanted Art Briles, his college coach, to come run the show so he could succeed – but that won’t be the case.

Enter Kirk Cousins, or Captain Kirk as some call him, who was drafted the same year as Griffin and is much more of a traditional QB.  He’s been the fill-in or starter for the games that RGIII left early or didn’t play in over the past 2 seasons. There are many questions regarding his future with Washington. While it’s very important to have a good back-up (as we saw with several teams last season), there’s also value if they were to trade him and try to get some draft picks back that were lost when they moved up a couple years ago. There are quite a few teams that will be looking for a new QB this off-season and he has experience that you can’t get through the draft. However, it will be interesting to see if Washington is willing to deal him before they see what RGIII can do in another new system or if Captain Kirk may be the answer to Gruden’s schemes. The hiring of a coach who doesn’t run the read-option is just the latest wrinkle in a quarterback saga in DC that likely won’t end any time soon.

Jay Gruden knew what he was getting into when he interviewed for this position and impressed them enough to get hired this quickly. I’m sure he will immediately be tasked with trying to develop Griffin so they know what they have from their top pick. RGIII says that he wants a pro-style offense for his team, but is he the right guy to run it? I also wonder if he truly wants that, or is saying the right thing to try to keep his job. He’s also very close to the owner and they need to look like a united front. While Gruden and Shanahan run different types of offenses, they both focus on throwing and being effective in the pocket, something Cousins has done better at times than Griffin. So, as a new era begins for the Redskins, will Gruden find a way to work the offense in favor of RGIII or is the new boss the same as the old boss?