After an embarrassing 3-13 season where the team lost its last 8, owner Dan Snyder decided to relieve head coach Mike Shanahan of his duties.  Along with his poor record of 24-40 over the past 4 years, Shanahan seemed to have strained his relationship with star quarterback Robert Griffin III after allowing him to tear his anterior cruciate ligament in a playoff game against Seattle last year.  All of these factors led to Shanahan’s demise and the Redskins were forced to look for a new head coach to hopefully lead the team to success.

Enter Jay Gruden.  The Redskins have officially hired the Cincinnati Bengals’ offensive coordinator, Jay Gruden as their next head coach, succeeding Mike Shanahan.  Jay Gruden is the brother of Super Bowl-winning head coach and Monday Night Football commentator, Jon Gruden., but Jay has his own accolades that he brings to the job.  As the Bengals’ offensive coordinator, Gruden was in charge of calling plays for the offense.  The Bengals this season, were 6th in points scored per game and 3rd in passing touchdowns under Gruden’s play calling.  Gruden was able to achieve these numbers with a much less talented quarterback, Andy Dalton, than RG3.  Gruden’s arrival should rejuvenate Robert Griffin to take his play to a new level.

The arrival of Gruden will pay dividends on the offensive side, but the real work that needs to be done to fix Washington goes to the defensive unit and the special teams unit.  This past season, the Redskins defense were 2nd in most points given up and allowed teams to score almost 30 points per game.  The special teams unit was even more atrocious, they allowed a league high 3 punt returns to be returned for touchdowns which is unacceptable considering the players on special teams are usually reserve players who are hungry for playing time, the poor effort shows that either they lack the fire to win football games or they are simply not good enough to play at the NFL level.

“I think there’s too many guys who think that they’re too good for special teams.” said Redskins tight end Niles Paul.

Gruden is an offensive whiz and he should be able to get Robert Griffin III back on track to superstardom, but it remains a mystery if he will be able to hire the right people to shore up the embarrassments known as the defense and the special teams.  Jay Gruden is entering a situation where the team is much better than it was when Shanahan took power in 2010, the Redskins now have their franchise quarterback(Robert Griffin III), a fantastic running back (Alfred Morris), one of the best left tackles in the league (Trent Williams), and two quality pass rushers (Ryan Kerrigan and Brian Orakpo).  There is too much talent for the Redskins to finish 3-13,  there is hope for the future with the hiring of Jay Gruden.

“I don’t know what happened last year and I don’t care what happened last year…I’m going to make sure we’re 1 team with 1 goal.” said Redskins Head Coach Jay Gruden.