Redskins Reality Checks: The future is looking murky
By Tim Payne
2. Reality Is, the Redskins are not a desirable coaching destination at this point.
The most important part of the coaching evaluation process is honestly assessing if there are better options available and willing to take the job if the team does choose to move on. All too often, organizations and programs fire a coach, only to look around and find out the job opening they created isn’t coveted by anyone better than the guy they just fired.
If Dan Snyder was to let Jay Gruden go at the end of this season, there’s a very real possibility that the quality of coach he could lure to DC would not be appreciably better than Gruden, or at least that the upheaval of a new coaching staff would set the team further back than the incremental improvements could make up.
What I’m realizing is that I like Jay Gruden in spite of his shortcomings, and I think continuity almost always trumps change in NFL organizations.
The other reality is simply this: who is better out there that would be willing to work for Bruce? If Snyder wouldn’t fire Bruce and truly give the GM reigns to a true football-first mind (like Kyle Smith), none of the top-echelon coaching candidates would choose to come to Washington. If Snyder wants to make the best possible coaching hire, he must first get rid of Bruce Allen’s influence in football operations.
Prediction: Gruden is fired at the end of the season, and the Redskins will be turned down by at least their top three candidates during their coaching search, but the fact that they were turned down by those candidates won’t come out until the new coach experiences his first real adversity on the job.