Redskins off-field updates from the bye week in Week 11

Kevin O’Connell sheds light on offensive situation

After Bill Callahan was promoted to head coach, I warned everyone that Callahan might dilute Kevin O’Connell’s trial run as the team’s offensive coordinator. It appears as if that premonition has quickly come to pass.

In a recent article by The Athletic’s Ben Standig, Kevin O’Connell talked about his role in the Redskins offense post-Jay Gruden’s firing, and while he wasn’t direct with his quotes, his words made it clear that he is not the mastermind of Washington’s inefficient offensive attack. Here’s what he had to say:

"When Bill [Callahan] became the head coach, and I assumed this role, every single week, my job is the coordinator. It may not be my offense on a game day because the head coach has a way he wants to play the football game. Try to play complimentary football with the other two phases. It’s hard to put a percentage on [my influence in the offense]. It’s hard to be exactly what you want to be, because as the coordinator, you still want to operate with what’s the best interest of the team, and that gets laid out by the head coach."

Translation: O’Connell is very politely saying that Callahan is the reason the offense has been so inefficient after Gruden’s firing, and that his influence is limited because of Callahan’s desire to play old school football, run the ball at inopportune times, and minimize a rookie-led passing game. O’Connell is doing what he can, but ultimately, he isn’t the boss, and he must filter his actions through the head coach’s vision.

In a way, Callahan’s promotion has been detrimental in this way. The Redskins need to adopt a long-term scope of the situation, and it would have been useful to see an unfiltered O’Connell offense with Dwayne Haskins at the helm, in order to gain information for decision making on next year’s head coach. Instead, the Redskins willfully minimized their ability to self-evaluate, all for continuity in a one-win season.

With O’Connell drawing parallels to Sean McVay on a regular basis as a young, smart, charismatic offensive coach, it’s likely that he’ll get an opportunity somewhere else at some point. And judging by his experience with Washington thus far, he might be inclined to go elsewhere. And without Washington’s complete lack of foresight, this could have been avoided.