Redskins hire Ken Zampese, offensive staff coming into focus

The Washington Redskins have mostly built their offensive coaching staff after hiring Ken Zampese to coach their quarterbacks.

The Redskins got a jump on their 2020 coaching search when they fired Jay Gruden early in the 2019 NFL season. After Gruden’s Week 5 departure, the Redskins were able to pick and choose their targets on the coaching market and settled on Ron Rivera once he was fired by the Carolina Panthers.

While other teams were firing their coaches on Black Monday, the Redskins moved to secure Rivera as their coach. And now, his staff is starting to come into focus.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Redskins had already made a number of hires including naming Scott Turner offensive coordinator. Now, they have a quarterbacks coach in Ken Zampese, per Albert Breer of the MMQB, and that will virtually round out their offensive staff.

In addition to the coaches mentioned above, the Redskins also brought defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio’s son, Luke Del Rio, aboard as an offensive quality control assistant. The younger Del Rio started a few games at quarterback for the Florida Gators during his college days.

Randy Jordan, the team’s running backs coach in recent years, reportedly is set to be the team’s RB coach once again. That hasn’t been confirmed yet, but that’s the rumor out there.

Overall, this staff is a solid-looking one. While Redskins fans may lament the loss of Kevin O’Connell, the fact of the matter is that he is just as unproven as Turner. And while keeping O’Connell may have given Dwayne Haskins some continuity heading into his second season, he should still have plenty of time to get up to speed in Turner’s scheme.

As for the most recent hire, Zampese, he has proven to be an excellent quarterbacks coach during his time in the NFL. He helped Andy Dalton to reach the playoffs several times and was instrumental in Baker Mayfield’s success as a rookie. His departure from Cleveland coincided with Mayfield’s regression, so that is definitely notable.

It’s also worth noting that the Redskins interviewed Zampese last year and while they didn’t ultimately hire him, there was some serious interest in his coaching chops. And Ernie Zampese, Ken’s father, worked as an offensive consultant for the Redskins in 2004. Hopefully, the younger Zampese will be able to help Haskins take the next step in his second NFL season.

We’ll see how things end up working with this offensive staff. But the fact that Rivera has it in place so early is a good sign. Hopefully, they’ll be able to implement their desired system quickly and effectively in 2020.