Jay Gruden Era Is Already Doomed for Washington Redskins

Imagine for a moment that you're Dan Snyder.

For many Washington Redskins fans that's likely a dream scenario, the chance to rewrite nearly two decades of bad history. But instead, put your Snyder hat on and just consider your decisions in this last year.

You've got a potentially dynamic young quarterback, one you believe in firmly, but also one others claim is something of a diva. There's concern you're too close with this player, something likely to upset his teammates.

You want this quarterback to succeed, but you also have to think about the rest of the locker room. That's a tough balancing act. So what do you do?

You hire a coach exclusively on the basis of his supposed ability to develop said young quarterback. Essentially you hand the keys to your franchise to a rookie head coach to further empower a player who already has too much influence.

David Kohl/Associated Press

The name of this first-year sideline general turned hapless fall guy? Jay Gruden.

He's only 10 games into his career as Washington Redskins head coach, but Gruden's era in D.C. is doomed to fail, whether he knows it or not.

How could it end any different? Gruden is stuck between a rock and the face of Subway commercials.

On one side he has struggling Robert Griffin III, whose core skill has been all but eradicated by serious injuries. Now Gruden has to make him a passer, something that seems increasingly difficult as Griffin's chronic trouble with core aspects of pro-level—level, not style—passing become clearer.

But on the other side, Gruden's faced with an intractable owner with a deep and checkered history of favoring certain players, usually the wrong ones. So it's not as if Gruden can march into the owner's box and say, "Sorry boss, I thought I could do it, but this kid's never going to make it. It's time we moved on."

Remember, Snyder hired Gruden to get Griffin right. Obviously, with his team 3-7 and Griffin 0-3 as a starter this season, it's clear Gruden isn't getting it right.

Yet admitting failure with Griffin would be like Gruden saying he can't do the job he was hired to do. You play devil's advocate for a moment and think what you'd say to an employee singing that tune.

Rob Carr/Getty Images

Unfortunately, for Gruden that's the reality he's facing. Rather than overloading the table with a chronological account, let's assume we all know the story by now.

Griffin isn't playing well. In fact, he's embroiled in a two-year malaise with seemingly no end in sight. His poor performances are frustrating and forcing him to say things he shouldn't.

His actions on the field and at the microphone are raising the ire of Gruden and putting him at loggerheads with his supposed franchise player. All the while, Snyder is hovering over things, ready to pull the trap door open under either man. Most people know who'd they bet on taking the fall first.

Somewhere in this dysfunctional mess is the rest of the Redskins team. It's a group of players becoming increasingly weary of the carnival being played out at the top of the organization. Some are even starting to say so.

Throw in an increasingly unforgiving media spotlight that's illuminating some ugly truths, and you've got an environment no coach could succeed in, let alone one who was a questionable hire in the first place.

The aftermath of Washington's latest defeat, a limp 27-7 home surrender to the lowly Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has served as a snapshot of the untenable situation Gruden finds himself in.

First, Griffin pulled off a miracle of athleticism by putting both feet in his mouth when he appeared to blame his teammates for his struggles, per For The Win's Nate Scott:

"

Great quarterbacks, the Peytons, the Aaron Rodgers, those guys don’t play well if their guys don’t play well. They don’t.

We need everybody. I need every one of those guys in that locker room. And I know they’re looking at me saying the same thing. I’ll never quit on them. And I need them to do the same.

"

With additional context, Griffin's words may not appear as poorly chosen. He also took responsibility for the horror show against the Bucs.

However, this is a sound-bite culture, particular in today's sporting world. So you can be sure Griffin's critique of "his guys" didn't go unnoticed in the Redskins locker room. They certainly weren't the right words to calm an already tense and sensitive situation.

Griffin did attempt to calm the waters he helped make choppy, via his official Twitter account:

But the damage has already been done, the waters are still choppy, everybody connected with Washington's NFL franchise already feels sea sick.

Gruden was the first to hurl chunks over the side of this sinking ship. He responded to Griffin's ill-conceived words in brutal fashion, per ESPN.com Redskins reporter John Keim:

"

It's his job to worry about his position, his footwork, his fundamentals, his reads, his progressions, his job at the quarterback position. It's my job to worry about everybody else. And, yes, everybody else needs to improve. There's no question about it. But it's not his place. His place is to talk about himself and he knows that. He just elaborated a little bit too much.

"

That could serve as a seminar on what makes an ideal verbal beatdown. Gruden was certainly attempting to reassert his authority, which is pretty much all he can do at this point.

To some, that's only natural and a welcome return to the old fire and brimstone stereotype of the classic NFL coach, something MMQB writer Peter King referenced:

But Gruden's blunt-force manner and tone may not be the right weapons for this situation. That's not just in the context of what is going on in Washington, but also in terms of football's modern era.

Maybe Griffin's apparently planet-sized ego did need the shrink-ray treatment. However, it's never good to hear a head coach explicitly tell anyone who will listen everything that's wrong with his quarterback.

Gruden may have been better served falling back on the safe haven of some coaching platitudes in front of the cameras. Then, privately, he could've taken Griffin to task.

Today's players don't respond to the tough-talking taskmaster the way they did 20 years ago. Right or wrong, the modern athlete tends to require a little more sensitive and subtle handling.

That's not to say Griffin and the Redskins need a smiling, player-friendly coach to run around the practice field sharing high fives and defending every mistake.

But for a quarterback and a team already struggling to meet each other halfway, Gruden's critique may have only served to draw the battle lines a little deeper.

You would think Gruden would be a little more circumspect about what he says about Griffin. Let's face it, he probably has to if too harsh a tongue lashing could incur the wrath of the owner.

That reality was put into stark perspective by ex-Redskins cornerback Shawn Springs, who has no doubt Griffin will stay under center for as long as Snyder wants him to.

His comments were made during an interview with 106.7 The Fan and reported by Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post:

"

And you know why? Because Dan Snyder’s gonna make sure he’s the starting quarterback. You have no choice. You have no choice. That move would set the franchise back like 10 years. You gave up three first-rounders….You have to live with that.

"

If that's really Snyder's thinking, then Gruden is truly doomed. He's doomed because if Griffin's still considered the future, then Gruden never should've been hired in the first place.

Why hire a coach who doesn't like the read-option to develop a quarterback best suited to a version of that system? Surely, somebody like Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell would've been a better choice in this context.

Stephen Brashear/Associated Press

He's made Russell Wilson a success by keeping zone-read principles a core part of his scheme, and even reportedly interviewed with the Redskins this offseason.

Bevell might not be able to make it work with Griffin, maybe no coach can. But he'd have a better chance of putting a system in place that's tailored more to what Griffin can do. If he's ever going to develop, that has to be the starting point.

Of course, if Snyder doesn't like what Gruden's saying, or how he's managing the prized asset, then he has a big decision to make. Booting Gruden just one year after dumping Mike Shanahan, wouldn't exactly be an encouraging advert to other prospective coaches.

Switching coaches until Griffin finds one he likes would also become a costly way of doing business for Snyder. He gave Gruden a five-year contract this offseason.

Yet Snyder could thread the needle and ditch the ex-Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator without making it all about Griffin. If he wants cause, he could look at the decision to keep Jim Haslett. He's a failing defensive coordinator, but longtime Gruden buddy, who's predictably presiding over another poor unit this season.

Snyder could even curl a lip at Gruden's mismanagement of a once-vaunted running game. Alfred Morris and the zone-stretch scheme began to struggle last season, but Gruden, who's often favored power-running, was never going to be the man to fix it.

That continues the theme of him being doomed from the start, something that makes a rational person question why he was even given the job. It's time for general manager Bruce Allen to answer more than a few tough questions.

Patrick McDermott/Getty Images

Leading that interrogation should be the accusation of wasting two third-round picks on a pair of offensive linemen who can't get on the field except in the event of injuries and have done nothing to bolster a problem position.

Whatever say Allen has, Gruden is still part of the decision-making process, and the results haven't been good. When a team is 3-7 and crippled by this much dysfunction, it's usually the coach who pays the price.

Griffin isn't the only problem in D.C. But his inherent flaws seemingly being lost on the man who has all the real power, mean that Gruden is going to have to pick up that tab much sooner than he wants.