Jay Gruden sent out a Tweet Sunday that got a lot of eyeballs, taking a shot at how the Commanders promised a culture change under Ron Rivera after Gruden was fired, and it just doesn’t seem to be happening.
A little bit of I told you so and a little bit of piling on, as even Gruden admitted when he joined Chris Russell for his weekly Monday segment.
“Yeah, basically, that was kind of my going away present was the horrible culture I left behind; I didn't think it was that bad, but a lot of people said it,” Gruden said. “So I just reacted to it. I just thought after four or five years they'd have the right people in there and it'd be a much better place, but it looks like it's worse.”
Rooster remembered that people were more mad about Bruce Allen saying the culture was good after firing Gruden early in the 2019 season than the mess itself, and yeah, Gruden thought he didn’t leave that big of a rebuild in his wake.
“I thought we left around some pretty good core nucleus of players personally. Obviously, we had quarterback issues but most teams do and coaches get fired, and that's why you just keep working and keep plugging and try to get the right guy,” Gruden said. “But I thought defensively we got a lot better than when I picked up the team and we had some offensive skill in place and offensive linemen in place. So, I just didn't think it was that bad. We had some bad characters, as every team has when you're losing, but for the most part, I thought the core nucleus was good.”
On Monday’s Sports Junkies, Grant Paulsen said that he thought the four best players on the team entering this season were all holdovers from the Gruden era, so that checks out in Jay’s mind, but it shocks both Jay and Rooster that the bottom has fallen out so quickly.
“Especially on defense, that’s the most confusing thing,” Gruden said. “I actually thought they would struggle a little bit with the first year quarterback starting for his first time, and they have some offensive line issues, but Sam Howell is showing some toughness – but defensively, they are not good. They can’t stop the run, don’t get a pass rush, can't cover, and are in the wrong place at the wrong time. They just don't look like they're in sync, they don't look like they're fast or tough…they look confused, and they don’t look like an NFL defense right now. It's just weird watching them on tape.”
Gruden explained that in-depth looking at Tyreek Hill’s two long touchdown passes, and broke down what went wrong there – and as much as those big plays were a knock on Jack Del Rio, it again looks like maybe it’s not the scheme, it’s the personnel…or the guy who built it all.
And if the best defense is a good offense, in a reverse of the usual saying? Yeah, that ain’t good right now, either.
“I see a fire drill on every snap when Sam Howell goes back to pass. It's not good,” Gruden said. “The protection is poor, and this poor guy just needs some help, because he's playing his tail off. I have a lot of respect for Sam and the way he plays and competes, but from a system standpoint, he's just not getting a lot of help. It's just, ‘Sam, you go out there and scramble, try to find somebody open.’ I mean, if he couldn't run, I don't know if they would have got a completion. It’s just a weird dynamic of what's going on this late in the season. There seems to be a lot of protection issues and a lot of miscommunication as far as receivers and backs.”
Take a listen to Gruden’s entire segment with Rooster, where he goes into the protection issues a little more, why Ron Rivera wanted to run so much in the second half with the team already trailing by a large margin, the bye week and the Rams game after, and more!