Washington Redskins Recipe for Success is Continuity

The Washington Redskins enter the new year confident as continuity among starters and backups reaches an all time high…

When Jay Gruden became the head coach for the Washington Redskins in 2014, the situation looked pretty grim. The team was coming off of a three win season and cruising headlong into a couple of the most tumultuous years in the history of this storied franchise.

Even if Jay Gruden could have seen the quarterback controversies that were to unfold over the next four years, he could never have imagined that the starting team that took the field for him that year consisted of only three players that would still be around just three short years later.

Those three players consisted of a young tight end that had just completed his rookie year in Jordan Reed, a left tackle in Trent Williams, and an outside linebacker in Ryan Kerrigan.

Gruden was almost assuredly too consumed with the chaos that comes from being a first year, first time head coach in the NFL to even contemplate a Super Bowl appearance. However, had he taken a minute to look at this team and assess their ability to win a Super Bowl he would have, if he was in any way lucid, admitted that, “We can’t get there from here.”

He would have been correct.

2015 did not fare much better for the Redskins. After a paltry four-win campaign in his first year at the helm, he benched the franchise savior and fan favorite, Robert Griffin III. Worse, after having drafted Morgan Moses the previous year and adding another offensive lineman in Brandon Scherff in the 2015 draft, the team had but a mere 5 starters that would retain their starting positions over the course of the next two years.

After having 13 percent (3/22) of his starters returning for his first year as coach, the team followed that up by retaining just 22 percent (5/22) of the next year’s starters. He was essentially starting from scratch again. This kind of continuity is roughly consistent with that of an expansion team.

Not to mention the ensuing Kirk Cousins fiasco, which ultimately made the RG3 dysfunction pale in comparison. Gruden’s thoughts, I’m guessing, would have been something along the lines of, “We have got a lot of work to do. This is still a mess.” Eventually, and against all odds, the Redskins made a late season run and made the playoffs only to be embarrassed at home against the Green Bay Packers.

It’s unlikely Gruden saw this for anything more than it was – a fluke. But, there was a glimmer of hope. The 2016 Redskins entered the season with a stunning eight starting players that would be still be around the following year. The 36 percent starter retention rate was still unacceptable but I suspect Coach Gruden was realizing that the Redskins were accumulating some talent to work with and thinking, “We’re finally moving in the right direction.”

In 2017 the Redskins saw 14 players take the field on opening day that started for the team the previous year. “It’s taking shape,” I can imagine the coach thinking. “We have some real potential.” But, ultimately, the team suffered more injuries and lost more starters, and back ups, (per Pro Football Focus), than any other team in the NFL.

That proved too much to overcome, especially when our quarterback, the darling of D.C., decided he was worth somewhere in the vicinity of $30,000,000 a year. 9-7, 8-7-1, 7-9 = $30,000,000 a year. Remember, marijuana is legal in D.C.

Enter the 2018 Washington Redskins. The five year march through the desert in search of continuity has been realized in historic fashion. This year the Redskins return an absolutely mind boggling 20 of 22 starters.

So, who are the two new starters for the Redskins this year? (Remember, we’re still working with a pre-draft roster here.) One of them is certain to be Paul Richardson, the free agent wide receiver pick up from Seattle.

Finally, we can stop talking about the loss of DeSean Jackson and his eight or nine games a season of production. Richardson possesses blazing speed of his own and will make us forget all about DeSean and the failed Terrelle Pryor experiment as well.

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The other starter is, of course, Alex Smith. He of the highest quarterback rating in the NFL last year.

Jay Gruden recently said that, “It’s not always easy to teach these new guys everything they need to know.”

I’d say that qualifies as the understatement of the year. It’s never easy to teach the new guys everything they need to know. This year that won’t be a problem. Gruden, the players, and the fans finally hold the elusive Holy Grail in professional football – continuity. Jay Gruden’s thoughts going into this season? How about, “Okay, we’re ready. Let’s do this!”

Dan Snyder, Bruce Allen, and Jay Gruden have received a fair amount of criticism over the years. Some of the criticism, I’m sure even they would admit, was well deserved. However, any mistakes or poor decisions could never be attributed to lack of effort.

These guys want to win so bad it hurts. Snyder was a Redskins fan long before he owned the team and Allen, I can’t even imagine what it would mean to him to return this team to its former glory. How happy would his father be? Alas, the effort is finally paying dividends. Returning 90 percent of your starters doesn’t happen by accident. Someone at Redskins Park has a plan. And the plan is working.

This year the Redskins can seriously entertain goals that include playoff games without being considered delusional. As a lifelong Redskins fan the last time I felt this good about our team going into a new season Bruce Allen’s father was our coach and we had a quarterback named Sonny Jurgensen.

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