Earlier this month, the Washington Redskins finally made the decision to fire head coach Jay Gruden. After two straight 7-9 seasons, three straight third-place finishes in the NFC East and an 0-5 start, it's hard to argue that it wasn't time for a change.
There wasn't much celebration in Washington when Gruden was handed his walking papers, however. Those who follow the franchise understand that this move was the equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The problems go much deeper than just the head coach.
Since owner Daniel Snyder took over the team in 1999, the Redskins are 140-186-1. The team has just five winning seasons and only two postseason wins. Snyder has gone through nine head coaches during that time. His right-hand man, team president and general manager Bruce Allen, might be as unpopular as Snyder himself.
Since we are only in October, it may be too early to discuss who Snyder is looking at to take over his ailing franchise. CBS NFL Insider Jason La Canfora reports that Snyder views Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin as the best candidate to help revive the Redskins, but it's unlikely that he will be fired. According to La Canfora, Tomlin remains on strong footing with the Rooney family, despite how the Steelers have fared over the last two years. With that being said, there does remain the possibility that the Redskins could trade for him.
There is someone else, however, who could end up becoming a favorite later on in the search: Redskins offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell.
O'Connell was selected in the third-round of the 2008 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots, where he spent a little time behind Tom Brady. His NFL career never really took off, and he had stints with a couple of other teams before retiring in 2012. He started off his coaching career in 2015 as the Cleveland Browns' quarterbacks coach, and also spent a year with the San Francisco 49ers as an offensive assistant before joining the Redskins in 2017.
The 34-year-old is someone I tabbed as a potential successor to Gruden back in May. Once the passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Gruden ended up promoting him to offensive coordinator this offseason just so he didn't lose him to another NFL team.
"Kevin is obviously a very talented coach and I think people understand that," Gruden said at the Annual League Meeting in March. "We were getting some nibbles out there to try to get him interviewed for coordinator, I wanted to make sure we kept him here, so I put him in the coordinator role."
The same morning Gruden was fired, Ian Rapoport reported that O'Connell was expected to get consideration for the head coaching job to prevent repeating history.
The Redskins once had Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan in the building, but decided to let them walk. Like McVay and Shanahan, O'Connell is someone who is viewed as one of these prospective offensive geniuses. Redskins tight end Vernon Davis confirmed this to me when we spoke earlier this year.
"It's a great opportunity for him, he's a great person, he's also a great coach," said Davis. "He's very in tune to what he's doing and what he needs to do. I knew that watching him all last year being the quarterbacks coach. Stepping in, a young guy who is very passionate about the game, 33-years-old and he has a great future ahead of him. It's very, very exciting to see him take over that responsibility as offensive coordinator because it's well-deserved. He's going to do extremely well."
O'Connell has also started to make waves in NFL circles. During an appearance on "The John Keim Report" podcast, ESPN NFL analyst Louis Riddick, who served as the director of pro personnel for the Redskins from 2005-07, said that O'Connell would be someone he would pursue if he were to return to the NFL as a general manager.
"Kevin O'Connell is one of those guys who I know I myself, if I'm ever to get back in the league and be a GM, that's a guy people continually put on my radar and talk about as, 'You have to watch this young man, you have to keep an eye on him,'" said Riddick. "He needs to be the main voice in Dwayne Haskins' ear, he's the one that they need to let really guide him through the early part of his career and the early part of his rookie season until he eventually becomes a head coach somewhere, because people think that he is special."
O'Connell was promoted to offensive play caller once Gruden was fired, but the Redskins' offense has only scored 17 points in two games under his direction. To be quite honest, it may not even matter if the Redskins continue to struggle for the remainder of the season with O'Connell.
His situation reminds me a lot of the one Matt LaFleur found himself in last season. Like O'Connell, LaFleur's name started to make its way around NFL circles a couple of years ago, and he was tabbed as a future head coach after a successful season as the quarterbacks coach for the Los Angeles Rams. No one wanted to take a chance on hiring him as a head coach heading into the 2018 season, but the Tennessee Titans did grab him as their new offensive coordinator.
The addition of LaFleur really didn't do anything for the Titans. They finished with a 9-7 record for the third season in a row, quarterback Marcus Mariota had his worst season as a pro and the Titans missed the playoffs after making it to the Divisional round the previous year. Still, LaFleur was hired by the Green Bay Packers as their new head coach before the 2018 playoffs had even come to a conclusion. He didn't earn this job solely off of what he accomplished with the Titans. Teams had been monitoring him before he even had the job in Tennessee.
It appears that it was a good decision for the Packers, as they are currently 6-1 and sitting atop the NFC North. We saw LaFleur's offense finally click in Week 7, as Aaron Rodgers threw for 429 yards and five touchdowns against the Oakland Raiders despite not having star wideout Davante Adams.
This is a low point for the Redskins' franchise. Home games are taken over by supporters of the opposing team and fan interest appears to be almost non-existent. This hire will be an important decision for Snyder. While Tomlin would be a great hire, who knows if the Redskins can pull it off? Maybe this is finally the time the Redskins take a chance on the young, offensive-minded wunderkind who is already in the building. If they don't, someone else might.
