Jon Gruden Atop Dan Snyder's Wish List To Coach Redskins?

The first five weeks of the season have led to the widespread belief that Jim Zorn's got about as much time left in the nation's capital as a Congressman found in a hotel room with three dead prostitutes. That means that speculation about his possible replacement has ramped up to a fevered pitch and, since the Redskins are owned by Daniel Snyder, it's focused on only the biggest available names.

Tuesday brings a report from the Washington Examiner that sources close to Snyder have placed former Raiders and Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden at the top of the owner's wish list. It's not hard to figure out why that report would surface on a Tuesday.

Last night was Monday Night Football, after all.

It's a good bet that the source was watching the Jets-Dolphins clash with Snyder and heard the owner remark how he'd love to hire Gruden more than once after the former coach broke down a play during the game. If they had been together on Sunday night, it would have been the same thing with Tony Dungy while a Sunday brunch would have elicited Snyder's desire for Bill Cowher. The only thing odd about the report is that Ron Jaworski, Mike Tirico and Hank Williams Jr. aren't also in the running for the job.

We kid, but it will be interesting to see how interested coaches like Gruden, Cowher, Mike Shanahan and Mike Holmgren are to return to work for Snyder if they have other options. The option of a different team with a less impulsive owner or a TV gig that pays well while waiting for a better opportunity may well prove to be more appealing than going to work for Snyder.

Gruden makes sense, though, if only because the Redskins would never find themselves saddled with a quarterback who gets no love from the fanbase or media. While he was in Tampa, Gruden liked to take up a good six or seven roster spots with quarterbacks so that he could change horses at a moment's notice. That would be a nice option for this year's Redskins club, and would actually fit well with Snyder's penchant for always going after the shiniest object in his field of vision.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

10-13-2009 @ 1:41PM

cjgdnight said...

Yeah that would be about right... he's lost everywhere he's been. Perfect fit for Redskins???? Another shining example of being loud arrogant and WRONG about just about everything.

10-16-2009 @ 2:19PM

c_lee0413 said...

yeah lost everywhere hes been, like that superbowl he won in tampa....after winning for several years in oakland..dont let the final years of his stay in tampa cloud your judgement on a good coach.

10-13-2009 @ 4:16PM

HEADHAWG said...

Who was head coach of the bucaneers when they beat the raiders in the superbowl?

10-13-2009 @ 5:31PM

Yeah moron... he did it with Tony Dungee's team that would have won anyway.

Look what he built for himself in TB after Dungee left him Superbowl talent (read he got fired because they suck so bad).

Look what Dungee built in Indy after he left TB!

Best of luck Redskins... I hope you do get Gruden as the coach!!!!! HAHAHA

Mike Shannahan is who the Redskins need. He could win with what you have now.

Signed Steeler fan.

10-13-2009 @ 1:54PM

Steve said...

We dont need this LOUD MOUTH in charge of our outfit unless we want to see more money paid out for another couple of years of CRAP...Dan Snyder's mentality is beyond belief and although the REDSKINS are having a bad patch at the moment by getting Jon Gruden we would have to listen to his mouth for maybe seasons to come..Please Snyder dont let the fans down yet again by this MISTAKE ..Best Regards Steve Dublin Ireland

10-13-2009 @ 2:04PM

bowwdown said...

Dear Daniel Snyder,Do yourself a favor,either sell the team, or get rid of vinny, hire a GM, and stick to signing the checks, thats all your useful for.

10-13-2009 @ 7:08PM

Robert said...

I totally agree with you!!!!!

10-13-2009 @ 2:42PM

Melvin said...

Gruden is one of the few available head coaches who Snyder can manipulate and control.
Certainly Cowher, Shanahan and Holmgren would want authority over personnel.
Snyder won't give that up.
Napoleon has to be the general, even if he doesn't have a clue.
So Gruden or Mariucci or some other patsy is the guy for Snyder.
I laugh when I hear Redskins' fans say Snyder wants to win.
They forget to add that he wants to win as long as he controls every decision and runs the show.

That's not wanting to win.
That's feeding an ego.
It's why the Redskins will never get the right head coach.
Nobody worthwhile wants to work for Snyder.
Only those desperate coaches with no options will take the job.
Gruden and Mariucci fit that.
Holmgren, Shanahan and Cowherdon't.

10-15-2009 @ 1:55AM

DORK ASS MUTHA said...

Awww.... not to worry, Holgren will be replacing Tedddy T and McCarthy at the end of this year. He wants to come back and build a new team without #4 and proceed to destroy Bart Favre three times next year including the playoffs.

Works for me!

10-13-2009 @ 4:56PM

LA26 said...

Jim Zorn and Gary Kubiak get fired this year.

Shannahan goes to the skins and brings Kubiak to be his Offensive Co.

10-13-2009 @ 5:38PM

melvin said...

Shanahan MIGHT go to Dallas for large $$$ if the Cowboys don't win a playoff game.
He most likely will go to San Diego, which also has an owner willing to spend big for him. I think he might like to stick it to Pat Bowlen of Denver.
I just don't see him in DC because he controlled the personnel in Denver and Snyder won't give that to him. Bet the farm Shanahan is not the Redskins HC come February. Just can't fit.

10-13-2009 @ 3:01PM

chris.sesno said...

From the Washington Examiner article: "Snyder is seeking a candidate willing to leave major personnel decisions to Cerrato and the owner. NFL sources close to Gruden said that's not an expected deal breaker."

Greeeaat. At this pace, if Gruden turns the job down, Snyder will just pick up the clipboard himself and start coaching.

10-13-2009 @ 3:28PM

Chris: There MIGHT be 5 openings for head
coaches in 2010. Buffalo, Jacksonville, Houston, San Diego and Carolina seem to be contenders and all of them offer a head coach a lot more than Snyder can at Washington.
Gruden would be an idiot to take the Redskins' job. He's one of five decent / experienced cadidates out there. Why settle for a place where you "have to serve the meal but you can't buy the groceries"? (as Bill Parcells said)
I enjoyed your comment.
Sort of says it all about Snyder.

10-13-2009 @ 3:26PM

Jason Malloy said...

Dan Snyder is the first, and most significant, reason for ALL of what ails the Redskins at the moment. He always goes for, as the columnist put it, the shiniest object in his field of vision. Just because you polish the dickens out of a piece of silvery crap, in the end it is nothing more than very shiny crap! Buying the most expensive players in the game doesn't guarantee success. Dan Snyder needs to 1) get rid of Vinny Cerato and hire a REAL GM and 2) needs to get his butt out of the decision making process and leave that to the coaching staff and GM. Once that happens, then and maybe just then we will have a chance of seeing the Redskins back in the playoffs and maybe another Super Bowl. Until then...well, we the fans have to suffer more of the same old "shiny crap."

10-13-2009 @ 3:33PM

Amen, Jason.
Amen
Right on the nose.
I'm a Giants' fan who loved the battles with the Redskins through the Joe Gibbs years and even before- with George Allen.
Snyder has ruined it all.
Sorry to say I doubt things will change- Snyder's ego is just too big.

hlfordiii said...

Good Lord. Is there going to be a new article everyday about who Daniel Snyder is interested in hiring? Hire a legitimate "head of football operations" leave him to run the team and go play with your other toys Danny. Until that happens, or he sells the team, none of this is going to help the Redskins a bit.

10-13-2009 @ 4:45PM

James said...

Instead of throwing good money away to hire another head coach who's going to bring in another offensive system that's going to take the team another year to learn and get comfortable doing...when you could take a fraction of that money and pay for some solid proven veteran linemen...because there's one fact that can't be denied and that is, you can put the best coaches on the side lines, you can put the best quarterback behind the center taking the snaps and you can insert the best running backs to take the hand offs...but if those 5 boys up front plus your tight end are in disarray and can't or don't communicate, fire off the line, initiate and hold their assigned blocking schemes the offense despite the best personnel won't go anywhere...Now can anybody dispute that logic.???

10-13-2009 @ 5:30PM

Who picked the players on this roster?
I'm not sure Shanahan, Cowher, Belichick or anybody else can take this bunch anywhere.
A GM is supposed to have the ability to evaluate talent- whether for the rookie draft or for free agency or even for trades. It all starts with personnel.
I keep reading about Cerruto- does anybody here think that Snyder isn't calling the shots and Cerruto isn't just his shill? Cerruto has no authority to make a deal or a trade or draft anybody. Snyder has ALL the power.
So whoever is on this roster is Snyder's doing. You want a better OL? SOMEBODY has to get it. SOMEBODY has to draft it or sign it or trade for it. If that SOMEBODY is Daniel Snyder- well, you already have his track record on the field in front of you... and you've seen it for the past nine years.
You think he's the guy to fix the OL? Good grief, he's the one who failed to stock it in the first place.

10-13-2009 @ 4:57PM

Part, not all of the problem with the O-line, is the fact that Snyder goes after those shinny baubles and doesn't have a ton of money left over for the offensive core. When you go out and buy the best (or what you perceive as the best) RB, WR, TE or QB to make your offense work and don't have enough money to get the same type of talent for the O-line you are plain and simple dead in the water. If the O-line can't give the QB time to make their reads and get off a good pass, you are screwed. If the the O-line can't open up some running lanes for the RB to job through, you are screwed. If the O-line can't protect the QB to the point where you have to pull one of your best offensive weapons back to the line to be an additional blocker like this past week you are screwed (Cooley - 76 game streak with at least 1 reception finished because Bautiste can't block for crap! Not that I'm saying that wasn't the right call at the moment, but come on...if we had a half decent O-line we wouldn't have some of the problems we do!) If you have a FB (consider Sellers part of the O-line since he blocks 90% of the time) that can't get penetration downhill and runs defensive players laterally instead then you are screwed (this is the SOLE reason that Portis and Sellers got in to an argument last week in the locker room -- his blocking sucks this year about 50%+ of the time and the tapes prove it!)

Maybe we need to somehow run Snyder and Cerato out of Washington and run the team ourselves. Why is it, we the fans can see ALL of the problems though the plastic and glass tube in our living rooms, but the leadership can't? Is it the fact that we are all poor as you-know-what and don't have billions of dollars to throw away, because that is what Snyder is doing with this team?

Plain and simple...as with any problematic corporation...when you have this many severe problems, you sever the head of the beast to kill it. Corporations with as much money as Snyder has would have gotten rid of the CEO, CFO, CAO, and a ton of VP's just as Snyder has gotten rid of so much talent over the years. Shame we can't pull the trick on him and get rid of him and Cerator...I'm sure at this point even Rush Limbaugh could do a better job!!!