No, of course it's not totally on Gruden. But he was brought here to work with Griffin. To coach him up. And he bailed on Griffin six games in. From all reports, there is no coaching going on. I'd get if they realized how poor he was and Gruden went to Allen and Snyder and was like, "Okay, he's a lot worse than I thought he was. He needs a lot of work. Between injuries and no real developmental base, it's going to be a lot of work." Then you work with him in practice. Deactivate him totally. His job is every day is to work on being a pocket passer. Work on studying film like he's going to be the starter. Put him up in the booth for a half and let him see how things develop. Then, in the last couple weeks of the season, give him some playing time. Doesn't have to be a whole game. Just a few series at a time. Treat it like an extended practice.
But Gruden didn't do this. He decided that he didn't like the attitude and tried to pretend that winning actually matter this season. It doesn't. And it highlights the major problem with this team. The inability to have a long term plan to get better. It's always a short term fix. Firing Shotty and going on the signing binge of 2001. Signing the Ball Coach. Bringing back Gibbs and trading away draft picks for players. Trading for McNabb. Trading the house for Griffin. I thought this offseason might be different. They started off with some non-superstar signings in Roberts and Lavuerno. They franchised Orakpo instead of signing him to a long term deal. They didn't rush out and spend big money on a safety or ILB. But no, it was not meant to be, as soon as DJax was available, Snyder couldn't stay away. They courted him and he signed. 8 million down the drain.
I can't figure out if it's simply because no one wants to tell the emperor he has no clothes, or that the team simply can't evaluate itself properly. They suck at a bunch of other things, so it wouldn't surprise me. The PR department is awful. The rumor control is non-existant. The beer is out of date and stale. The food is shit. It's stupidly expensive. Security sucks at their job. So why would the product on the field be any different?
And that's probably what irks me about all of this the most. Gruden has to see that the team has a shit ton of holes. It's not the QB play that is holding the team back. There are giant holes in the offensive line (as in, everyone standing to the right of Trent Williams shouldn't be starting on a competent offensive line). The safety play has been the worst I've ever seen in Washington. I mean, I'm wishing for David Terrell and Ifeanyi Ohalete. The pass rush is less than stellar and it's obvious that ignoring the nose tackle position (which, BTW, is probably the most important fucking position in the 3-4) is hurting this defense. Oh and Special Teams still blows monkey balls.
But Gruden tried to pretend like if he got decent QB play, it would be fine. And it hasn't been. In fact, it's been shit. His team has given up. But more importantly, he's lost any chance of getting Griffin or Cousins to work for him. They clearly do not give a fuck about him and the only reason Colt McCoy gives a shit is because he knows that he doesn't have any more options. Instead of trying to win one more game this season, Gruden should have acknowledged the problems of the team and started a program to evaluate them and improve them over the course of this season AND next season. Lose with purpose. Don't mail it in, but don't act like you're going to be a playoff team. Accept that this team will struggle while it attempts to undo a decade of damage done by Vinny Cerato and Bruce Allen. Accept that this team needs to build itself through the draft and young free agents, not flashy guys who aren't going to be here when this team is going to be good.
Even if you didn't think Griffin was the long term solution, Gruden still owed it to the team (and Allen and Snyder) to do his best to make him an NFL QB. This team has absolutely no business drafting a QB in the 2015 draft. None. Any QB drafted will come in and get his teeth kicked in. With that in mind, Griffin would have been fine in 2015 as well. Maybe he becomes the QB you need. Maybe he doesn't. But he was someone that was available and relatively cheap. Build up an offensive line and give him every opportunity to succeed. Instead, it feels like Gruden has gone out of his way to make it easy for Griffin to fail.