Sitting comfortably on a couch at Redskins Park earlier this month, Jay Gruden was asked to assess his own mental health on a scale of 1-10. He grinned.
“Well…,” he said, “not good.”
Gruden’s first season as head coach of the Washington Redskins was wrought with new challenges, demands and stresses. His responsibilities shifted, from the hands-on duties of an offensive coordinator in Cincinnati to the be-everywhere-at-once job of an NFL head coach.
The 47-year-old was required to address the media on an almost daily basis. He worked with general manager Bruce Allen and the scouting staff on personnel decisions. He organized and orchestrated practices, ran team meetings, managed egos in the locker room and was responsible for in-game decisions on Sundays.
Gruden had been a head coach before, first in the Arena Football League and then in the United Football League. But he quickly learned that the NFL version of the job is a completely different animal — especially in Washington, and especially when the losses begin to pile up.
“It’s a humbling experience, man, being a head coach in the NFL, going 4-12, obviously,” Gruden said in his final press conference of the season Monday afternoon. “You learn a lot. You learn a lot about yourself, a lot about the team, a lot about the staff you work with, and it’s definitely a learning experience. It’s something you can grow from.”
Gruden signed a guaranteed five-year contract in January and players expect him to return next season. He was scheduled to meet with Allen on Tuesday, then Allen and owner Dan Snyder on Sunday, to evaluate the organization and discuss potential changes. Allen will address the media Wednesday morning for the first time since training camp.
In Gruden’s first season, the Redskins won only one more game than the year before. They navigated injuries, cycled through three quarterbacks and bumbled to a last-place finish in the NFC East for the sixth time in seven seasons. As the weeks went by, Gruden learned to cope with losing, something he had rarely experienced as a coach.
“You don’t prepare yourself for this — 4-12 is hard to prepare yourself for,” he said. “You don’t want to prepare yourself for that, but you know that when you coach in football long enough and you play, you’re going to have your ups and downs, man. You’re just going to have them. You’re not going to win the Super Bowl every single year of your career, so you have to handle the adversity like a pro.”
In some ways, Gruden changed as the season progressed. He learned how to better manage his time during the week and balance his usual offensive responsibilities with those on defense and special teams. He developed stronger relationships with individual players and coaches as he spent more time with them. And he learned to choose his words carefully at press conferences after some of his comments, most notably regarding quarterback Robert Griffin III, became national headlines.
None of these changes were unusual or unexpected, however. Safety Ryan Clark said he saw Gruden go through many of the same growing pains that coach Mike Tomlin experienced during his first season in Pittsburgh.
“He’s emotional about [winning and losing]. I think I watched him learn how to hide that emotion as it goes along, because that’s what you have to do as a head coach,” Clark said of Gruden. “He’s also learned how to get away from being the offensive mind and be the head coach of a football team, which I think was tough for him early. And so, you know, he learned on the job. That’s what you do.”
In other ways, however, Gruden remained consistent, even as the season spiraled out of control. He is more personable than his predecessor, Mike Shanahan, and has endeared himself to players with his steady approach each week.
“He’s the type of guy that you enjoy playing for. He’s excited all the time,” fullback Darrel Young said. “Regardless of win, lose or draw, he’s going to come and coach his [butt] off. Excuse my French, but that’s what he does. He’s one of those guys that you can always count on him to be honest with you.”
Gruden was criticized for detailing each of Griffin’s fundamental flaws in a press conference last month, and he later apologized for making those comments publicly, despite first communicating them to Griffin. Yet players have repeatedly said they appreciate the sort of brutal honesty Gruden provides because it gives them clear areas for improvement.
“That’s a coach that you know cares about you,” linebacker Adam Hayward said. “He’s going to be honest, and that’s what I love. Some of these coaches are going to yell and scream, go around and say one thing and go behind your back and say another. With Jay, Jay will tell you right to your face, whoever you are.”
Entering his second season, Gruden’s primary focus is on finding the right players for the winning culture he is trying to create in Washington. “Sometimes the best addition to your football team is subtraction,” he said Monday. But Gruden also knows there are plenty of ways in which he can improve individually, and situations in which he wishes he had acted differently.
“There’s a million things,” he said. “There’s a million things swirling in your brain right now. That’s why it’s important just to take a deep breath, take a few days off, let everything sink in.”
Clark said it’s important for the organization to establish a new identity and discover what the “Jay Gruden Redskins” are going to look like moving forward. It may be a lengthy process, but players are confident that Gruden is the right coach to see it through.
“I think he’s exactly what this organization needs in a head coach,” center Kory Lichtensteiger said. “He’s really great at having the mind of a head coach — and really kind of implementing schemes in an offense, especially. But more than that, I think he’s just a great guy to play for. And I think he’s going to do what he needs to do to get this turned around, whatever that may be. I have full confidence he’ll be able to do it.”
• Tom Schad can be reached at tschad@washingtontimes.com.
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