Jay Gruden is back in the league – hired to be the offensive coordinator in Jacksonville. Hurray?
Gruden didn’t have a lot of success in Washington, where his last two teams ranked 29th and 32nd in scoring. He went 35-49-1 as a head coach before they fired him. Is this the guy to spark a Jaguars offense that sputtered last year?
| JAY GRUDEN OFFENSES | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | Win | Points | Rk |
| 2011 | Cincinnati | 9-7 | 21.5 | 18 |
| 2012 | Cincinnati | 10-6 | 24.4 | 12 |
| 2013 | Cincinnati | 11-5 | 26.9 | 7 |
| 2014 | Washington | 4-12 | 18.8 | 26 |
| 2015 | Washington | 9-7 | 24.3 | 10 |
| 2016 | Washington | 8-7-1 | 24.8 | 12 |
| 2017 | Washington | 7-9 | 21.4 | 16 |
| 2018 | Washington | 7-9 | 17.6 | 29 |
| 2019 | Washington | 0-5 | 14.6 | 32 |
I was surprised by the hire, because to me, Gruden looks a little bit too much like the guy they fired. Both the Vikings and Jaguars the last two years have dumped John DeFilippo in part because too often he tended to forget about his running game. Gruden has been the same kind of coach. In three of his last five seasons with Washington, his teams ranked outside the top 20 in rushing production. (That’s fantasy production, using 6 points for TDs and 1 for every 10 rushing yards.)
He doesn’t seem like the right coach to bring Leonard Fournette to life as a runner. Fournette exceeded expectations as a pass catcher last year, but they didn’t do a good enough jump of using him as a pounder between the tackles. When he’s on his game, Fournette can be a Derrick Henry type hammer against defenses.
| JAY GRUDEN / PER GAME RUSHING | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | Yards | TD | Points | Rk |
| 2011 | Cincinnati | 111 | .93 | 14.9 | 21 |
| 2012 | Cincinnati | 109 | .94 | 15.0 | 19 |
| 2013 | Cincinnati | 110 | 1.01 | 16.2 | 18 |
| 2014 | Washington | 106 | 1.01 | 16.2 | 16 |
| 2015 | Washington | 98 | .82 | 13.2 | 22 |
| 2016 | Washington | 106 | 1.06 | 17.0 | 13 |
| 2017 | Washington | 91 | .80 | 12.8 | 25 |
| 2018 | Washington | 111 | .97 | 15.6 | 18 |
| 2019 | Washington | 69 | .40 | 9.3 | 32 |
Gruden has had more success putting together productive passing offenses. At one point, he had five straight offenses that averaged at least 253 passing yards. When he was a coordinator in Cincinnati, his offense averaged 270 passing yards, with 33 TDs, in his final season (and that was with Andy Dalton at quarterback).
Passing a bunch, Case Keenum averaged 311 yards in his first three games last year, with 7 TDs. But Washington lost all of those games, and lost two more before Gruden was fired. His offense wasn’t as effective in 2018, with Alex Smith falling short of expectations and then suffering a season-ending injury in November. That team averaged only 205 passing yards, with 16 TDs in 16 games.
Jacksonville has a decent group of receivers, including DJ Chark and Dede Westbrook. But it doesn’t have a great offensive line, and the quarterbacking situation is up in the air. The team doesn’t have a big-time pass-catching tight end.
| JAY GRUDEN / PER GAME PASSING | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | Yards | TD | Int | Points | Rk |
| 2011 | Cincinnati | 219 | 1.31 | .88 | 29.8 | 21 |
| 2012 | Cincinnati | 238 | 1.75 | 1.00 | 34.3 | 13 |
| 2013 | Cincinnati | 270 | 2.06 | 1.25 | 39.4 | 7 |
| 2014 | Washington | 253 | 1.13 | 1.13 | 32.0 | 16 |
| 2015 | Washington | 268 | 1.88 | .69 | 38.1 | 12 |
| 2016 | Washington | 309 | 1.56 | .75 | 40.3 | 4 |
| 2017 | Washington | 256 | 1.69 | .81 | 35.7 | 10 |
| 2018 | Washington | 205 | 1.00 | .94 | 26.5 | 29 |
| 2019 | Washington | 239 | 1.40 | 1.60 | 32.3 | 22 |
We’ll see, but not the offensive coordinator I would have liked to see the team sign.
—Ian Allan