The Washington Redskins are trying to finish the tumultuous season with a couple more wins before looking ahead to next season.
Check out the latest news and rumors below.
Fisher Would do RG III Trade Again
St. Louis Rams coach Jeff Fisher says he would do the now infamous Robert Griffin III trade.
For the Rams, the trade has turned out nicely.
Through the draft picks it got and corresponding moves, the team has added a total of eight players.
“It wasn’t difficult for us. We looked at our roster and it wasn’t difficult to see that we had a lot of holes. So, it was easy for us to do,” Fisher told the Washington Post.
Fisher noted the Rams have three defensive starters, a running back, an offensive lineman, and a wide receiver due to the deal.
“We’re building our team to compete in the division and I feel like we’re making strides. That’s one of the questions we wanted to have this year,” he added.
“We played Robert early his first year and he made a lot of plays, and to get that team into the playoffs as a rookie is pretty impressive,” Fisher said. “Unfortunately for him, he’s dealing with an offensive scheme change and he’s had injury. Those two things [from] a quarterback standpoint are just hard to overcome. I think he’s an outstanding talent and very hard to defend.”
As for the seemingly impending trade, a number of teams have been listed--including the Rams.
“The best fit might very well be the team that traded away the chance to acquire Griffin in the first place. The Rams have recouped a bounty for their decision to trade away the second overall pick three years ago, but the one thing they failed to come away with as part of that deal is a viable starting quarterback. Sam Bradford’s injuries should force him out of town this offseason, and while the Rams appeared to have stumbled onto a starter with Austin Davis, the franchise soured on him quickly enough to run back to veteran retread Shaun Hill two weeks ago,” according to Grantland.
“The Rams also are good enough and have an easy enough schedule over the next five weeks (with games against Oakland, Washington, and the Giants) to likely finish somewhere in the lower half of the top 10, a spot that could preclude them from getting one of the draft’s top-rated passers.
“Given that they’ve had so many draft picks over the past three seasons by virtue of the Griffin trade and the subsequent deals the Rams made with those picks, they are perhaps best positioned to send a mid-round selection to Washington for Griffin, even after dealing a fourth- and sixth-rounder to the Buccaneers in October for Mark Barron.”
Other potential suitors include the Oakland Raiders, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Buffalo Bills.
McCoy Could be Long-Term Solution
Colt McCoy couldn’t get the win against the Indianapolis Colts and didn’t play especially well, but he could be a long-term solution for the team.
ESPN analyst Steve Young said, when asked if Griffin, McCoy, or Kirk Cousins is a long-term solution for the team, that any of them could be.
Young referenced his own career and Drew Brees’s development after he was traded to the New Orleans Saints as two examples of quarterbacks who take a few years to get going.
“The good news is that I think that Jay Gruden is one of the guys that understands quarterback play in this league,” Young said. “That’s unusual. There’s not 32 great places for quarterbacks in the league. My opinion is, since Mike [Shanahan] got there, and now Jay, both of them are great spots for quarterbacks.
“The guys on the roster…they gotta go to school. Some are ahead of others in the master’s program and I think the capitulation that Robert needs is that, my game is a play-making game and I need to transition it to the true job in the NFL, which has been proven to me over many years, and was proved to me individually, that the job is to deliver the ball from the pocket, to own the pocket, use the data and manage it and perfect it, and have reflexive recall and go win a championship from there.
“So that’s a process for everybody. Ninety-nine percent of the people that come into the league never get there. Colt can develop into that kind of guy, and so can Robert.”
Kerrigan Dating Tennis Star?
Rumors are flying that Redskins linebacker Ryan Kerrigan is dating Caroline Wozniacki.
Pictures showed the pair at a recent charity event, a live auction that benefited a D.C. area high school’s athletic department.
The pair were “within arms length of one another” most of the night, reported CSN.
Kerrigan declined to comment on the rumors.
Wozniacki, who had a high-profile split from golfer Rory McIlroy earlier this year, declined all interview attempts.
Redskins Bad at Third-Down Conversions
Third-and-long is more like third-and-forever for the Redskins.
When Colt McCoy completed a 22-yard pass to Andre Roberts on third-and-10 late in the first half Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts, it ended a streak of 38 failures in one of football’s most adverse situations.
The Redskins are just 2 for 48 this season when it’s third down with 10 or more yards to go. A roster that includes playmakers such as Robert Griffin III, DeSean Jackson, Pierre Garcon, Jordan Reed and Alfred Morris has to point to the McCoy-Roberts connection and a Kirk Cousins-to-Ryan Grant pass in Week 2 as its only examples of success.
“It’s a miserable position to be in,” coach Jay Gruden told reporters this week, “and I would welcome any one of you guys to call plays on third-and-14.”
It’s indeed miserable, but it’s not supposed to be next-to-impossible.
The NFL average on third-and-10-plus this season is 21.5 percent. The Green Bay Packers and San Diego Chargers top the league at 35.7 percent — converting more than one-third of the time. Even the Oakland Raiders, next-to-last in the category, are at 10.3 percent.
The Redskins’ 2-for-48 effort works out to a meager 4.2. On the 46 times they didn’t make it, they’ve had 16 complete passes, 16 incompletions, seven runs and seven sacks, according to STATS.
“Third-and-long is a hard down to convert on, no matter what offense you’re playing in,” McCoy said Wednesday. “I think the thing you can help yourself with is not staying in third-and-longs all the time. I felt like in the first half (on Sunday), we just stayed in third-and-long, third-and-long, third-and-long.”
True, but it’s not as if the Redskins (3-9) are incapable of producing a big gain. Jackson leads the NFL with 10 catches of 40-plus yards, and the team as a whole tops the league with 15 such plays.
It’s just that none of those highlight-makers have come with lots of yards to go on third down. Another sobering stat: the Packers’ and Chargers’ third-and-10-plus success rate is better than the Redskins’ 32.7 percent on third-and-anything.
Gruden and his players don’t connect a specific theme to the third-and-long troubles. Simply put: All say they need to do better. Erratic quarterback play hasn’t helped, with Gruden using three starters whose third-down passer ratings are 67.7 (Griffin), 46.4 (Cousins) and 88.7 (McCoy).
“Sometimes the play calls, I give us no chance. ... At other times, we’ve just got to make some plays,” Gruden said. “Quarterback has got to step up, move around and find some open receivers, and the receivers have got to do a good job of finding holes in zones. It’s a grind of a down, but there’s no reason we should be as bad as we are.”
One solution would be to get the ball to Garcon. He led the NFL with 113 catches last season and was second in the league with 32 third-down catches. This year, he has 49 receptions — and just two on third down.
Garcon hasn’t done much to hide his frustration. After a 17-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers two weeks ago, he lamented the “conservative” game plan and was hardly enthused about a gadget play in which he threw a pass: “I’m like, ‘This is where we’ve come?’”
McCoy, whose first pass this season went to Garcon for a touchdown, is fully aware that No. 88 needs to be more involved.
“We just have to be more aware of where Pierre is,” McCoy said, “how we can be creative in getting him the football.”
Meanwhile, Roberts, the recipient of the pass that ended the 0-for-38 streak, said the run of futility was more of a fluke than anything, adding: “You don’t expect to ever have 38 (of anything) where you don’t get it.”
The catch helped set up a touchdown in the 49-27 defeat, but Roberts didn’t feel like making a big deal of it.
“It would have helped if we won,” he said.
Subtracting Griffin Reveals Team’s Other Problems
Robert Griffin III doesn’t coach, select the roster or play defense, and he can’t instantly cure the injuries. If nothing else, his removal from the equation reinforces how much is wrong with the Redskins.
There were times in Sunday’s 49-27 loss to the Indianapolis Colts when the Redskins looked like a group thrown together for the first day of camp. Pass-rushers went unblocked. Receivers went uncovered. In too many cases, talent didn’t matter because the talent didn’t know where it was supposed to be or what it was supposed to do. As the game went on, players lacked what first-year coach Jay Gruden called a “go get ‘em” attitude.
“It just goes to show,” fullback Darrel Young said, “that all the blame is not on Robert.”
On Monday, Gruden and his players looked worn down, drained from the sobering realization that there’s an overwhelming amount of work to do before the Redskins (3-9) can be a good team. They repeated familiar and tired answers about the need to play with more discipline and focus.
“I am concerned,” Gruden said, “because we’re in Week 12, and we’re still having some of these breakdowns with some key players who we’re going to count on for the future.”
With Griffin benched because of poor play, Colt McCoy piled up the numbers and finished with 392 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, although nearly 300 yards came in the second half when the Redskins were playing catch-up. He was sacked six times, making a case that Griffin’s multitude of sacks weren’t necessarily Griffin-specific. McCoy did play well enough to earn another start next week against the St. Louis Rams.
But that’s just one game, and it’s just one position. The Redskins are on pace for a sixth last-place finish in seven years, and a bit of tinkering here or there won’t be enough to reverse that trend.
General manager Bruce Allen, who already didn’t have much of a track record as a talent-evaluator, made several questionable moves this year, leaving multiple holes that will be difficult to address in one offseason.
It’s also fair to question the performance of Gruden and his staff. If players are consistently blowing assignments, then the message isn’t always getting through.
“It starts with me,” Gruden said, “and then it trickles down to the coordinators and then obviously the players have got to be accountable. ... You know as coaches, our work is done usually after the Saturday night meetings. Come Sunday afternoon, it’s time. They have got to go out and play. You know, they roll the ball out there, they kick it off and it’s those guys on the field.
“They’ve got to go out and make some plays. ... We need leaders to stand up defensively and take them by the throat, make sure they are playing fast — and the same thing with offense.”
In particular, defensive coordinator Jim Haslett would appear to be coaching for his job over the final four games. Haslett this year is free from the strict oversight of former coach Mike Shanahan, but the results are similar: The Redskins are 26th in the NFL in points allowed, and on Sunday they became the first team since the 1960s to allow six touchdowns of 30 yards or more in a game.
At least Haslett can legitimately cite injuries as a mitigating factor. Cornerback DeAngelo Hall and linebacker Brian Orakpo are gone for the year, and nose tackle Barry Cofield missed a large chunk of the season. The 22 projected starters on offense and defense going into training camp have missed 37 man-games due to injury.
But the ones who are on the field don’t all seem to have enough oomph.
“I just want to see us with a more of an upbeat tempo and more ‘go get ’em' type attitude, hunger attitude, run around, fly around to the football,” Gruden said. “Defensively, same thing. A lot of times we are looking around, trying to get everybody lined up instead of getting set and ready to kick some tail. Just looks like we’re tentative in what we are doing.”
Notes: Gruden said it’s “not looking good” for S Brandon Meriweather (sprained big toe) to play vs. the Rams. ... DL Kedric Golston hurt his back during the pregame warmups and was scheduled to see a spine specialist. He’s also not expected to be ready for St. Louis.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
