Washington call head coach Jay Gruden to office at 5am and fire him
Jay Gruden was fired as head coach of Washington on Monday after an 0-5 start to the sixth season of a tenure that featured only one playoff appearance. The team have gone 35-49-1 overall under Gruden, whose brother, Jon, coaches the Oakland Raiders.
According to the Washington Post, Washington owner Dan Snyder called to the team’s facility for a 5am meeting and was fired. A source told the Associated Press that offensive line coach Bill Callahan would replace Gruden on an interim basis. Callahan has coached the Raiders in the NFL and Nebraska in college football.
Snyder and team president Bruce Allen informed Gruden he was fired a day after a 33-7 loss to the New England Patriots.
“Through the first five games of the 2019 season, the team has clearly not performed up to expectations, and we all share in that responsibility,” read a team statement. “Moving forward we are committed to doing all that we can collectively as an organization to turn things around and give our fans and alumni a team they can be proud of in 2019 and beyond.”
After the loss to New England, Gruden was asked if he knew where he stood with the team. “Nobody’s told me anything, and I don’t have a concern. I’ll just wait and see,” said Gruden, whose contract ran through next season. “[If] my key works on Monday, keep working.”
This season alone has seen star left tackle Trent Williams hold out, a shuffle at quarterback after Dwayne Haskins was taken No15 overall in the draft, a series of injuries up and down the roster and, perhaps most upsetting to team leadership, the sight of away fans making up an increasingly large proportion of the seats at home games.
Washington have rarely been competitive this season, ranking 30th out of 32 NFL clubs in both scoring, averaging 14.6 points, and defense, allowing 30.2 points per game. The only club that ranks worse than Washington in both categories are the Miami Dolphins, who are 0-4 and had a bye this week will host Washington next Sunday.
Cornerback Quinton Dunbar wrote on Instagram that he owes Gruden “for life” for helping him by switching him from wide receiver after college and added: “Sorry we couldn’t get the job done for you.”
Despite never before being a head coach in the NFL, and despite never winning more than nine games in a season, Gruden managed to stick around longer than anyone else who’s held that job during Snyder’s unsuccessful two-decade stint as team owner.
Gruden’s teams finished with winning records just twice: 9-7 in 2015, then 8-7-1 in 2016 and he took Washington to one playoff game, a loss. The team went 7-9 in each of the past two seasons, leading to speculation about whether he would be back.