Jay Gruden has no hard feelings towards the Washington Redskins after being fired by the team as their head coach. When Gruden talked to John Keim of ESPN, he said he enjoyed his time in Washington despite how things ended.
“It was a great opportunity to be a head coach of the Redskins,” Gruden said. “I loved every minute of it. At the end of the day, we didn’t get the results we wanted. It was very frustrating with the amount of injuries we had the last three years, but you can’t use that as an excuse. You have to get ready to play, and I didn’t do a good job of that, and our record shows that in the last 11, 12 games. We weren’t able to overcome it.”
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Gruden was fired by the team at 5 a.m. on Monday morning. He said he wasn’t surprised by the move and he thought it was going to happen sooner.
“I thought it might happen last week after the Giants game,” Gruden said, “based on reports, and they never said, ‘You’re not getting fired,’ so I assumed I was. I had a good staff there, and hopefully they can make it work in the last 11 games and stick around. It’s a good group.”
The Redskins are 0-5 this year and there have been several factors that have played into it. There were reports of Gruden being frustrated with some of the personnel moves over the past year.
“I have mixed emotions about it,” Gruden said. “At the end of the day, if you’re not the GM, you have to accept the fact that you don’t get everything you want. You accept the players given to you. I had input in some areas, but there are some major issues there. It’s that way with most coaches. You don’t have that total say. It’s something you have to overcome and work with the guys you have.”
Gruden was hired by the Redskins in 2014 and he finished with a 35-49-1 record. He led the Redskins to playoffs only once during his tenure while recording two winning seasons. When it comes to his next move, Gruden told Keim he wants to be a head coach for another team but he will also take an offensive coordinator job if he can’t be a head coach.
