This from today's MMQB on Washington:

 

Quote: 

Washington eats its young. Lather, rinse, repeat. Nothing changes in Washington under owner Daniel Snyder. Despair is followed by hope, which is followed by a ton of spending, which is followed by losing, which is followed by coach-firing, which is followed by more spending, which is followed by more losing, which is followed by coach-firing … and that’s the way it flows inside the Beltway. And you thought partisan politics was awful. Washington has finished in last place in the NFC East in five of the last six years, and is on track to do it a seventh time in eight years. The team has had eight coaches this decade; that’s exactly how many coaches the other three teams in the division have had, combined, in this century. Yet the Washington Post reported over the weekend that Jay Gruden, handed a five-year guaranteed contract 11 months ago, would be “one and done,” or fired after one season, in the wake of the disaster that Robert Griffin III’s tenure has become. “We’ve been fighting uphill forever now,’’ veteran wideout Santana Moss told the Post. After the latest debacle, the 24-0 loss to St. Louis, Gruden told Washington’s NBC affiliate that he’d been told by GM Bruce Allen that the story was false. Maybe. But coaches are never told a bad reality with three weeks left in a lost season. All possibilities (Griffin and Gruden returning together, Griffin and Gruden both departing, or anything in between) are on the table. My guess is Gruden returns, and Griffin does only if he turns over a studious leaf and works harder in the classroom.

 

 

Does any of this sound familiar?

 

Yes...2-11 this year and 6-23 the past two years sucks mightily.

 

But not only does the above show changing coaches may not work, it may actually make matters worse.

 

In Jacksonville's case, the entire passing offense -which represents the bulk of the team's issues-is being run on the field primarily by rookies, including at QB, 3 WR spots, C, and RG.

 

Many of the struggles the personnel have had has come from playing while learning the offense (e.g. Marqise Lee).

 

If you keep the same schemes, Bortles, Lee, and Robinson will have the benefit of doing everything next year with the benefit of experience.  There should be a lot less wondering whether people are lined up properly, what receivers should run when coverages show this vs. that, what the protections should be.  Players should be making more plays next year based on instinct.  That alone should mean improvement.  Bortles, now a year into the playbook, can devote more time in honing his fundamentals.  Lee and Robinson can work on getting off the jam.   Bowanko and Linder can focus on getting stronger.  If the team adds a tackle or two to improve the OL, Bowanko and Linder could help get them up to speed with authority, knowing the league a year and knowing the offense.

 

If you fire the coaches now, if you change schemes now, what will that do to the rookies on the offensive side of the ball?

 

Instead of Bortles, Lee, and A Robinson becoming less tentative and more decisive and more confident, all three will have to unlearn the scheme here and learn new schemes, prolonging the transition to becoming successful players.

 

While Linder and Bowanko seem to have played well this year, new schemes would mean them-and the rest of the new OL-learning new protections and possibly becoming more tentative, which leads to miss blocks, miss blitzes, missed assignments, and hits on the QB and RB for lost yards.  They may be only slightly more knowledgeable initially on the protections in the new scheme than any tackles they bring in.

 

Compounding things further, let's assume Blackmon manages to return.  He played in the offense briefly in 2013.  If you assume some rust from the suspension, keeping  the scheme with which he is already familiar will aid in his return.  Conversely, changing schemes now may only make things more difficult for him and Bortles to get on the same page.

 

On top of that, whatever strength the defense represents may be lost with a change in coaching and scheme.

 

In a nutshell, you risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater on both sides of the ball short term, with no assurances of long term success if you change coaches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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