WASHINGTON — It’s been two-and-a-half weeks since the Redskins’ season ended in the Wild Card round at FedEx Field in a loss to the Packers, and General Manager Scot McCloughan has been working on next year from the day the season ended.
He’s already been to the East-West Shrine Game and is now in Mobile, Alabama for the Senior Bowl. He took some time on Wednesday to speak with reporters on the way the season ended and what we can expect moving forward into the future with the Redskins.
One thing is for sure: McCloughan believes the culture has changed and that his team is going in the right direction.
Progress
McCloughan praised the job the team did this season, especially down the stretch as it continued to get better and made the push toward a division crown. He stressed that even in defeat he saw guys competing, and was very proud of their attitude.
“We have a ways to go and we all know that,” he said. “I think the culture is going in the right direction. I was proud the way it ended.”
Jay Gruden
There were a lot of question marks coming into this season, with McCloughan in his first year as general manager. One of the big ones, other than the quarterback position, was how McCloughan and head coach Jay Gruden would get along.
Gruden was hired a year before his new boss, and was coming off a rookie season in which his team won four games. These things usually happen the other way around, but with this team anything goes.
McCloughan put the doubt to rest quickly, saying he and Gruden are on the same page, calling 2015 one of the best years he’s had with a coach. He wasn’t surprised that they were able to get on the same page so quickly, but noted that they both have passion and want to win.
Griffin and Cousins
The other big question going forward remains what will happen at the quarterback position. One takeaway from McCloughan’s comments is that he is going into the offseason with the mindset that the quarterback position isn’t set.
McCloughan said he was very pleased with Cousins’ performance this year, especially since he was named the starter right before the season. And although Cousins started and played all 16 games, he is now a restricted free agent.
Meanwhile, Robert Griffin III didn’t play one snap this year and is under contract for next year at $16 million. It seems that McCloughan is in no hurry to decide anything about Griffin’s future.
McCloughan said he wants to meet with all the coaches when he returns after the Super Bowl to try to figure things out. He was asked if he could see a situation where Griffin could return.
“Certainly… we have until March 9,” he said. “I want to sit down with the coaches. He’s a good football player, he’s a good person, and he’s under contract.”
Griffin’s contract is only guaranteed in case of injury. He has passed his end-of-year physical, so there would be no penalty for the Redskins to release him before March 9.
Cousins’ situation is different. McCloughan made it clear that he wants Cousins to be part of the Redskins going forward. The team could work out a long term deal, or use the franchise tag on him this season, which could conceivably cost upwards of $20 million.
Either way, expect Cousins under contract next season. McCloughan appears just to be doing his homework when he says he’s attacking the offseason with the position unsettled — you always have to be scouting.
Drafting and free agency
The Redskins are slated to pick 21st overall in the NFL Draft this year and McCloughan is fine with where they are.
“There’s gonna be a good football player there, no matter what,” he said.
He has made clear his priorities when bringing in new additions.
“Good people, high character football players,” he said.
McCloughan added that he wants to do it through the draft, and there’s no limit to the number of draft picks he would take.
“The more the merrier — give me 15 if you’ve got ’em,” he said. “The draft’s the lifeline of the organization. You have to add youth each year, not just youth but football players. High character football players.”
Sense a theme here?
McCloughan also said that they were not going to be big players in free agency, stating his view on the process flatly.
“I don’t believe in that,” he said.
That’s one thing that he has maintained throughout his career, and emphasized the day he was hired last year. True to form, Brandon Scherff, Preston Smith and Matt Jones all played big roles in their rookie seasons.
Other notes
- Regarding wide receivers, McCloughan said there’s a process that they will go through, but that Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson are good football players and he wants them back.
- McCloughan knows the running game needs to get better. The start of the season was decent on the ground, but he said they hit the wall. He says they want the ground game to be more physical and they will be.
- The long view of the process for this team appears to be off to a great start. McCloughan has made it clear from day one that this will be a process and to be patient. He wants physical football players, and for teams to remember that they played the Redskins the next day. His plan is in place and everyone needs to give him time for it to work. If what we saw this year is an indication, we should see even more progress next year after another draft class and offseason.
