Redskins HC Jay Gruden open to the zone read

The Washington Redskins have named Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden their new head coach. It is an interesting choice given Gruden’s history. He reportedly preferred quarterback Andy Dalton over Colin Kaepernick, and with the Redskins he has a quarterback in Robert Griffin III whose skill set is closer to Kaepernick’s.

Gruden during his introduction said he was open to the zone read and running it in his new offense.

“I love it. We ran some with Cincinnati with Andy and I think it’s part of football now,” Gruden said, via Mike Jones of the Washington Post. “It’s something you have to get your defense prepared for. It’s something that has a place in the National Football League.”

Griffin is a better passer than Kaepernick, so that could be the change in his tune. He won’t commit to the zone read though, he still wants to study the offensive personnel to see what would work best.

“I like them all, man. I’ve never found a play I haven’t liked that works,” Gruden said. “The one thing you really want to do is – during my process here the next few days, I want to really study the offensive personnel that we have in place. They’ve done some good things here offensively in years past. I think they’re in the top 10 the last couple years, so they have a system in place that’s very good.

“They’re an outside zone blocking team that can do inside zone. I like the power plays. I like the gap blocking plays. So there’s a little bit of everything. I don’t think any offense in the NFL anymore is just, ‘We are this.’ I think we have to adhere to what we have offensively, talent-wise. We can do the read option. We can do naked bootlegs. We can run outside zone. We can run bubble screens. We can run deep balls. We can do play-action deep things. I think the whole idea to be a successful offense is to be diverse and be good at a lot of different things and not just one.”