Jay Gruden says Redskins won’t feature much read option

Jay Gruden has offered a somewhat definitive answer to the eternal Robert Griffin III read option should-they-or-shouldn’t-they question. The new Redskins head coach says Washington’s offense will not feature that much read option. But, it will still have some read option, because RG3 is still RG3.

Gruden told Don Banks of SI:

"Personally my belief is the read option is better as an element of surprise. If you’re making it a major focal point of your offense — though they had success with it — that’s problematic. You want to have some of it, no question, because it’s the way to get the numbers back in your favor offensively. And with a quarterback like him, why wouldn’t you have some of it?But we’re trying to develop him as an all-around quarterback. And I don’t know if they had that (as a goal). I’m sure they did a little bit, but I think that’s the clear intent moving forward, to develop him as an all-around quarterback. That’s part of his growth, from ’12 to ’13 to now."

Of course, if you’re Jay Gruden, the last thing you want is to give the whole game away in June. So it’s possible he could be lying about the read option mix in Washington. It’s possible the plan could be to heavily feature read option.

It’s also possible that Gruden thinks the read option is a good way to get his quarterback killed and he’s ready to totally scrap it. That sort of depends on RG3 though. If RG3 can become a true pocket passer, then Gruden will be able to totally scrap the read option. If RG3 struggles from the pocket? Then there will be read option in the offense.

And if RG3 doesn’t learn to protect himself when running the ball in the read option, there will be a lot of Kirk Cousins in the offense. That’s the kind of thing that keeps Jay Gruden up at night.

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