Redskins coach Jay Gruden tells Brandon Meriweather to stop hitting high in practice
By Jack Crosby
Washington Redskins safety Brandon Meriweather is one of the deadliest hitters in all of the NFL, but unfortunately some of those hits aren’t exactly legal. Last season, Meriweather was suspended one game for going a little too high, too many times. Well apparently he has been bringing that to early Redskins practices, and first-year head coach Jay Gruden had to issue him a little warning.
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Gruden recently admitted to reporters that he had to have a little talk with Meriweather about lowering that target, and if he doesn’t, he’s going to be missing some practice time.
“Brandon, he plays a very physical style of football,” Gruden said. “That’s all he knows. But there is a rule now obviously and he’s had to pay the price for it. And he understands the next one is going to be a longer suspension. We talked about that today, actually. I told him he is going to get a two-practice suspension if he doesn’t lower his target.”
He then went on to state that it’s not necessarily that Meriweather is purposely trying to take someone’s head off, it’s just his style of play that gets him into these situations inadvertently.
“He’s a good football player,” Gruden said. “He’s tough, he’s physical, he wants to do the right thing but sometimes at that position though and the ball is in the air, he’s trying to knock the ball out and sometimes they unfortunately make contact head-to-head and it’s not intentional. I don’t think he has the intent to injure people. I think he has the intent to get the player down and get the ball out. Sometimes those instances look worse than they are but he does have to really watch his area of target and hopefully we will keep him on the field for 16 weeks because he is much needed in the secondary.”