Jay Gruden is gone, but who will replace him in Washington?
3. Kevin O’Connell
With Gruden gone, the 34-year old O’Connell should now get an unabated opportunity to call plays for the first time. He’s in his first season as Redskins’ offensive coordinator, after being pass game coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2018 and quarterbacks coach in 2017. But if interim head coach Bill Callahan’s immediate comments are any indication, game situations apparently to be disregarded, a mandate has already come regarding the direction Washington’s offense should go.
So Bill Callahan takes over as interim head coach of the Skins. A source told me that Callahan felt the team needed to run the ball more this season & told some players last week he was hard-pressed to remember a time when he coached on a team w/ so few rush attempts to start.
— JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) October 7, 2019
After a non-descript five-season NFL career, O’Connell got his start in coaching as quarterbacks coach for the Cleveland Browns in 2015. He moved on to an offensive assistant post with the San Francisco 49ers in 2016 under Chip Kelly, who wanted him for his staff at UCLA before the Redskins made him offensive coordinator.
No matter who Washington’s quarterback is over the remaining 11 games this season, among Case Keenum, Colt McCoy and Dwayne Haskins (or perhaps all three at some point), O’Connell should be allowed to be creative and let it all hang out as a play caller. He’s already shown he can be an outside the box thinker, deploying undrafted rookie wide receiver Steven Sims Jr. in the backfield. Sims had the team’s only touchdown in Week 5 against the Patriots, a 65-yard run.
With Callahan surely not anywhere on the radar for the permanent post, barring a surprise run of victories over the rest of the season, O’Connell stands as the top internal candidate to replace Gruden. He also might be the smartest hire, all things considered, which probably automatically drops him way down Snyder’s personal list of coaching targets.