Why all the hate for Jay Gruden?

I've seen a lot of negativity and seethe towards Jay Gruden and I want to address this issue which keeps coming up.

No one can succeed in their first year when they're not given anything to work with. The situation was not conducive for Gruden to succeed at first, especially with a porous defense and an offensive live that didn't even belong in the NFL. Anyone this team or the fans wanted to coach the team would have failed last season. Belichick, Marrone, Shanahan, Mike McCarthy...fantasy draft any coach from the league, even Harbaugh, and put him in the situation like last season. None would succeed. This goes further than a simple coaching issue. The virus is embedded deeper than a superficial "Hurr durr Coach bad".

The three major deficiencies of 2014 can be attributed to three factors; of which Gruden played no part. The defense was bad. Not Gruden's fault. The offensive line didn't block for shit. Not Gruden's fault. The GM allegedly did not spend enough of an effort to stockpile this team with talent. Not Gruden's fault. So the notion of putting him on the curb after one year, or expending all this vitriol on a man who was not set up in a position to win, is simply asinine.

The first issue many have with Gruden is his frank honesty. He was asked by Dave Owens of WUSA if he was over his head. He said yes. This is his first time coaching a NFL team. He's brutally honest out there. And some may say that honesty comes back to bite him in the ass but it's a fresh change of pace from the coaches prior, he's not afraid to criticize and he's honest about the direction of the team. This team sucks. RG3 didn't play well enough. He should have played better. All those are honest truths in 2014 and they needed to be said. So I don't buy the excuse about honesty.

The second issue is linked with his honesty, benching RG3 and not giving him a chance. Honestly, RG3 should have been benched. He was playing poorly at the time, so poorly that he was the 3rd best QB on the roster statistically in 6 different statistics. That is not excusable. The offense looked futile against TB and St Louis. RG3 may be the darling around here, but damned if he didn't step up his game when given a chance after Colt got hurt. Benching is not this terrible thing, this "scarlet letter" of the NFL which curses you for life. Everyone gets benched. It's a learning opportunity for you to get better so you can get your job back.

The third issue many fans have with Gruden is the leak issue, and I won't defend him here. Yes, he should have done more to quell the culture of leaks. But that is hardly a reason to expend such strong hate and dislike of the man.

The fourth issue is the lack of winning, but as explained earlier, he wasn't given a proper environment to succeed in. Could he have done more? Yes. He could have improved his offense. The offense was too scared to throw deep on 3rd and 13 past the marker. On 3rd and 13 you call a 14 yard play. Period. That's the way I was taught, that's how other teams do it. The Redskins were always the exception last year. They called screen plays or 6 yard plays for minimal gain when they needed 10 or 13 yards. And that I will criticize him for. The playcalling was at times baffling. But, at the end of the day, no one could have succeeded in the situation. And the problems as indicated earlier went deeper than a superficial head coaching issue.

He's not a perfect man. He needs time to prove his worth. I said he needs to playcall better and handle the leaks. But other than that, his honesty is appreciated around here and he did make the right football decision by benching RG3. The man will continue to have my support until it's shown otherwise that he can't field a competitive team on the field.

/r/Redskins Thread