Redskins name Gruden head coach

The face was different, the words familiar. Like Mike Shanahan and nearly every other recent Washington Redskins coach, Jay Gruden is anxious to declare an end to franchise’s days of dysfunction.

“I don’t know what happened last year,” Gruden said. “I know that interviewing with Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen and everybody here that the passion for excellence is there. All they want to do is win, and they’re going to provide me with every avenue to win.”

Gruden, the brother of former Tampa Bay and Oakland coach Jon Gruden, never has been an NFL head coach. He has been a head coach in the Arena Football League and the United Football League.

Gruden was a given a fiveyear contact for his first NFL head coaching gig, taking over a 3-13 team that finished last in the NFC East in five of the past six seasons.

“We have to get it right,” said Allen, who led the search and interviewed six candidates. “We need to get the franchise back on track in a winning direction. … We were looking for a new leader, somebody who can inspire our football team.”

Gruden is Snyder’s eighth coach in 16 seasons as an NFL owner. Unlike Shanahan, who was fired last week, Gruden will not have final say over all football matters. He’ll report to Allen, who has taken charge of assembling the roster and other personnel decisions.

Gruden, 46, has spent the past three seasons as the offensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals, where his skill in helping to develop Andy Dalton will be of use when he takes on the task of grooming Robert Griffin III.

“I see every trait that a quarterback has to have to be successful, I see Robert having all of those,” Gruden said.

“So why wouldn’t you want to coach a guy like that? … I’m going to let him know that I’m a trustworthy guy. He’s also got to understand that I expect a lot from the starting quarterback. I expect him to come in and prepare and work hard, and I expect him to take the blame on some throws. I expect him to be a great leader.”

Bengals

Cincinnati didn’t wait long or look far for its next offensive coordinator, promoting Hue Jackson shortly after Gruden was introduced as head coach in Washington. Jackson has brought his career full-circle in Cincinnati, where he coached the wide receivers from 2004-06. He was Oakland’s head coach in 2011.

Panthers

Wide receiver Steve Smith said his injured left knee isn’t coming along quite as well as he’d hoped. Smith estimates he’s “57 percent” healthy, down from 71 percent he mentioned on Wednesday. No final word on his status has been released.

Texans

Third-year Ohio State defensive line coach Mike Vrabel is jumping back to the NFL to rejoin new Houston coach Bill O’Brien. Vrabel, who played at Ohio State and went on to a 14-year career in the NFL, will coach linebackers.

Giants

New York’s top running back David Wilson needs neck surgery and his future in football is uncertain. Wilson will have a fusion of the vertebrae to repair the herniated disc in his neck.