Jay Gruden Redskins Presser: “The intent here is to be a physical football team.”

Jay Gruden answered questions from reporters after today’s practice. He gave updates on Redskins injuries heading into this week’s game vs the the Giants. Several players injured early in the season, are going to be eligible to return to the team soon. Will the Redskins make a trade before the deadline? How special is Adrian Peterson?

Injury updates:

Quinton Dunbar:

Offensive improvement:

Stacy McGee:

Trey Quinn:

"Trey [Quinn] is doing better. He’s jogging right now. I think hopefully by next week there’s a chance he could maybe start practicing but I don’t know. We’ll wait and see. Byron Marshall is doing a lot better. Rob Kelley is doing pretty good. You know, we get two guys to pluck off that thing. We have to make a decision which two and that’ll come soon probably with some of those guys. We’ll see how we come out of this Giants game before we do anything.”

Trade deadline:

Alex Smith:

"Yeah, you know, when you have…we did some good things I think. Every week, he’s getting more comfortable not just with the way we’re calling plays, the way we’re doing things, with the people around him and the protections and all that stuff. There’s a lot for a quarterback to do in pro football. When terminology is new for you and your players around you are kind of new and the clocks going and the fronts are moving and all that stuff, sometimes you’re going to have a missed opportunity from time to time. He’s getting more and more comfortable and he’s going to get better and better. I like where he’s at and I know that he knows we can do a lot better on offense.”

Miscommunication:

“Yeah, I think we’ve had a lot of similar carry over concepts from Kansas City and from where he’s been with San Francisco. He’s been taught different things. Sometimes I take that for granted. He’s a 15-year vet and he probably doesn’t need to know how to read this certain concept because he’s done it so many times. But, we might have a little tweak on it. It might be Jordan Reed might be number one of his progression or it might be the back or what have you. We’re all getting that communication on a daily basis. Then each week, there’s a new set of concepts that we might have to add for the defenses we’re playing. They might play a totally different coverage. So, we have to be able to adjust and coach them up properly so we’re thinking on the same page.”

Physical team:

Joshua Holsey:

Saquon Barkley:

"Yeah no doubt, that’s the defensive coordinator’s problem and nightmare. It’s good that our front is doing a very good job against the run without having to bring a lot of safeties in a lot of times, but Saquon [Barkley] is a different guy. He’s a combination of [Alvin] Kamara who can catch it out of the backfield and the quickness and Zeke Elliott who’s got the power and the speed. He’s got both. So, definitely a guy you have to figure out how to stop because their offense runs through them. I think he’s like 39 percent of the touches or yards or what have you. Obviously, Odell [Beckham Jr.] and [Sterling] Shepherd are great receivers and [Evan] Engram is a good tight end. A lot of weapons to choose from over there, we’ve just got to be sound in what we do, disciplined with our eyes and pursue to the football like always.”

Run vs Pass on 1st down:

"I don’t know, I think Adrian [Peterson] has been doing a pretty good job of getting some yards on first down and our [running] backs, and I think we’ve had some opportunities to throw the ball but when we are in a lead like we had then, we’ve had success running the ball so it’s nice to stick to it sometimes. But, we’ll probably get that number skewed back to 50-50 here pretty soon, but I think the intent here is to be a physical football team. We have a big offensive line, our tight ends are blocking a lot better now, our receivers with the absence of Chris [Thompson], Paul [Richardson Jr.] and Jamison [Crowder] we have a pretty big set of receivers that are good at blocking safeties and corners and all that so it really provides our running game a spark so sometimes the running game is a little better option.”

Adrian Peterson: