Jay Gruden: D.J. Swearinger's criticism isn't helpful, it's disappointing

Jay Gruden answered questions from the media a day after their loss to the Titans. The Redskins weren't officially eliminated from the playoffs while this call was happening, but were knocked out following wins from the Vikings and Eagles. Gruden talked about D.J. Swearinger's negative comments about Defensive Coordinator Greg Manusky. There won't be any discipline...yet.

D.J. Swearinger:

"He’s a talented guy and he has played very well this year. I think he’s an alternate for the Pro Bowl and he has done some good things. I don’t know if he really understands that what he’s doing is not helpful one bit. It is a distraction. It hurt Coach Manusky, he worked his tail off during the week to get the best game plan together, called man coverage on third down-and-six which about 95 percent of the other coordinators do and we got an unfortunate PI call. He called some great zone coverages, we missed tackles on third-and-12 and they got converted, we missed a tackle on third-and-six on a tackle on a back in the flat and they converted on that one for a 30-yard gain. So, at some point we are in this together and the players or player has to understand that we are working extremely hard and Coach Manusky is working extremely hard that we don’t need any of that stuff after a game.”

Defense:

Greg Manusky:

"Well we have been for quite some time, so yeah. I believe that that can happen, but things need to be laid out and talked about and all that good stuff, which I imagine could work, yes.”

Josh Norman:

"I saw the end of it. Just a little clip of it. I think for a player to come on our sideline and taunt one of our guys when he’s on the bench not doing anything is not the right thing to do. I think Josh had every right to defend himself on our sideline and I got to find out exactly what happened there, but I just saw the highlights of it and at this point it’s an emotional game, guys laid it all out on the line, you’ve got people frustrated and talking to the media and you’ve got that happening with Lewan and I don’t think there is any part of that in the game, taunting the other team after a game. So, I’m all with Josh on that one.”

Disappointment:

"I’m more disappointed with the loss itself. After the game it has happened with the same guy a couple times now, so it’s kind of become redundant to me. But the loss really was painful for a lot of reasons. I think our guys played very hard. We just had a couple plays there where didn’t make that we had chances to and they made the plays at critical times. Hats off to them, but it was a tough pill to swallow without a doubt. Adrian [Peterson] ran the ball extremely well, we held the ball a long time, I think we had an 11-minute drive at one point.

Defensively we had a couple good sacks, a couple good pass rushes, but we couldn’t get a stop at the end of the game. You look at the penalty on Fabien [Moreau] and it’s a hard pill to swallow there. Then the interception by Ha Ha [Clinton-Dix] could have been a pick-six if he just kept his hands together but not for a lack of effort, it was a good break by him but unfortunately we just couldn’t make the plays and then the drop by Michael [Floyd] there on the one-yard line and we just had a few plays that we didn’t quite make, we were supposed to make and then they got the win and we didn’t.”

Matt Ioannidis:

“No it’s just a hammy. We will see how he is when he comes back to work, but he’s got treatment today and it’s a little sore. That’s all I got.”

Josh Johnson:

"I thought he played really well to be honest with you. He moved the ball. He got some great third down conversions. I think we were right around 50 something percent on third down, which is very, very good. He had a nice run there on the outside toss crack play designed for the quarterback. He scrambled around and made some plays. It’s just unfortunate the last play of the game what happened on that. I know he’s watched that play about 300 times and he’s sick about it. But overall for what we asked him to do and what he had to accomplish in a short amount of time, I thought was extraordinary. I can’t say enough about the way he’s played the last couple of weeks.”

Josh Doctson:

"I think he’s shown some improvement, yes. I think he’s fought through some injuries here the last couple of weeks. He had the hip flexor a couple of weeks ago and yesterday he was kind of dealing with the back spasms and he fought through it. He was in major, major pain after the game. I really appreciate him fighting through the pain and trying to make some plays. I think he’s shown more physicality at the receiver position, both in the running game and the passing game. I still would like to get him more opportunities to make some plays on the ball down the field, and we’ve just got to continue to try and press that issue with our quarterbacks. Having played three, four quarterbacks, sometimes it’s hard for them to trust the fact that this guy does have a 42-inch vertical and you’ve got to get him some 50/50 opportunities. It’s partly my fault. I could have called a few more plays for him. So yeah, I think he’s still from a stats standpoint, I think he can do a lot more, but I think the quarterbacks can give him a lot more looks. Hopefully in the future that will happen.”

Jordan Reed:

Samaje Perine: