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Jay Gruden gives injury updates as the Redskins prepare for their season finale against the Philadelphia Eagles. He also talked about D.J. Swearinger's release, and roster management.
WATCH LIVE: QB Josh Johnson and HC Jay Gruden speak to the media after practice Wednesday. https://t.co/oyhR3PdDn6
— Washington Redskins (@Redskins) December 26, 2018
Injury updates:
Gruden at the podium. DNP: Anderson, McCoy, Nsekhe, Ioannidis, Reed, Harris
— Matthew Paras (@Matthew_Paras) December 26, 2018
Injured reserve:
"There’s a possibility. It just depends on if we need those spots for other players or not. If we have 46 guys here that can go out and play that we feel good about, we won’t need to put anybody on IR. We’ll just leave them as inactive. But if we need to get a spot, like for Ryan Anderson for instance, if he can’t go, we might need a spot there and we could put one of those guys down.”
Are there veterans who’ve dealt with injuries that will be shut down?:
”No, I think if they have the ability to go, they’re going to go. I think it’s very, very important. This is pro football. If that were the case, I don’t know if we’d have 50 guys or 40 guys to play. I think everybody is banged up to some degree. Trent [Williams] is banged up a little bit, Morgan [Moses] is banged up, [Tony] Bergstrom, obviously Chase Roullier is a little bit banged up. Our linebacking crew is a little bit banged up. This is part of it. This is part of our guys, the type of guys that we brought in here, obviously great competitive spirit. Tough time right now, tough pill to swallow, not being in the playoffs without a doubt. But I do expect the type of guys we have here to step up.”
D.J. Swearinger:
Jay Gruden talking about Swearinger. #redskins pic.twitter.com/1pVk4V4wss
— Kareem Copeland (@kareemcopeland) December 26, 2018
“Having a suggestion to play zone or man is fine in house. Not with a microphone in your face”
— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) December 26, 2018
Gruden: “Ultimately it’s my fault, obviously I didn’t make it clear we don’t talk about our business with the media.”
— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) December 26, 2018
Gruden on Swearinger release: “if you read the articles you would see his comments weren’t productive.”
— Les Carpenter (@Lescarpenter) December 26, 2018
“Anytime we make a personnel move...it’s a group decision.”
— Craig Hoffman (@CraigHoffman) December 26, 2018
Gruden says it doesn’t mean anything for him long term when it comes to his future. They made the best long-term decision for the franchise in their eyes.
Jay Gruden said of the D.J. Swearinger release and what means for his future: “whether I’m here or not (in 2019) I felt pretty strongly it was the right decision.”
— John Keim (@john_keim) December 26, 2018
Gruden on releasing Swearinger: "I didn't expect everybody to be happy about it." Basically said the safety was warned several times to stop mouthing off publicly.
— Rick Snider (@Snide_Remarks) December 26, 2018
Safeties vs Eagles:
Yeah, we’ve got Ha Ha [Clinton-Dix] still. Obviously, Deshazor Everett has played a lot of ball for us. Jeremy Reaves has been an upcoming talent that we are very interested in. We are going to move Harlan Miller to safety, which he’s played safety in the past, so we have it covered. We signed Alex Carter from the practice squad. We probably will boost up Alex Carter possibly here in the next couple of days and we have some other guys to look at. It will be good experience for some of those young guys to get some opportunities to play.”
Josh Johnson:
Josh Johnson spent Christmas Day at Redskins’facility studying film. “I was with my family all year,” he said. “They’re good.”
— Les Carpenter (@Lescarpenter) December 26, 2018