Jay Gruden Redskins Presser: Jordan Reed and Jonathan Allen are OUT vs Cowboys

Jay Gruden stepped up to the podium after today's practice, a requirement he seems to hate more and more by the day. He said Jordan Reed's not going to play this week. Jonathan Allen, Caleb Brantley, Colt McCoy and Derrius Guice are also out. Injured reserve is possible for Guice who had knee surgery this week, and Colt McCoy who still isn't right from his broken leg last year. The Redskins will also sign WR Robert Davis from the practice squad today.

Injury updates:

Jordan Reed:

Quinton Dunbar:

“It’s got a few issues in there. I don’t know, I didn’t read the report. You’re asking the wrong guy, you’d have to get our trainer up here and find out what he said. I just know that he’s questionable for this game and hopefully some of the soreness goes away by tomorrow. So, we’ll have to find out tomorrow.”

Injured reserve:

Robert Davis:

Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie:

“He didn’t play a whole lot, he played a little bit. [Rodgers-Cromartie] DRC is a vet, he’s seen every coverage, played every coverage, played a lot of great players in his day – man to man, zone so he’s a veteran guy. It’s the reason why he’s here, really, just in case something like this were to happen. We feel pretty good that DRC can play and play at a pretty good level.”

Backup DL:

“It’s a test, that’ll be a test. [Treyvon] Hester has played some ball at Philadelphia. He came in, in great shape. [T.Y.] McGill also kinda got a little bit of familiarity of the system. He can do a little bit of different things, but it’s a matter of if they’re out there, can they do the right things and be in the right spot. I think they can. Both smart guys, both physical guys so that’s good. Good players, we’re happy to get them. But being in the right spot with all those stunts and things that they do, that’s going to be the challenge, but I think [Defensive Line] Coach [Jim] Tomsula will get them up to speed.”

Kevin O’Connell Presser

Game planning with Jordan Reed out:

“Yeah you look at it when we’re putting some of those things in, you think about alternative options whether maybe even in game sometimes we’ve run that play and we want to get another look at it with maybe [RB Chris Thompson] or [TE] Vernon [Davis] or [WR] Trey [Quinn] or any of our other guys – [WR] Terry [McLaurin], [WR] Paul [Richardson Jr.] – we can move things around. That’s the beauty of this system. We’ve got every formation we can possibly need and if don’t have it, we make it up and figure out a name to call it. So, from the standpoint of my role as far as putting together a plan and figuring out who is going to do what when [Head Coach] Jay [Gruden] and I sit down and we kind of put it together. We talk about those contingency plans, especially when a guy maybe out practicing, but he’s not fully 100 percent yet. That’s really on Jay [Gruden] and the medical staff to determine all that. But yeah I’m constantly trying to evaluate where we can maybe have a backup option if it’s something we really want to run.”

Case Keenum vs Cowboys stunts:

“I thought last week against Philadelphia he did a great job of being really aggressive with his feet, really discipline with his eyes so when something was there, if number one or number two, we worked really hard to try to get those guys open for them so when those guys are there, he can be aggressive with his feet and his eyes. He’s so talented as a passer when he’s confident in what he’s looking at. That’s what we’re trying to replicate and duplicate, but we worked a lot on the movement and the stunts up front. We can do somethings with our protection and make sure we’re aware of maybe some of the weaknesses that we may have schematically that taken advanced of in the past, that’s on us as coaches. At the end of the day, we feel confident about the group. We’re playing a great front again like we did last week. I thought they played their rear ends off last week. They just have to do it again, this time at home. We get to use some cadence, so it’ll be a positive for us.”

Ereck Flowers:

“I thought he played really well. Throughout camp we tried to give him as many reps as we could at that left guard spot. He played a little tackle here or there depending on what day down there in Richmond, [Va]. As far as his first game, on the road, hostile environment, crowd noise, that first group in there for the first time playing real football together, we were really happy with that group, Especially Ereck, [he] competed and played with physicality. As the game wore on, it was a hot day, played a lot of snaps, maybe not in the third quarter, but there were a lot of snaps. Those guys maintained their first step and physicality and all those things. So, we’re looking for those guys to just build on that performance, not only on the left side, but the right side with [T] Morgan [Moses] and [G] Brandon [Scherff].”

Second half vs the Eagles:

“First and foremost, the 18-play drive to finish, I told the offense on Monday, that’s not easy to do. It’s a double-digit lead at that point and the Eagles weren’t going to give up much in a two-minute drive, but for us to get 18 plays, execute our two-minute offense, some dinking and dunking there, but they’re forcing it to happen. We had some negative plays that we overcame in that drive – second and long, third and long, converted a fourth down – so there was some positives. Just the lack of quit in our guys. They continued to battle up front, the guys on the perimeter and Case [Keenum] continuing to play smart but also push us down the field. That was obviously a positive. But as far as the third quarter goes, going back and watching it, to me it comes down to about six plays there. The first drive, ok. You come out of the half and we end up in a not a very conducive third down situation after a couple plays. But really those next sequences, we missed Terry [McLaurin] deep there, we have a chance to make a conversion on kind of an RPO style play, if we just execute just a little bit better, any one of those three plays move the chains then maybe who knows. When we get rolling on drives, every completion, every positive play does tend to have negative affect on the defense over the course of a drive. We just got to get rolling, got to get started, limit those negative plays and the positive momentum builds with our group. Not only up front, but the quarterback position, the skill players and that normally leads to a lot of success for us so that’s kind of the way we look at it. We’re continuing every drive as its own. Every play, how many times can we line up all 11 and execute to the best of our ability to leading to quality on the field.”

Redskins vs Cowboys Injury Report