Baylor's Art Briles reportedly open to coaching the Redskins

Many say that Baylor head football coach would not leave the school under any circumstances. That would include reuniting with his former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback, Robert Griffin III, since it's being widely speculated that the Washington Redskins might part ways with current coach Mike Shanahan.

Would Briles be open to Redskins owner Daniel Snyder making a lucrative offer to coach the team. League sources are whispering that it could be possible that Briles could make the jump to the NFL.

Briles, who is currently focused on recruiting at the school, would have interest in the Redskins' job under certain circumstances, sources said, and some believe he could put together an NFL-caliber staff as well, without having to overly rely on his contemporaries at Baylor. Snyder is widely expected to fire coach Mike Shanahan at the end of the season, with his team again at the bottom of the NFL East standings and Shanahan's relations with RG3 in tatters and issues with his staff, and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan in particular, no secret at Redskins Park.

Briles lacks an NFL pedigree, but Griffin and his parents are big fans of Briles. On the other hand Snyder is probably looking for a coach with NFL experience, which is always hard for him because of his reputation as a meddling owner.

I don't know why Briles would have any interest in any NFL job, especially the Redskins job. He built that program from scratch the way he wanted to. In the NFL he doesn't have a whole lot of say on which players he gets. He's in total control, not having to play a hand he's dealt. At Baylor he's king of Waco as long as he keeps winning. I don't think Briles wants to give that up anytime soon. Besides, he just signed a 10 year extension.

Briles has said he hasn't had any contact with the Redskins and plans to remain at Baylor.

Report: Kyle Shanahan to leave Redskins, split from his dad

It's always a a nice, warm story when a father and son team up as coaches and try to make it to the mountaintop. That's how some might have thought when Kyle Shanahan became the offensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins and join his dad Mike on the sidelines.

Apparently the arrangement will be coming to an end.

The NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported that Shanahan has “decided it is no longer worth it to work with his father” and will attempt to blaze his own trail after four years with the Redskins.Shanahan spent two seasons as offensive coordinator of the Houston Texans before joining the Redskins in 2010.

This latest look into Washington’s implosion came shortly after CBS’ Jason La Canfora reported that many within the organization actually pin much of the blame for this 3-10 season on Kyle Shanahan’s relationships with Mike Shanahan and Robert Griffin III.

Conversations with several people within the organization have revealed a similar perception of Kyle Shanahan as someone who was empowered and enabled by his father, spending an abundance of time in his father's office, given a wide swath of power, and rubbing many people -- players, fellow coaches and members of football operations -- the wrong way. At the same time, Kyle Shanahan has been the most heavily rewarded of the team's assistant coaches, as team sources said the two-year extension Shanahan earned following the playoff run in 2012 will pay him $1.5M in 2014 alone. That's money he's almost certain to collect away from the team, with this regime widely expected to be fired after this season.

“Kyle is the head coach, it's just that no one knows he is,” said one member of the organization. “He gets whatever he wants. And he has no relationship at all with (quarterback Robert Griffin II). So how could it work?”

Although this is a surprise, Kyle wasn't pleased when starting quarterback, Robert Griffin III, was shutdown for the last three games of the season in favor of Kirk Cousins.

Kyle had a decent run in Houston so it's possible that he could co elsewhere and succeed, but he'll have to do it without any of his father's connections (Gary Kubiak in Houston).

Santana Moss says Kirk Cousins 'being set up for failure'

In a difficult football season the most popular player is always the backup quarterback.

I guess that means Kirk Cousins is the most popular guy in the eyes of Washington Redskins fans. With Robert Griffin III struggling with coming back from a knee injury that he suffered last season, the Redskins have plummeted to last place in the NFC East with a 3-10 record.

Coach Mike Shanahan has shut down Griffin with three games to play and has turned to Cousins to provide a spark and some momentum to carry over into next season.

Redskins receiver Santana Moss thinks that Cousins has been put in an unenviable situation and says that he thinks Cousins is "being set up to fail". Not exactly words you want to hear from someone on your own team.

“It’s kind of tough to put him into this situation right now and hope for him to be excellent,” Moss said at Redskins Park. “It’s almost like setting a guy up for failure. But you just want him to go out there and be at ease and just take his time, be as efficient as he can because it’s one of those situations that’s like, you know, Catch[-22]. He don’t play as well, then you’re gonna say, ‘Well, should he have been in there?’ But you can’t do that to him because he hasn’t had all this season to go out there and jell with us. But he has been ready enough to go out there and be able to run this offense. So we’re just hoping for the best.”  

As a backup you always have to be ready no matter what, but if Shanahan is looking for something positive to come from this he might be in trouble. Even though Cousins filled in admirably for Griffin last season, he might be a bit rusty for all the sitting he's done this season.

The silver lining in all of this is that the Redskins play the Atlanta Falcons, New York Giants, and Dallas Cowboys the last three weeks of the season. Not exactly defenses that have performed well. So Cousins could possibly thrive which would ignite a quarterback controversy if Shanahan sticks around for next season.