Jay Gruden likes everything about Colt McCoy

The fourth NFL exhibition game usually is not an occasion most viewers look forward to. Teams sit their starters and mostly field second- and third-string players for the purposes of one final audition and the prevention of injury.

Those auditions seem to be settled for the quarterback position after head coach Jay Gruden named Kirk Cousins the man for the job on Monday.

Which ensures Colt McCoy one entire contest to make his mark on coaches' minds when the Washington Redskins finish their preseason against Jacksonville on Thursday night.

But a serious question raises itself, then. Should McCoy be injured in that game and is unable to play, and with Robert Griffin off the list as he continues to trudge through the NFL concussion protocol, what would Jay Gruden do?

"Yeah, Kirk will have to come in," he said. "Yeah. We're one of the unique teams where we only have two quarterbacks right now with Robert's status unfortunately. We didn't really have time to get a guy in here yesterday and teach him the playbook.

"We needed all the guys that were able to play. We would have had to get another roster spot which we couldn't do, either. I think we'll protect Colt. He'll do a good job staying in there. If something happenes, Kirk will come in there, run the ball and he could still play."

Gruden added that nothing McCoy could do on Thursday would change his opinion of the backup signal caller, of whom he already thinks very highly.

"I don't have any negative impressions on Colt," he said. "He's done everything we have asked him to do. He's a tough, competitive guy and I think he's going to go out and compete like he always does. That's not going to change with Colt.

"He's going to go out and battle and compete. He's not going to have to do anything great to change my view on him. Anything he does, if it's poor, it's not going to change my view on him. I just know he's a great competitor and we're happy to have him on our team."

To what precise degree Gruden is happy with him remains to be seen. He's yet to decide, at least publicly, on whether McCoy would jumpfrog Griffin in the backup quarterback race as the No. 2 behind Cousins. But on Thursday night, at least, he's their No. 1.