ASHBURN, Va. — Owner Dan Snyder and President Bruce Allen summoned Coach Jay Gruden to Washington’s facility before dawn Monday to tell him he was being fired.

“It was a brief conversation,” Allen said.

Now comes a longer conversation about the status of the floundering franchise that has won just two playoff games in Snyder’s two decades of ownership and zero during Allen’s tenure. Gruden is out after an 0-5 start to his sixth season and is the latest in a long line of Washington coaches to take the fall for significant organizational shortcomings.

“To make a decision like this is difficult, but it was necessary,” Allen said during a 13-minute news conference. “Our 0-5 start is not just disappointing. We had much different expectations for the beginning of the season. We owe it to our fans, … the organization, the players, the coaches and their families to do everything we can to win.”

Washington hasn’t won much lately, going 35-49-1 overall under Gruden with one playoff appearance in the 2015 season. A popular coach among players and a smart offensive mind, Gruden struggled in preparing his teams: Washington went 1-5 in season openers and lost a win-and-get-in game in Week 17 in 2016 against the New York Giants, who had nothing to play for.

Despite never before being a head coach in the NFL, and despite never winning more than nine games in a season, Gruden managed to stick around longer than anyone else who’s held that job during Snyder’s unsuccessful stint as owner.

Asked why Snyder wasn’t addressing fans, Allen said, “Because I am.” Snyder was not made available to reporters Monday.

None of the six coaches hired since Snyder bought the team has a winning record, including Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs and two-time Super Bowl champion Mike Shanahan. Offensive line coach Bill Callahan becomes the seventh after he was selected to replace Gruden on an interim basis.

Callahan has coached the Raiders in the NFL and Nebraska in college football.

TITANS: Tennessee released kicker Cairo Santos a day after he missed three field goals and had a fourth blocked.

Santos missed field goals from 50, 36 and 53 yards with a 36-yarder blocked by Darryl Johnson in a 14-7 loss to Buffalo on Sunday. Santos apologized at his locker after the game with the native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, saying he’d never had a day like that anywhere.

Santos was signed Sept. 4 when Tennessee put veteran Ryan Succop on injured reserve, a move designed to let Succop gain strength after having surgery this offseason on his kicking leg. Succop remains three weeks away from being eligible to be activated off injured reserve.

BILLS: Defensive tackle Jordan Phillips found another opening to beat Taylor Lewan — this time on social media.

The Titans’ three-time Pro Bowl left tackle gave a shout-out Monday on Twitter to Bills defensive end Shaq Lawson for his production as a first-round pick with a screen shot of Lawson’s stats through Sunday’s 14-7 win by Buffalo. Lawson had no tackles or sacks in the game.

Phillips, who had a career-high three sacks by halftime, took over.

The defensive tackle wrote that Lewan should get drug tested again and called him a “soft cry baby.” Phillips then shared a couple of videos of Lawson tying up Lewan so he could get his second sack followed by a tweet with a screen grab of a story for Lewan failing a drug test earlier this year with “People don’t forget @taylorlewan77.”

Then the Bills lineman, who played the Titans and Lewan twice last season first with the Dolphins and then Buffalo, tweeted out a screen grab of the Titans left tackle unconscious in the 2018 season opener at Miami with the hashtag “NSFW” to Lewan. The Titans tackle missed the next game with a concussion.

Phillips said after the Bills’ win that he was really happy Lewan returned from his four-game suspension against Buffalo and that he could be a part of the Bills piling up five sacks.

RAIDERS: Oakland hopes to be much healthier when they return from their bye. Starting right guard Gabe Jackson is expected to return from a knee injury that has sidelined him since training camp and Tyrell Williams (foot), J.J. Nelson (knee), DE Clelin Ferrell (concussion) and return specialist Dwayne Harris (ankle) all hoping to get back as well.

BEARS: Defensive tackle Akiem Hicks left after eight plays with an elbow injury and didn’t return. Coach Matt Nagy had no update on the severity of the injury.

Nagy said quarterback  Mitchell Trubisky will spend the bye week rehabbing his injured left shoulder at the facility and has a chance to be back when the team returns from its bye.

COWBOYS: Right tackle La’el Collins left with a knee injury in the second half after being questionable with a back issue coming into the game. Owner Jerry Jones said it was a medial collateral ligament injury and was optimistic about the prognosis. Dallas also is hopeful six-time Pro Bowl left tackle Tyron Smith will return after missing a game with a sprained ankle.

GIANTS: Receiver Sterling Shepard will be out “a while” with a concussion, according to a source.

Shepard sustained a second concussion in five weeks during Sunday’s 28-10 home loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Shepard was removed from the game with four minutes left in the third quarter, in fact, by the NFL’s concussion spotter after falling hard to the turf trying to catch a deep pass down the left sideline.

Shepard returned to the game on the Giants’ next drive early in the fourth quarter, but then did not play on their final four-play drive with under four minutes to go in the game.

He then displayed concussion symptoms on Monday morning when he reported to the Giants’ facility in preparation for the Giants (2-3) game in New England.

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