Don’t know if there’s enough Redskins fans (there are certainly enough Redskins haters) on the Dope, but yesterday was a banner day as Dan Snyder fired, er, I mean, Vinny Cerrato resigned from the Redskins. Instantly Bruce Allen (George Sr.'s son) was named the GM. Now the Denver Post and several blogs - and even Chris Mortensen - are hinting that Mike Shanahan is discussing the head coaching position in Ashburn.
Thoughts? If this season got the Daniel to eject Cerrato, it was worth the losses.
Whispers locally (Tampa) are that Gruden might be courted since he and Allen were very tight here. I hate Gruden, so I hope he gets to work for Snyder.
I heard that too. But Gruden signed an extension with ESPN that is supposedly ironclad, so he isn’t going anywhere…
This seems to be a strong rumor (I’m in the Denver area), but I find it very hard to see Shanahan working for Snyder. Shanahan worked under Al Davis and absolutely loathes the man to this day, and Snyder shares some of Davis’s meddling traits.
Shanahan also just finished building a 35,000 suare foot house in Denver.
Yes, 35,000.
Speaking as an Eagles fan, I’d love to see the Redskins get Gruden.
I know you would… which is why I don’t want him as HC. I don’t know if any of the likely candidates are my top choice (I’d love to see Cowher and Russ Grimm or Jerry Gray as DC), but I think Shanahan is the best guy out there. I know he has argued for front office control which is worrisome, and it seems Bruce Allen is okay with not being the talent evaluator. But all of this is an upgrade. Jim Zorn seems like a great guy but he was not ready to be HC.
Gruden gets dogged for being a guy who messes with QB’s heads, and playing favorites in the locker room, something that Zorn definitely has excelled in. Say what you will about the 'Skins this season, but they have rallied around their coach. And I’m not so sure if his success in TB had to do with Tony Dungy laying the foundation there beforehand. Anything that happens in Oakland should be view with suspicion, good or bad.
Until Snyder figures out that he is the Redskins biggest problem, don’t expect anything but SSDD. You can expect the team to do better next year under the new head coach, say 8-8 or 9-7, maybe make a wild card in the next 2-3 years, then the wheels fall off and Chainsaw Dan does this same song and dance again expecting different results. At this point the only thing these bad Redskins teams of say, the last 10 years, have had in common with each other is the Owner and because he keeps making money hand over fist he won’t sell the team and we will be stuck where we are. Until he gets old and dies, or gets old and sells the team. At least I’m younger than Snyder and as such should outlive him. Hail to Mediocrity!
Just bumping my thread to predict that good ol’ Jimmy Z will be the first NFL coach to be shitcanned tomorrow morning. I wonder how long until we hear the announcement that Shanny is coming to DC? Allegedly Jerry Gray (who would be a terrific HC) was already interviewed so the team is in compliance with the Rooney Rule.
I do however fear that Maxx is right though about Dan Snyder. Unless he had a personality transplant and realized that he needs to just go to games and figure out ways to make money. I wonder if a consortium of buyers could get together and make him an offer he can’t refuse? I mean, the guy resurrected Football Jesus in DC (Joe Gibbs) and is still hated. How is he ever going to turn this around?
I said a lot of this in the Coaching Carousel thread. But it’s twue, it’s twue. Shanny is signed up to be your next coach of the Washington Redskins.
I don’t think Daniel Snyder will be on Oprah confessing his failures as an owner anytime soon, but I think he has finally emerged from the Madden 2009 Franchise Mode-type approach to ownership. It’s not a game that you boot up on your computer. Real trained professionals do this stuff for a living, so get some of those guys to work for you and get the hell out of the way.
Now Washington has a real GM and a real coach. They look like a real NFL franchise and not some creation of a 14 year old playing Madden 2009. I’m not saying that they’ll be contenders in the Beast, but I think they will be at least as good as they were during the Schottenheimer era. .500 or a little better with little to no drama, and rising from the Oakland/Cleveland/Detroit franchise level would be good enough for me.
Sounds like Mike Zimmer from Cleveland will be the DC and Shanny’s son Kyle is going to run the offense. I’m a little concerned about Kyle. He’s a Texas Ex (hook 'em) which is awesome, but does he really know how to run an offense? He’s 30 years old!
I also have nightmares of Washington drafting a bunch of tiny O linemen and them chop-blocking as Anonymous Running Back gains 1100 yards next season.
Two frightening images from this evening watching SportsNite on Comcast Sportsnet: Shanahan winking and Bill Romanowski being interviewed.
Zimmer is in Cincinatti, not Cleveland. It will be interesting to see what happens with him there once this season is over, especially if the Redskins have to wait on an extended playoff run.
Still, I’m not sure I’d be that eager to dump Blache if I were Shanny and Allen. The defense was about the only thing you could count on in Washington this year and they aren’t exactly loaded with big name talent.
There is always a first but no head coach has ever won a Super Bowl with two different teams (Weeb Ewbank won a Super Bowl and two NFL championships before the AFL). Granted some coaches (Bill Walsh, Tom Landry, Chuck Noll) never try a second team and two have died a year into their second job (Vince Lombardi, Don McCafferty). But Jimmy Johnson, George Seifert, Tom Flores, Mike Holmgren, Bill Parcells, Hank Stram, Mike Ditka, Dick Vermiel, etc have all failed.
But it makes sense for the Palefaces to try this.