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If you know me at all you know I have had my issues with Dan Snyder. I have made no secret of it either. Not in my blog or in my posts to various Redskin fan sites, BGO included. I like to think I am hard but fair where Dan comes in. Unlike some, I have always thought his heart was in the right place, it was just his head that was the problem.
However, I was thrilled when, two and half years ago, Snyder fired Vinny and hired Allen and Shanahan.
To be totally honest here, I wasn’t so thrilled with the “who” that he hired as I was with the “what” that he hired them for. Specifically, he gave full football control to real football guys and even if they might not have been the guys I would have hired, they were still real football guys with a proven track record in that department.
Then Dan got out of the way. He did what an owner should do and let his football guys run his football team.
Now it is time for Dan to step in once again and be an owner. It is time for Snyder to save Shanahan from himself.
Oh, I would not suggest he do anything publicly. That would be as bad as what Shanahan did yesterday after the game when he informed the whole world he had quit on the 2012 version of the Redskins. No, publicly Snyder needs to stay the course he has charted for the last two and a half years.
Privately is a different matter though.
I am not a football guy. I have never made any pretense about that here or anywhere else. I have however managed people. Run projects. Dealt with personnel issues. So I have some thoughts on what the owner should do here.
Mr. Snyder, here a few suggestions for you;
Dan, you have a salable commodity in Robert Griffin III. He is a guy who excites the fan base, puts butts in seats and gets your team national TV time. All three of those things were in short supply in Washington just a few months ago. However, to keep this up, you have to field a
team the fans believe in and that means a coaching staff we trust.
For years the fans have had at least a bit of patience because we know this is a Quarterback driven league and this team has not had one. We know they don’t grow on trees and there aren’t enough franchise guys to go around. It was enough that you and whoever passed for a football guy at the time were trying to find one. We the fans appreciated that even if we didn’t always sound like it.
It is different now though. We KNOW we are one of the lucky teams who have a difference maker under center. Everyone who has watched Griffin is aware that in a few short years, with the exit of guys named Manning, Brady and Brees, we will have one of the top 5 guys in the league, and this both assuming we don’t have that now and that my humble estimation is conservative.
We the Fans don’t have to be patient, waiting for that most precious of all NFL commodities now. Our team has one. Now we need you to make sure the Head Coach knows he doesn’t have all the time in the world.
Quietly.
Man, these next two weeks can’t go fast enough.
However, I was thrilled when, two and half years ago, Snyder fired Vinny and hired Allen and Shanahan.
To be totally honest here, I wasn’t so thrilled with the “who” that he hired as I was with the “what” that he hired them for. Specifically, he gave full football control to real football guys and even if they might not have been the guys I would have hired, they were still real football guys with a proven track record in that department.
Then Dan got out of the way. He did what an owner should do and let his football guys run his football team.
Now it is time for Dan to step in once again and be an owner. It is time for Snyder to save Shanahan from himself.
Oh, I would not suggest he do anything publicly. That would be as bad as what Shanahan did yesterday after the game when he informed the whole world he had quit on the 2012 version of the Redskins. No, publicly Snyder needs to stay the course he has charted for the last two and a half years.
Privately is a different matter though.
I am not a football guy. I have never made any pretense about that here or anywhere else. I have however managed people. Run projects. Dealt with personnel issues. So I have some thoughts on what the owner should do here.
Mr. Snyder, here a few suggestions for you;
- As quietly as possible, you need to have a “Come to Jesus” meeting with your head coach over his comments after yesterday’s game. With 7 games left he has publicly thrown in the towel on a season where his team was playing for the NFCE Division lead just 15 days ago. This is not acceptable behavior and, future Hall of Famer or no, Mike Shanahan needs to be reminded of that fact by you, the guy who signs his check. Just remember the key word here…quietly. No one but you, Mike and maybe Bruce need to know about this and the more folks who do know, the more chance it gets out, which is something no one wants to have happen.
- You should strongly consider promoting Bruce Allen over Shanahan. Our current roster proves that GM Shanahan is not Head Coach Shanahan’s friend. In fact, the GM might be actively sabotaging the Head Coach without either of them knowing it.
- You should also strongly consider forcing Shanahan to change his defensive staff at the end of the season. I know this isn’t going to be a popular stance and many, especially in the media, will see it as a sign that you have not changed and are indeed still very much involved in the day to day football operation but right now the Head Coach doesn’t appear capable of admitting that he has the wrong guy or that he very likely has half a staff of “wrong guys”. I’m not suggesting you sit in the interviews for the replacements either, just that you jog Shanahan’s sword arm a bit, and maybe make some strong suggestions about how the search for a replacement be conducted.
Dan, you have a salable commodity in Robert Griffin III. He is a guy who excites the fan base, puts butts in seats and gets your team national TV time. All three of those things were in short supply in Washington just a few months ago. However, to keep this up, you have to field a
team the fans believe in and that means a coaching staff we trust.
For years the fans have had at least a bit of patience because we know this is a Quarterback driven league and this team has not had one. We know they don’t grow on trees and there aren’t enough franchise guys to go around. It was enough that you and whoever passed for a football guy at the time were trying to find one. We the fans appreciated that even if we didn’t always sound like it.
It is different now though. We KNOW we are one of the lucky teams who have a difference maker under center. Everyone who has watched Griffin is aware that in a few short years, with the exit of guys named Manning, Brady and Brees, we will have one of the top 5 guys in the league, and this both assuming we don’t have that now and that my humble estimation is conservative.
We the Fans don’t have to be patient, waiting for that most precious of all NFL commodities now. Our team has one. Now we need you to make sure the Head Coach knows he doesn’t have all the time in the world.
Quietly.
Man, these next two weeks can’t go fast enough.