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Haslett: Poor Hire?

That kind of defensive performance is almost enough to make you pine for Ron Lynn.
 
It is unfortunate that Haynesworth is not playing this scheme properly. They only put him in when he can push up field. The problem with that, and I think we saw it last night, is that the offense knows that Haynesworth is going up field, so they let him. Sometimes he needs to be in just to take up a couple of blockers and allow the LB's to do their job. But, in an interview recently he said that he is not good at doing that, so he is pretty much a waste to this team at this point, especially with that attitude.

When I first saw him laying on the field like a beached whale, I thought he was injured. I should have known better.

I would not completely blame Haslett for this debacle. Shannahan wanted the 3-4 and that is what he is getting. We do not have the personnel for the 3-4. He knows this, so does Haslett. My theory is that he is trying to set the schemes in stone so that the personnel he does keep has a leg up on the schemes next year. Landry will be here next year, and he will know his duties, as will Fletcher. The guys that are retained will be able to teach the newcomers next year.

I believe this is a process. This team is not in a win now mode. It is going to take a couple of years. I really do not see the benefit in switiching back to the 4-3 when you have made up your mind to run the 3-4 for the immediate future. In fact, (if this is the case) I kind of agree with the process even though it is painful to watch.

Outside of the proper personnel, the 3-4 has to have the proper calls on the field. If it does not, then it is torched, like last night. It is hard to say that Haslett is at fault here, especially with the lack of personnel, however, the tackling was horrible. That is something that can be layed at Haslett's feet without question. If there are more poor tackling games in the future, Haslett may look for a new job.
 
Nice post Omniscient. Glad you're back, haven't see you around in a while. :).

I agree completely, and that is what makes the decision to trade for and extend McNabb maddening. If we are implementing a defense for which we do not have the proper personnel, and had to know on some level it was going to be a painful process, they had to know the defense would struggle, right? And if they knew that, why push all our chips into the middle of the table to win now with McNabb? I'm fine with ditching Campbell, and it is now clear why the Rams weren't interested in discussing a trade for Bradford at all. I just wonder if there were other, younger options out there.

Why not sign a stop gap and keep the draft picks, with which we could have drafted the QB of the future?

Back to Haslett. My main complaint with him Sunday was that he looked shocked after the first two TDs. I know I would have too, i get that. But those two plays sucked the life out of the defense, and he was unable to get anything going after that, until the second quarter. But they pretty much scored when they wanted to all game.
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Lots of blame to go around. That was a butt ugly display by the defense. I won't speak on Haslett's competency or his schemes but I will say why is Buchanon even on the team. He half asses it for almost every play he's on the field. Didn't we sign a cb in the second round a couple of years ago? I don't know his name he's never on the field but he can't be worse than Buchanon. Carlos Rogers isn't looking all that spectacular as well. I can't believe there isn't an upgrade at cb walking the streets that could easily replace Buchanon. Speaking of underachievers Santana Moss doesn't look like a number one reciever, not even a number two on most teams....
 
I'm not going to make any final judgments on Haslett until at least the end of next season. Man deserves a chance to put his stamp on the unit, and the benefit of at least one more offseason of personnel adjustments.

That said ... I was skeptical as hell from day one about his hiring, and nothing I've seen to date has done much to change my mind.

... here's a quick down and dirty peak at the units Haslett ran as defensive coordinator.

NEW ORLEANS '96

Haslett took over a defense that finished 22nd in the league the year before:

1995 – 22nd overall (18th scoring, 22nd passing, 21st rushing)

... and had some immediate success, most strikingly against the pass:

1996 – 13th overall (20th scoring, 3rd passing, 27th rushing)

The year after he left (to become DC in Pittsburgh in '97) the Saints defense finished top five:

1997 – 4th overall (16th scoring, 6th passing, 14th rushing)


PITTSBURGH '97 – '99

Haslett inherited a pretty damn good defense from the year before (1996):

1996 – 2nd overall (4th scoring, 5th passing, 3rd rushing)

... and, well, you be the judge:

1997 – 6th overall (11th scoring, 18th passing, 1st rushing)
1998 – 12th overall (7th scoring, 18th passing, 13th rushing)
1999 – 11th overall (12th scoring, 4th passing, 26th rushing)

(Check the progress versus the run. Or don't, if you're a Haslett fan)

The year after he left, the Steeler defense trended back the other way:

2000 – 7th overall (6th scoring, 9th passing, 12th rushing)


ST. LOUIS '06 - '07

After his head coaching stint in New Orleans (2000-2005), Haslett was hired by the St. Louis Rams to resurrect their 30th ranked ('05) unit. Not sure what he did quite qualifies as "resurrecting" the Rams' woebegone defensive unit, but he did oversee some improvement:

2006 – 23rd overall (28th scoring, 8th passing, 31st rushing)
2007 – 21st overall (31st scoring, 21st passing, 20th rushing)

He was going to be their defensive coordinator in 2008 as well, but instead was hired on after the Rams 0-4 start as their "interim coach." After upsetting Joe Gibbs' Redskins (Pete Kendall, please pick up the white courtesy phone) to earn the Rams first victory of the season, he and the Rams lost 10 of their remaining 11 games to finish the season 2-14.

Haslett was not asked to return for 2009 ... and, if rumors are true has been spotted coaching in something called the United Football League.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to belittle the guy. And I know numbers tell only a small part of any story ... but reality sure can be a bitch.

If you, gentle Redskins fan reader, know something about Mr. Haslett as an NFL defensive coordinator (and for his sake and ours if this pans out I hope there's a lot) that mitigates against the general feeling of "meh"-titude I'm getting about this one, feel free to share.

Please.
 
I'm not going to make any final judgments on Haslett until at least the end of next season. Man deserves a chance to put his stamp on the unit, and the benefit of at least one more offseason of personnel adjustments.

Your write up is what has me so skeptical now and I don't think we really need 2 years to see it. I didn't know enough about him before the hire to pass judgement, I liked what I had seen of him, as far as character, when he went through that debacle in New Orleans during Katrina and how he handled it. If I am going to be honest, I am probably still not qualified to pass judgement at this point either, but I am going to anyway.

I just can't imagine a scenario where we would be wise to stick with the current scheme unless the coaches have written this year off as has been suggested. So many fans clamored about our lack of personnel to play in this scheme this year. With little knowledge of the 3-4 scheme and whose responsibility it is to be where, when, I remained on the sidelines of this debate. I have paid close attention to Baltimore's defense this season to gain some insight on how the 3-4 is to be run. It makes absolutely no sense to run a scheme like this without a dominant NT. The reason it has worked in Baltimore and Pittsburgh and to some extent in Dallas is because of the players they have on the defensive line.

Now, should we blame Haslett when it appears Shanahan wants the 3-4? I think we should. Haslett has been the one game planning, he is the one who is supposed to devise schemes, he is the one who should look at the Head Coach and say, "Look! We do not have the players to run this Defense, a defense that has been a perennial top 10 defense over the last decade!" It has been mentioned, Bill Parcells went into Dallas with a similar scenario and adjusted to his players until he could get the unit he wanted to run this scheme.

To be honest, I am starting to think less of Shanahan too. And, it is not because we are losing. I still expect 7-9 or at best 8-8. It is because of the philosophy being employed. I like a my way or the highway kind of coach. Discipline carries a long way! But if your way is wrong, you might want to think about changing it. This team could have a better record than they do now. If we had employed a defensive scheme that our defense is more equipped to play from the beginning, I would have to think that at least 2 of the losses could have been wins. Those two wins...we are tied for first place.

Goaldeje made a good point. If we are implementing a defense with the future in mind, why did we acquire a QB that may suggest they were thinking about a run for the playoffs now? I just don't have much confidence in the coaching staff right now.

I expressed my desire before Shanahan was hired for a young hungry head coach who could remain humble while developing a team, not a former Super Bowl winner who may not be as hungry to win a Super Bowl as he was to develop his own ego.

Is it too early to pass judgement as you suggest Om? Probably, but hey...that's what fans do, right?
 
The question of whether or not to retain Haslett seems pretty simple to me. Your commitment to waiting two years considered Om, I don't think we need to wait that long. Is the hallmark of a great coach one who adjusts to his personnel, or one who does things his way or be gone? You can certainly find examples of successful coaches on both sides, but I personally lean towards the former. Especially in your first year. Why not adjust, make necessary changes, then go after the personnel you need?

As Destino (I think) said, the players have proven they can play well. For all we hated about Blache's schemes, statistically we ranked fairly high. Haslett has put more emphasis on turnovers, which is great, and is using Landry properly. Also great. I guess I wonder why we can't find a D Coordinator (or head coach) who can meld those two together.
 
When the season is over, fire Haslett and then hire John Fox to replace him.

Back to the 4-3(where we at least have the personnel to be competent).

Shanny needs to just admit his mistake and move forward.
 
Nice post Omniscient. Glad you're back, haven't see you around in a while. :).
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Thanks. I am fickle, so I will post for a bit and disappear. I have been lurking, but really have not had anything to add to the board.

I agree about McNabb. Originally, I was behind the McNabb move. I thought the compensation was fair for a QB of his caliber. Now that we are more than halfway through the season, I have changed my mind. We could have really used those picks and grabbed a stop gap (Grossman) for the short term.

I really wished Bruce Allen blew this team up like he did with Tampa a few years back. They are beginning to see the rewards. Just a guess, but I would say he lost his job there because the team was too impatient to allow him the years it takes to rebuild. However, Shannahan is not at the age where rebuilding is an option nor do I think Snyder has the patience to allow it to happen.


For as long as we have been horrible, we could have rebuilt this team 3 times now. The Chiefs, Lions, and Bucs have been rebuilding over the last few years and it is paying off. These three teams have a bright future ahead of them.

Unfortunately, this is status quo for this team. Give draft picks for aging players and avoid youth. I believe fans can handle losing if we are rebuilding, but we cannot handle it if we are doing things the same way we have for 10+ years now.

I wish Ted Leonsis could come over here and be an advisor for this organization. The Caps got it right a few years back and they are being rewarded for it. Dump aging veterans and build through the draft. Their future is bright.

Unfortunately, the Eagles have gotten it right as well. They have had a massive youth infusion for their DL, DB, WR, RB, and QB positions. They never had to rebuild because they slowly acquired draft picks for their aging players and released the ones they could not get compensated for. This has been a fairly smooth process for them. It almost makes me sick thinking that they have a real bright future. People need to start talking about how great that organization is run. We all hear about the great Patriots, but, I think the Eagles are right there with them.

What I do not get is how come there is a ton of evidence on how to run an organization properly, yet we keep doing the same thing over and over and over and over and failing at it.

I hope this offseason brings changes in how we acquire personnel.
 
I know there are other threads where Haslett's seeming destruction of our defense has been mentioned, but I wanted to start a discussion about this. I can't help but think this was the worst decision that the Allen/Shanahan Front Office has made. I am not sure who else was out there for them to choose to run this defense, but it looks like Haslett is in over his head.

Last night, one big play against his defense and it looked like he was lost for the rest of the game. I would not put much weight into a single game, but more than half way through the season, we see a poor excuse for a defense that ranked 10th in the league last year with many of the same key players.

Is Haslett to blame?

Is he in over his head?


I will be going through this thread, I have gone on record that Haslett was a bad hire, I have been totally against the implementation of a 3-4 here because we simply do not have the proper players. At this point almost every single prediction I made has come to pass regarding it.

BUT I don't know if I should blame Haslett for the poor defence because he has been terrible at scheming or If I should give him props for at least getting some of these guys to play like they gave a crap (until last game anyway).


He was given a bum hand by Shannahan who demanded we run the 3-4 despite not having any of the key pieces. the fail of the scheme is on him because at the end of the day he is the DC but I almost think he was hired as a fall guy by Shannhan who A- had noone better to hire at the time. and B-knew what a fail this D was going to be AND THIS WAY HE HAS A FALL GUY TO GIVE THE ANGRY FANS AT THE END OF THIS YEAR.

if they had decided to stay 4-3 and had a bad defence then people would be screaming even more because we KNOW we have the players to at least be decent in a 4-3, even now the less intelligent fans are giving Shanny a pass because supposedly " its only the first year and we need to give this change time" despite the fact that the issues are obviously not coachable with time but talent based. Dont tell us this defence takes years to implement, because the best 3-4 teams made the switch and IMPROVED while doing it.

Instead most fans only look at the surface,They are getting mad at Haslett who was not given a choice of what defence to run but told you will run a 3-4 so make it work.
 
This is just an example of poor leadership. A leader, especially a coach, is expected to put his players in the best position to succeed. Last year we had Carter succeeding up front along with a happy Haynesworth. Orakpo was at OLB but was lining up with his hand in the dirt on passing downs.

That's all gone. Haynesworth and Carter (two strengths last year) are now back up players that have contributed almost nothing. Our DLine is pathetic in general. Orakpo is still doing his thing. We've generated more turnovers certainly but at what cost? We are ranked 31st against the pass and 25th against the run. Dead last overall.

... and yet the experiment continues unabated. The stones it must take to answer media questions and play it off like it's no big deal. The fall of the defense is 100% coaching because the players have proven what they can do in previous seasons with this team.

Cooley on the radio today sounded astonished talking about the defense and then finally just said "I don't feel comfortable talking about the defense". Imagine the offensive unit sitting there scoring TD's and watching the defense give up HUGE play after huge play eventually resulting in 59 points. This isn't the first time either: the skins have lost every game in which they've scored over 20 points. All of them.


This is the best post regarding this that I have seen.

Truth be told, a coaches job is to fit his scheme around his players, we havent done that in a long time.

Haynesworth is not the problem, the problem is that he didnt even get in the damn game until we were down 21 points. Thats just stupid, on his first play he bulldozed the Oline and tackled the RB for no gain, the second play he shot into the backfield, the third? they put him at nose in a 3-4 and THEN LOOPED HIM WAY THE HELL OUTSIDE WHERE HE BASICALLY REMOVED HIMSELF FROM THE PLAY AND LEFT THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD WIDE OPEN.

tHEN ON 3RD AND 5 WE RUSH 3 LINEMEN OUT OF A BASE 3-4 AND PLAY SOFT ZONE? then to add insult to injury we do it all again and vick again runs for a td. thats just poor scheming.

we got lucky early on this year when we ran unsound defences and people had no film, then once people got some film they found the unsound spots and attacked them, now we see why people dont play unsound in the NFL.
 
I hope this offseason brings changes in how we acquire personnel.
Ultimately, this is the most important hope one could have.

This is what's held this team back for years.

We need to be patient and allow the team to be blown up, Capitals-style.
 
Ultimately, this is the most important hope one could have.

This is what's held this team back for years.

We need to be patient and allow the team to be blown up, Capitals-style.


I completely agree, thats why we need a young hungry coach who is willing to take his lumps. nothing this new FO has done has really shown me that they are willing to take their lumps. even signing Mcnabb was a win games now move at the cost of 2 draft picks.
 
why? thats what is now, and that frankly is all coaching.

Ummm...because he's the highest paid defensive player in the *HISTORY* of the league? Because he's been locked in a battle of egos with Shanahan since the offseason? Because he's NOT a backup tackle on any other roster in the NFL, CFL, UFL, or whatever FL?

Come on, use your noggin! :)
 
Ummm...because he's the highest paid defensive player in the *HISTORY* of the league? Because he's been locked in a battle of egos with Shanahan since the offseason? Because he's NOT a backup tackle on any other roster in the NFL, CFL, UFL, or whatever FL?

Come on, use your noggin! :)


Lanky, I think you are seeing a disagreement where there isnt one.

AH is NOT a backup DT on ANY team with a halfways competant coaching staff, thats my point. however on THIS team he is a guy who never even got in the last game until we were down 21 points, on THIS team he went from a guy who played more snaps than other DT in the league WHEN HE SUPPOSEDLY WASNT IN SHAPE to being 30 pounds lighter and playing about 20 snaps a game.

thats coaching my friend, they make the decisions, and this one has never been based on his talent or his production.
 
Lanky, I think you are seeing a disagreement where there isnt one.

AH is NOT a backup DT on ANY team with a halfways competant coaching staff, thats my point. however on THIS team he is a guy who never even got in the last game until we were down 21 points, on THIS team he went from a guy who played more snaps than other DT in the league WHEN HE SUPPOSEDLY WASNT IN SHAPE to being 30 pounds lighter and playing about 20 snaps a game.

thats coaching my friend, they make the decisions, and this one has never been based on his talent or his production.

He may be in the role of "backup," but he's still high-profile. And when a high-profile guy pulls a stunt like that, you can't just dismiss it as "oh, he's a nonfactor because he's a backup DT." You just can't.

And really, that's kind of irrelevant. If Daryl Young, 6th string RB, had done what Haynesworth did, I wouldn't want him on the roster anymore either.
 
I think our point is that THIS TEAM took a DMVP calibre player and turned him into a situational role player/ backup who plays backups reps, at this point the fact that he bothers to show up at all is surprising.

Really? And that is acceptable to you? They are paid millions of dollars to play football (Haynesworth just happens to be paid more millions than any other defender ever) and do what the coaches tell them to do (no matter how asinine it may be). If Haselett wants Haynesworth to play punt-protector, he better protect the crap out of the punter!
 

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