Dispelling the Shanahan "System" Myth

I don't disagree that Shanahan erred in his judgment bringing McNabb in. I do think there's some hindsight 20/20 going on here though.

To me it was NOT a no-brainer that McNabb would fail as utterly and completely as he did. And I don't buy that Shanahan should have known better. Hell, Minnesota took a flier on the guy even AFTER his flame-out here.

I don't think they tried to change his mechanics. I think they tried to get the guy to learn the ****ing playbook. He either couldn't or wouldn't. Saying that they should have known THAT would happen, to me, is unfair.

I'm not defending bringing him here beyond that. I too was okay with the idea of having this 6 time Pro Bowler fresh off a strong statistical season (let's not dismiss that) come in and keep the offense at least afloat for 2-3 years while they rebuilt the disastrous roster around him and tried to find a young stud to bring along behind him.

It didn't work. And the price they paid was high. A big mistake, no doubt. In retrospect.

I wonder if we'd be as upset about it if they'd simply picked him up for cash and no picks?

Om said:

I wonder if we'd be as upset about it if they'd simply picked him up for cash and no picks?

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Nope, not at all. That is a totally different proposition right there, especially since one of those picks was a high 2nd rounder that has turned into a 2 year starter for a division rival. That pick could have been a new RT which would have allowed us to keep the picks we gave to New Orleans for Brown. Granted, it might not have gone that way but it could have.

My opinion on the past is that it is the past and the best thing to do is to learn from it. Things are on the right track and that is all I care about these days. DMc5 is so 2010 and glad that we have moved forward.

Om said:

I wonder if we'd be as upset about it if they'd simply picked him up for cash and no picks?

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Maybe not as upset, but I am sure it would have caused a stir for the simple fact that those resources could have been spent on developing a young stud like John Beck...er...uh...wait. Never mind...

Burgundy Burner said:

My opinion on the past is that it is the past and the best thing to do is to learn from it. Things are on the right track and that is all I care about these days. DMc5 is so 2010 and glad that we have moved forward.

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Believe it or not, what we're doing here is trying to learn from the past. Is Shanahan too obsessed with his System or not? Dissecting what he did in the recent past and trying to figure out why might answer that.

I'm over the McNabb disaster (well, as much as I can be) but if we are looking at how Shanahan adapts schemes to players and vice-versa, I think his actions speak louder than his words. Here's hoping for better actions in '12 than we've seen in '10 and '11.

And Om, I absolve McNabb of nothing. But he's not here so I don't care about him. I do care about the Redskins and the part we played in this mess.

And while I agree it was not a given that McNabb would fail here. It should have been a given that trying to fit him into a different offense than the one in which he played for over a decade was a bad idea. That if we did that it would require patience for him to learn it and to acquire the supporting cast necessary for it to be successful, and that we really couldn't afford to be patient with a 34 year old QB.

I don't think I am practicing 20/20 hindsight. I feel I can say this now because I said the exact same thing when we made the trade. Repeatedly and emphatically (don't make me post links .) I'm just some dope at a keyboard. I should not be seeing things that the coaching staff doesn't see. When that happens it should be troubling to all of us.

So let's take it a hypothetical step further...

What if McNabb HAD in fact come here in shape, thrown himself into the playbook and, instead of becoming borderline insubordinate, become an actual leader on the field?

What if he HADN'T thrown away the Detroit game, which the Skins were well on the way to winning until his mental meltdown INT, and the team had moved to 5-3 heading into the bye, fresh off 2 road wins and gathering a little steam?

It could have gone that way, you know. That it didn't, in my mind, had as much to do with McNabb having his proverbial head up his ass with entitlement and selfishness issues as it does with Shanahan's miscalculation.

And that's really all I got. Dead horses and all that.

Comes down to the same ol' same ol' for this team....the same mantra I've been preaching for years. They need a professional quarterback. Until they get one, we'll spend our offseasons having conversations just like this.

Henry, we're all right once in a while.

Om my good man, this really isn't about McNabb. If you want to hypothetically improve McNabb's play to make the move seem smarter than it was, that's fine. I do think it's easier to blame the guy that's no longer here than the team we root for. Redskin fans have been doing that for the better part of 20 years now. I have to admit that I can't bring myself to get mad at The Player anymore when the common factor in each fiasco, from Deion Sanders to Laveraneus Coles to Adam Archuletta to Brandon Lloyd to Albert Haynesworth to Donovan McNabb, is The Team. Yes, each player may have been culpable in his own way, but at some point it's not the rest of the world that's got the problem.

Anyway, this thread is about whether or not Shanahan is overly obsessed with his system. Benching McNabb for Grossman is one thing. Like you said, that may have been McNabb being an ass and Grossman being ... there.

But the next season, Shanahan stuck with Grossman, citing The System as his reasoning. And he brought in Beck, again citing The System. And went into the season with just those two players, with a history of at best obscurity and at worst awfulness, on the roster. It's tough to blame McNabb for anything that happened this year. We seem to be willing to go with terrible players at the most important position on the team with the only rationale given is that they fit the system. That may lead observers to believe that the system is more important than the talent, despite what Shanahan might say in an interview.

Ah. We've sorted out the McNabortion and are back to the Shanahan System thing.

Woot.

So let me ask you this: is it your position that the reason we went into this year with Rex and Beck as the only options Shanahan's strict belief in/adherence to his system? If not, what other factors do you think might have played a role?

Also...do you think he went into this year with those 2 options thinking either was a long-term (meaning more than this year) solution?

Om said:

Ah. We've sorted out the McNabortion and are back to the Shanahan System thing.

Woot.

So let me ask you this: is it your position that the reason we went into this year with Rex and Beck as the only options Shanahan's strict belief in/adherence to his system? If not, what other factors do you think might have played a role?

Also...do you think he went into this year with those 2 options thinking either was a long-term (meaning more than this year) solution?

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First of all, I'm trying to work. Stop responding and just concede that I'm right, dammit!

Secondly, I honestly don't know. This season I kept telling myself Grossman was just holding the spot because there were no decent alternatives this year, and we really did need to trade down a bunch and start filling out the roster with young guys. And since it looks like that may have actually been the case I'll keep telling myself that.

I do have to admit bringing Beck in was a head-scratcher for me from the beginning. If you're going to go with a journeyman at QB, at LEAST bring in a prospect of SOME kind to back him up. Hell, even just as the third-string guy. But going in with just Grossman and Beck? I still don't get that.

Lastly, it is not my position that Shanahan is married to his system. All I'm saying is that I could see why people might think that.

Om said:

Also...do you think he went into this year with those 2 options thinking either was a long-term (meaning more than this year) solution?

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I am not sure they truly believed that Rex Grossman was a long term answer or they would have signed him to a longer deal before the shut down last year. I do believe they had more in store for John Beck be it starter or backup. At the very least it was a gamble they were willing to take, I hope. Because if they truly believed they could depend on John Beck to be a successful starter in the NFL, that scares me.

Now, I believe the rumors of Shanahan hoping to find a way to draft Christian Ponder or Andy Dalton have some validity. At the very least, I think they had hoped to draft another QB at some point in the first. I was thinking Ponder was a target at #16 and when they didn't get him Dalton was the other target. What other reason could they have to not sign another veteran this past off-season like Matt Hassleback? It's either that or the former and I just cannot believe the former was their true intention.