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Cake or Death? - Solution

Goaldeje

The Legend
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No one likes a complainer. We all know them. Everyone needs to vent when they are frustrated, but eventually if you aren't offering solutions to the problems, you're just bitching. And no one likes that.

I vented on the BGO forums yesterday. If I offended anyone, I apologize. I am still deeply frustrated by the situation with my beloved football team right now, and now I am ready to offer a solution. It's a big, risky move that Snyder would have to make, but I know it would work.

Allow me to set the stage first. I like Jay Gruden. He seems like a nice guy, and his success at previous stops indicate he knows how to run an NFL offense well. What he needs help with is management. He is not managing well. At all. To be fair to Gruden, the Redskins organization has been dysfunctional since Snyder purchased it, and asking Gruden to be successful managing a dysfunctional organization is at best a very difficult task.

Henry got me thinking yesterday. He posted something about the organization being the one constant as we have brought in players and coaches that have failed to various degrees in their time in DC. We end up blaming the Spurriers, Shanahans, Arringtons, Haynesworths, Zorns, and so on; but the organization brings in guys that are successful elsewhere and they fail here. Certainly, the players and coaches deserve a LARGE portion of the blame for their failures. But at some point, we have to look at the organization and conclude that the Redskins do not provide an atmosphere conducive to success. The list of players that have been successful elsewhere, in college or pros, that have come here and failed is long. And every single coach that had success in college or pros elsewhere has come here and failed.

Except one.

One man stands out as having been able to navigate the atmosphere in Redskins Park successfully and start to build something. Joe Gibbs dragged a team helmed by an aging, immobile, noodle armed Mark Brunell to the playoffs twice. Listen to the stories players tell about Gibbs. About how much they adore him 25 years after playing for him. Gibbs knows how to lead.

He won't coach, we all know that. Gibbs at this point in his life probably is not physically capable of putting in the 100 hours a week needed to coach an NFL team. But he can absolutely lead. If I am Daniel Snyder, as soon as the season is over I fly to wherever Gibbs is and beg him for whatever he can give me. Team President? Done. General Manager? Great! Part time consultant who delegates, but has a hand in leadership and people decisions? We'll take it! Any position where Gibbs can have influence over the employees at Redskins Park would a VAST improvement over what we have now.

Joe Gibbs understands people. He knows how to lead. He could evaluate Gruden and Allen, and I for one would trust whatever he wanted to do with them. Allen could be relegated to salary cap wizard, or he could be fired for mishandling everything he has mishandled. I trust Gibbs. If Gibbs thinks he can work with Gruden and mold him into a more effective (or, more apropos, effective at all) leader of men, great. If he thinks Gruden has go, OK. I trust Gibbs.

I realize this will probably never happen. There are too many obstacles to overcome, I just don't see it happening. But I can dream, can't I. From the outside looking in, it sure looks to me like there is an enormous leadership vacuum in Ashburn. I have a friend who works for a company that is dysfunctional. The employees feel un-appreciated, which causes them to become demotivated, which just increases the pressure from the top, which results in more feelings of unappreciation, and so on. It's a sad, sad cycle. My friend tells me everyone hates going in to work every day, they all worry about their job security and the future of the business, and it all stems from a toxic environment, because there is a lack of leadership. Oh sure, there is a CEO in place, but no one respects him or values him because he doesn't provide guidance or leadership, he just makes demands.

From the outside looking in, this sounds an awful lot like what we have at Redskins Park, and what we have had for 15 years. Frankly, until we address that, we're not going to have any improvement. For years, we have been clamoring for Snyder to take a step back from the team and not get involved. I'm asking now for the opposite. Get involved Dan. Be a leader. Turn this thing around. And if you can't do it, go hire the guy who is the best leader I have ever seen, leading through respect and empathy. Bring back Joe Gibbs, in whatever role he would accept.​

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Why on earth would Gibbs want the position? I'm on board with what you said but I don't see how or why he would want the job. The most frustrating thing for me is us fans have to endure another month of football with eyes on next season already. Then us fans and the media alike all know what the team needs to improve and on draft day? WTF? Who is that guy? What about all the guys they just passed over to sign him. It's not all bad we are finding some keepers but we still waste too many high picks on projects...and for the love of god can we please quit signing injured and or aging DB's to the roster?
 
Throw money at him. Tell him he has complete control over football decision and his job is to build a winning culture. If he can give us 20 hours a week, fantastic. It's better than what we have now.
 
In regards to Gibbs, we can't keep living in the past.

Joe's 74 yrs old and he has given this franchise more than enough...don't you think?

We need young blood in the front office. A guy that just "wants it" and has that drive like Joe used to have,all those years ago.

If Joe still has contacts and connections, I'm sure he'd help us identify that individual, but as far as coming in and doing it himself?

No. Let the man rest.
 
We are adift without leadership. Gibbs can easily provide guidance without getting overly involved in day to day operations if he chooses. It's at least worth a shot in my opinion.
 
If I were Snyder, I would send Bruce Allen packing. The guy may have PR skills, but his football GM experience is unimpressive. I'd also press Gruden to get rid of Haslett. Truth is, I suspect that Gruden's hire was contingent on keeping Haslett through his current contract. There's no other explanation why he continues to be our DC.

I agree with DP. Gibbs is done. And the reason I have almost no hope for this franchise is that Dan Snyder has shown himself genetically incapable of finding and hiring outstanding leaders. Every one of Snyder's coaching hires falls into one of two categories, they're either yes men and sycophants, inexperienced coaches who'll accept almost any circumstances to get their first NFL gig, or they are strong, domineering coaches with records of success. The inexperienced coaches (Spurrier and Zorn) were malleable and easily intimidated just the way Snyder likes it - the only problem being, they couldn't coach and were in way over their head. The strong leaders he has hired (Shottenheimer, Shanahan) did what leaders should do, they made their own decisions. Snyder fired them both. I don't think it's clear yet which category Gruden falls into, but he'd better be the next Joe Gibbs, because he's the only hire that's been both capable and had enough cache to keep Snyder out of the mix.

Gibbs has truly been the only successful head coach in Snyder's tenure, and let's face of it, hiring him was the equivalent of finding a gold bar at Fort Knox. Now, there is no knight in shining armor to ride in and save us all from the stumbling, bumbling ineptitude of Dan Snyder. Not only does Snyder have no clue what kind of man he needs to put together a winning franchise, that kind of man would never want to work for him. Say what you want, but Joe Gibbs is a smart man. He quickly figured out who he was working for. He gave it the old college try for the fan's sake, but a man of his caliber and character doesn't hitch his horse to a guy like Snyder for long. And even if by some incredible stroke of good luck, Snyder were able to find a capable GM to run this franchise, is he really capable of letting that guy run the franchise without interference or pressure? History says no.
 
Yeah. That's where I am. What I'm proposing is a Hail Mary for sure, but I'm not sure what other options we have for sustained success. A new young coordinator looking to make his name is a great idea in theory. But there is something wrong at Redskins Park. I'm assuming at this point it's Snyder but don't know for sure. But that something precludes greatness and leadership. We need leadership and until we get it, we're going nowhere.
 
The Washington Redskins organization is in the position that it is because it has a talent evaluation problem.

Not in the locker room, not in the coaches offices, not in the front office, but in the board room.

Daniel Snyder is a poor evaluator of talent and the results trickle down through every level. And I have no idea how that problem can ever be rectified.

We need the next Gibbs but have no mechanism to find him other than dumb luck.
 
Yep. Exactly Chris. Every Redskins Press Release comes with an 'About the Redskins' snippet at the bottom that lists key history and achievements of the franchise. None of them have occurred during the modern era. There's a reason for that.
 
I mentioned this in a previous post in another thread, but I truly believe that Snyder has not been humbled and embarrassed enough as an owner yet to truly want honest, real, and long-term change.

Look at his patterns...

a. Let's bring in a celebrated college coach in Spurrier to replace Schottenheimer, who actually had the team pushing in the right direction.
b. Following a major low in the Spurrier era, with the fans really down on the franchise, let's reach back to the past and turn to arguably the most revered and respected individual in the history of the Redskins franchise, Joe Gibbs.
c. Enter Jim Zorn and his swinging gate comedy act. Where to next? Ah yes, a two time winning Super Bowl coach in Mike Shanahan. That oughta appease the fans for a while.
d. On the front office side of things, fans clamoured for a true "GM", not Vinny. Easy solution for Dan - let's reach back in the proud history of the organization and hire the son of George Allen. Fans will be happy that Vinny's out and an actual "football guy" is in place...interestingly enough, Allen's performance in Washington has proven he's nothing more than a guy who can put on a good face and shake a few hands in the parking lot.

We haven't even begun to scratch the surface, as there have been an enormous amount of player personnel moves that follow the same pattern.

What pattern is that? Window dressing.

Snyder's always been about window dressing. As long as he finds a way to spark hope and can prevent a massive revolt from the fanbase, he wins.

His moves have always been shortsighted...quick fixes so to speak without true intentions of changing for the better long-term.

Sadly, it has to get a LOT worse than it's been before he becomes truly committed to permanent change as an owner. At the end of the day, he's still the same prick he's always been. He's simply figured out a few strategies to make fans accept him a bit more by painting a false picture of himself.

Dan Snyder, master manipulator.
 

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