The true Silver Lining of what we are seeing

[SkinsNumberOne]

All,

It may be delusion, but I finally see the silver lining of the last couple of gut-wrenching games. I know this has been said in past seasons, but it is unfortunately true again. This team needs to lose to get restarted. The only hope that I see for a successful team comes with turnover of the coaching staff. I personally don't believe that had to include Ron (although his decisions to go with underwhelming Carolina staff in many positions is in my opinion very questionable), but the nail in his coffin is the same; he is seemingly unable (perhaps out of a sense of loyalty) to figure out how to handle Turner and Del Rio. Both are making what appear to be obvious, fixable mistakes. If Turner won't listen, with his inexperience, that is unacceptable. Del Rio is much older; I could see that being more difficult. Turner just doesn't have the pedigree to be obstinate; he has simply NOT done enough in this league, he does not have enough plaudits to argue.

Turner's unearned 3-year extension shines in my mind as the single most idiotic move Ron made, in terms of being completely unearned and unnecessary. Even the Wentz move, which many foresaw as a problem in terms of value and risk, is softened by being a one-year rental with some blowback on next year but limited effect going forward. Turner's 3-year extension and the many times we are hearing Ron say the same trite "Things have to change" at pressers... well, yes. Things do have to change.

This group has to go.

Yes, we all know, Snyder has to go, and as long as Snyder is at the helm, this team will not be a Super Bowl team. I believe that, unfortunately. I mean, sure they could somehow get lucky, but in general, an owner like Snyder won't reach the pinnacle of a competitive league like this. However, he can field better than what we've seen this year. These coaches just can't do it.

If this team looked like an 8-8 team, we would be sentenced to trudging through. If this team continues as it has for the first few weeks, they will be forced to can Rivera and staff, and unfortunately based on what we've seen over the past 3 weeks (a complete inability to look in the mirror, recognize, and even make a reasonably honest attempt to fix obvious problems) that has to happen for the team to even be entertaining to watch. I don't mind if the team loses, but the coaches really have no business in the roles they have.

 

[Boone]

As much as it hurts to acknowledge it, I truly believe this team is ****ed forever.

Blowing it up is neither unwarranted, nor the answer. That's the dilemma and it won't be solved unless Snyder is finally removed as owner. Which is to say, it won't be solved.

How many times do we have to see it blown up before we come to understand that as long as Snyder is the one making key decisions, this team will fail? He not only has no idea what to do, he doesn't possess the ability to find someone who does have an idea, nor the self-awareness and unselfishness to step away and cede control. He is the ****ing devil and we are bedeviled.

So while it sounds right to say 'the coaches need to go' or 'the front office needs to go' it will make no difference whatsover because the guy who sifts through the rubble and makes all the decisions in a rebuild is Daniel. Effing. Snyder.

And that is why we are ****ed forever.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

How many times do we have to see it blown up before we come to understand that as long as Snyder is the one making key decisions, this team will fail? He not only has no idea what to do, he doesn't the ability to find someone who does have an idea, nor the self-awareness and unselfishness to step away and cede control. He is the ****ing devil and we are bedeviled.

We definitely are in terms of winning a Super Bowl, I think I said as much. If that is the only thing that we can be at all happy with, then yes. That was my standard 10 years ago, probably.

Right now, I sit down on Sunday and still turn this team on because I would like to be entertained. This isn't entertainment anymore, either, unless you are into self-immolation (which I imagine feels similar). This team, even under Snyder, HAS been entertaining on Sundays. This coaching staff, under Rivera, unfortunately is not capable of putting an entertaining product out for anywhere close to a full season. The record speaks for itself, and what we have seen for the last 3 weeks also speaks for itself. Rivera and his guys have officially made us worse.

I know the Super Bowl is unattainable under Snyder under any reasonable expectation, but I don't think Sunday entertainment is. This coaching staff should go for that reason alone.

 

[Boone]

I hear you. I haven't hoped for a Super Bowl since the 90's. How about just be competitive? We generally haven't been. I just don't think it matters what we do as long as Dan Snyder is our owner. I'll die on that hill.

But if guys want to blow it up again, let's hear it. Who replaces the current regime?

 

[Solitary Man]

We might suck, and be the dumbest team in the league, but we have position flex!

 

[DieselPwr44]

Translation: Somewhere in this pile of crap, there’s a pony!!!!

After 30 years of digging……no, no there’s not.

 

[Henry]

Dan Snyder has hired seven head coaches over the past 22 years. This includes two coaches that have won multiple super-bowls, three coaches that have won conference championships and four coaches that have at least a 10-year career with a career winning record.

None of those coaches have had a winning record under Snyder. None of those four 'winning' coaches lasted more than four seasons here. Only one, our very own HOF and Greatest Coach in Washington Football History Joe Gibbs, has won a playoff game, and he did it once.

Blowing it all up again isn't the solution.

 

[SirClintonPortis]

Dan Snyder is going to have this team be incognito for the rest of his life, with just a peppering of 9-8 or 10-7 seasons just to revive interest.

I doubt we'll even win the division again for a decade. He wants this team in no man's land. No top 5 picks, but no deep playoff runs either.

 

[Neophyte]

Dan Snyder is going to have this team be incognito for the rest of his life, with just a peppering of 9-8 or 10-7 seasons just to revive interest.

I doubt we'll even win the division again for a decade. He wants this team in no man's land. No top 5 picks, but no deep playoff runs either.

No offense but this just doesn't make sense from any logical standpoint. While I get why he might want that right now, I see no reason he would want that forever.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

Blowing it all up again isn't the solution.

At this point, I am aiming for low hanging fruit. What they are putting out there right now is completely pointless, and the decision making has become indefensibly stupid. That wasn't always the case, even during the Cerrato years. What we are looking at right now is what happens when you hire your buddies and any concept of meritocracy getting thrown out.

Also, I dislike Snyder for reasons well beyond football (and make football rather trivial) - my desire for him being gone primarily is NOT about football. To be honest, I don't know if he has an impact on today's product. I just don't know. If I had to guess, these days what I am seeing on the field is actually a Ron product. A product of the "coach centric" philosophy that he desired and received. It is an abject failure. I enjoy blaming Snyder as much as anyone (and have), but this particular failure seems to me to rest more on Ron than Snyder. I say that reluctantly because I like Ron, but I just think he is too loyal to his friends.

 

[Henry]

I would argue that it is, in fact, always the case. With the singular exception of Joe Gibbs, every single coach under Synder has completely lost the team and become an embarrassment after a few years. This is not a new thing. Gruden went 0-5 and got fired in the middle of the season. Before him, Shanahan's final season was a 3-13 debacle and it was obvious by mid-season he was done. Before him, Jim Zorn, oh he of the Swinging Gate, was embarrassing the team en route to a 4-12 disaster before he got fired.

*Gibbs*

Before Gibbs, Spurrier, a man who may or may not have known the names of his defensive players, was aw shucks-ing his way to 4-12 season with no answers in sight.

I appreciate the optimism, however temptered, and I don't blame you for trying to find something ... ANYthing to hang on to. But what's happening now? I hate to say, it's the rule, not the exception.

 

[SirClintonPortis]

No offense but this just doesn't make sense from any logical standpoint. While I get why he might want that right now, I see no reason he would want that forever.

Given that his peers had to pull some strings to help him with getting cover, he owes them a debt for their labor.

Sex scandals also have an opening of reviving themselves many years later.

The memory of the "Redskins" must be completely fossilized before attempting to make a Super Bowl team out of the Commanders. Mavericks like Riggo, who called the rebranding a "funeral", are best left undisturbed until the expire from the world. Members of the media who have covered Snyder since the beginning of his tenure will retire or die over time, replaced with fresh faces who don't know the past. Snyder is going to wait for all of that to happen first.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

I appreciate the optimism, however temptered, and I don't blame you for trying to find something ... ANYthing to hang on to. But what's happening now? I hate to say, it's the rule, not the exception.

I hear you, and you are of course right. Those are hard facts. I also never believed Snyder when he said (various times) "OK guys really, NOOOOW I am not going to be involved" as he did many times, and was still playing with his toy and breaking it like a toddler.

This regime is the ONLY time I have EVER felt he actually left it alone (sorry; one exception: Schottenheimer). These are actually Ron's guys who have jobs. We lost people who actually did have talent in the scouting department; possibly more than most people realize. Yes, your point is valid though; even if that is right, the result is the same.

I just looked at the pro-football-reference website and reminded myself of the previous 20 years of coaches + records for this team. When you hit the "previous year" and see that, and you scroll through some of the games. Yikes.

Even with that kick to the face (and it was), I will still try to look forward and say: this team can still be better than what we have seen in the past three weeks, with different coaches. I for one would like to see it, because Turner just seems to me to be a flawed individual. I know that Snyder will always break the toy once it seems to be fun again, but at least I enjoy it more in that period when it's fun. By the way, I am still reeling from that experience on pro-football-reference. To some extent, though, you do have to have something in you which says a new coach DOES bring new possibility, even with a horrible owner who will ruin it ultimately.

 

[Neophyte]

I don't buy Snyder wants this team to be mediocre for years yet and I don't buy it for a number of reasons.

1. Snyder is greedy and winning teams make more money. Not by a little bit either.
2. Somewhere in that Napoleonic, Ted Cruz bearded body is still the kid who wore a Redskins belt buckle to school every day and that kid hurts with every loss. No matter what kind of face the adult Snyder puts on it.
3. Snyder sees himself as a winner and 20-plus years of losing is eating him (and his pride) alive.
4. He has never given 2 shits about what others - like Riggo or the local media that crucifies him regularly - think.

This team isn't losing as sort of a long-term strategy on Snyder's part. It is losing because he is the core of the organization and the core is rotten.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

I don't buy Snyder wants this team to be mediocre for years yet and I don't buy it for a number of reasons.

1. Snyder is greedy and winning teams make more money. Not by a little bit either.
2. Somewhere in that Napoleonic, Ted Cruz bearded body is still the kid who wore a Redskins belt buckle to school every day and that kid hurts with every loss. No matter what kind of face the adult Snyder puts on it.
3. Snyder sees himself as a winner and 20-plus years of losing is eating him (and his pride) alive.
4. He has never given 2 shits about what others - like Riggo or the local media that crucifies him regularly - think.

This team isn't losing as sort of a long-term strategy on Snyder's part. It is losing because he is the core of the organization and the core is rotten.

I wonder about #2 on this list, because I don't know any serious REDSKINS FAN (maybe Commanders fans) who, as owner, would have thought it made sense to post to social media a picture of them with the owner of the Cowboys. I can't figure that out, at all. I try to see things from different perspectives, maybe my feelings about Jerry and the Cowboys are somehow clouding me on this.

 

[Neophyte]

I wonder about #2 on this list, because I don't know any serious REDSKINS FAN (maybe Commanders fans) who, as owner, would have thought it made sense to post to social media a picture of them with the owner of the Cowboys. I can't figure that out, at all. I try to see things from different perspectives, maybe my feelings about Jerry and the Cowboys are somehow clouding me on this.

I see a couple of possibilities:

- pandering to Jerry in order to make him feel good ahead of league meetings
- "name dropping" with pictures because Dan thinks it makes him look cooler to be hanging with Jerry
- a warning to other NFL owners that Dan is tight with a guy who is powerful and reportedly feared in NFL circles
- maybe these two snakes really are friends

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

I see a couple of possibilities:

- pandering to Jerry in order to make him feel good ahead of league meetings
- "name dropping" with pictures because Dan thinks it makes him look cooler to be hanging with Jerry
- a warning to other NFL owners that Dan is tight with a guy who is powerful and reportedly feared in NFL circles
- maybe these two snakes really are friends

The top-two did not necessitate the social media post. I don't think Jerry cares, but I also don't know how much Dan cares about raising his profile. As you mentioned elsewhere, he has kind of given up on being anyone's favorite (or simply never cared).

The third one is possible.

The fourth one; I am of a mind that Snyder may think they are friends (maybe; mainly because we have seen that he has trouble reading people), but Jerry is not his friend.

Regardless of all of those points, though - it's truly a slap in the face to all of the fans who care about the rivalry deeply, even today. It just seems like, out of respect for the appearance of the rivalry, you wouldn't put that on social media. I don't think it fits well with this, which was also put out on social media after all:

Washington Football: Team President Jason Wright’s blunder (usatoday.com)

 

[SirClintonPortis]

I don't buy Snyder wants this team to be mediocre for years yet and I don't buy it for a number of reasons.

1. Snyder is greedy and winning teams make more money. Not by a little bit either.
2. Somewhere in that Napoleonic, Ted Cruz bearded body is still the kid who wore a Redskins belt buckle to school every day and that kid hurts with every loss. No matter what kind of face the adult Snyder puts on it.
3. Snyder sees himself as a winner and 20-plus years of losing is eating him (and his pride) alive.
4. He has never given 2 shits about what others - like Riggo or the local media that crucifies him regularly - think.

This team isn't losing as sort of a long-term strategy on Snyder's part. It is losing because he is the core of the organization and the core is rotten.

Riggo said he had a "dark heart" 13 years ago. He left it vague...but apparently what was vague has become exposed and specific in light of recent events.

Him being a fan really doesn't mean much. The "business" matters to him, but also his friends. So that's why he keeps bringing in the likes of Cerrato, RGIII, Haskins, etc at the expense of the function of the team. Right now, with his stained reputation, he's gotta take a back seat to the other owners and do their bidding as penance. And the "league" can appear to punish teams for misconduct long after the initial scandal. Those bad calls against the Saints might very well have stemmed from Bountygate.

The other owners had to pull strings to blunt the media coverage with their own media stunt. The Flores lawsuit was destined for arbitration at the start and was filed with thorough search but also extraordinary speed(only 6 days with weekends between the Belichick text and the date of filing). The clique of Mara, Rooney, Pegula, Kraft timed it to hit multiple targets; including the congressional hearing on 2/2/22 regarding the Commanders. That helped drown out coverage of the Commanders' scandal and get public to focus on something that was staged and ultimately was going to be dead ended in arbitration.

 

[SirClintonPortis]

The top-two did not necessitate the social media post. I don't think Jerry cares, but I also don't know how much Dan cares about raising his profile. As you mentioned elsewhere, he has kind of given up on being anyone's favorite (or simply never cared).

The third one is possible.

The fourth one; I am of a mind that Snyder may think they are friends (maybe; mainly because we have seen that he has trouble reading people), but Jerry is not his friend.

Regardless of all of those points, though - it's truly a slap in the face to all of the fans who care about the rivalry deeply, even today. It just seems like, out of respect for the appearance of the rivalry, you wouldn't put that on social media. I don't think it fits well with this, which was also put out on social media after all:

Washington Football: Team President Jason Wright’s blunder (usatoday.com)

Being the marketing guy he was, every move he makes has a calculated purpose.

It creates news for the fans to whine about...and maybe even trigger some to leave...things that he wants given the ongoing scandal.

He may very well also be in a vulnerable position relative to other owners...so he has to acquiesce to their requests. Heck, maybe Jerruh told Snyder Jerruh wants Cooper Rush to make Cowboys history with four wins in a row and make sure to not screw that up.

Also presents himself as a guy who gets along with people to neutral third parties.

 

[Canadian Hog]

Experienced NFL coach (Schottenheimer)

College coach with track record (Spurrier) -

Ex-Super Bowl winning coach (Shanahan) -

Hall of Famer and team legend (Gibbs) -

Unknown newcomer to head coaching (Zorn) -

Hot coordinator (Gruden) -

Well-respected leader/Minority/Coach-centric hire (Rivera) -

Snyder literally has run out of cards in his deck.

Ron Rivera is untouchable for the foreseeable future in my honest opinion. I will be very surprised if Snyder even considers going there, because there is no new type of move he can make that can manipulate this fanbase into believing we are on the right track. Snyder has made a living in Washington of selling false hope and manipulating. Master manipulators know when to pounce and I am not so certain Snyder even believes that given all we have gone through with the name change, on field product, etc, that we are ready or open to buy what he is selling next. Staying with a well-respected guy league-wide like Rivera in the short term for the next couple seasons is likely the safest move that an owner skating on thin ice can do in my honest opinion. All that being said, will Snyder sit Rivera down and tell him both coordinators need to change for sake of making a change? In my mind, that will absolutely be on the table if we keep sinking all season long.