Some of the recent pieces in the Washington Post have intimated that media and fans would be mollified somewhat in regards to the situation at quarterback if the coach would simply come clean that the answer all along has been to straddle 2011 with the Grossman/Beck hydra and draft a replacement in 2012 to make up for the spectactular failure of Donovan McNabb to become a solid starting qb here in 2010-2012.
Shanahan isn’t going to do that. No organization does that. Not even when it is obvious that the reason the team is in the position it finds itself is largely of its own making.
Not only did McNabb not provide that bridge to the future with the chance in Shanahan’s mind to win right away, but the failure cost the team two draft picks it could ill afford to lose after all the blown choices during the Cerrato years.
Mike and Kyle didn’t script this for Rex Grossman. The affirmation Shanahan gave Grossman during the preseason was no doubt a hope that enough support would cause Rex to have that solid bridge season to 2012 when the original mistake could be rectified with a minimum of further damage to the reputation of the coach and GM.
Again, I have been around long enough to know that organizations do not admit in public that they have made mistakes on personnel. Those types of admissions don’t occur until the coach or GM is further down the road in another position with another team or in retirement.
But what is ironic is that the real mistake that writers such as Jason Reid and Mike Wise should be more interested in discussing is the original decision to view a 5-11 team that boasted the oldest roster in the NFL with a number of declining veteran players and then make a trade to deal high draft picks to a division rival for a player that the team’s own offensive coordinator (son Kyle) didn’t think was suited to the system being installed.
Recognition of the nature of the 'original’ mistake would not lead to any greater admissions by the team of course, but it would frame what perhaps are some larger issues at play.
One is you have a 60 year old coach who showed by the McNabb move that he is impatient and didn’t really want to engage in team-building the way we have seen it done by Martin Mayhew in Detroit after the Matt Millen fiasco.
The second is that the coach here in Washington hired his own GM and so is accountable to no one in the organization save the owner, who with wilting criticism for past meddling, is in a position now to just watch and wait and see what happens.
In Detroit, the cinderellas now at 6-2, the opposite happened. A team that wasted high draft picks on players under Matt Millen, found a way to extract #1, #3 and #6 picks from the Dallas Cowboys for Roy Williams.
The GM actually hired the head coach and is responsible (with input) for making the personnel decisions. Older players have been let go in free agency or released and the accent has been on developing younger players rather than signing 30 year olds to fill in where depth has been lacking.
Yes, the real 'mistake’ here is not the move for McNabb itself but the motivations behind it and the way in which the decision was made within the organization.
Was Detroit 'lucky’ to get the #1 pick the year a franchise quarterback in Matthew Stafford was available?
Perhaps so.
But based upon what I have seen from the ex-Redskin Mayhew at the helm the idea of trading top draft choices for a Donovan McNabb, Jay Cutler or Carson Palmer as other desperate teams have done is not in the playbook.
Shanahan isn’t going to do that. No organization does that. Not even when it is obvious that the reason the team is in the position it finds itself is largely of its own making.
Not only did McNabb not provide that bridge to the future with the chance in Shanahan’s mind to win right away, but the failure cost the team two draft picks it could ill afford to lose after all the blown choices during the Cerrato years.
Mike and Kyle didn’t script this for Rex Grossman. The affirmation Shanahan gave Grossman during the preseason was no doubt a hope that enough support would cause Rex to have that solid bridge season to 2012 when the original mistake could be rectified with a minimum of further damage to the reputation of the coach and GM.
Again, I have been around long enough to know that organizations do not admit in public that they have made mistakes on personnel. Those types of admissions don’t occur until the coach or GM is further down the road in another position with another team or in retirement.
But what is ironic is that the real mistake that writers such as Jason Reid and Mike Wise should be more interested in discussing is the original decision to view a 5-11 team that boasted the oldest roster in the NFL with a number of declining veteran players and then make a trade to deal high draft picks to a division rival for a player that the team’s own offensive coordinator (son Kyle) didn’t think was suited to the system being installed.
Recognition of the nature of the 'original’ mistake would not lead to any greater admissions by the team of course, but it would frame what perhaps are some larger issues at play.
One is you have a 60 year old coach who showed by the McNabb move that he is impatient and didn’t really want to engage in team-building the way we have seen it done by Martin Mayhew in Detroit after the Matt Millen fiasco.
The second is that the coach here in Washington hired his own GM and so is accountable to no one in the organization save the owner, who with wilting criticism for past meddling, is in a position now to just watch and wait and see what happens.
In Detroit, the cinderellas now at 6-2, the opposite happened. A team that wasted high draft picks on players under Matt Millen, found a way to extract #1, #3 and #6 picks from the Dallas Cowboys for Roy Williams.
The GM actually hired the head coach and is responsible (with input) for making the personnel decisions. Older players have been let go in free agency or released and the accent has been on developing younger players rather than signing 30 year olds to fill in where depth has been lacking.
Yes, the real 'mistake’ here is not the move for McNabb itself but the motivations behind it and the way in which the decision was made within the organization.
Was Detroit 'lucky’ to get the #1 pick the year a franchise quarterback in Matthew Stafford was available?
Perhaps so.
But based upon what I have seen from the ex-Redskin Mayhew at the helm the idea of trading top draft choices for a Donovan McNabb, Jay Cutler or Carson Palmer as other desperate teams have done is not in the playbook.