Has Mike Shanahan Properly Handled Albert Haynesworth?

I was with Mike Shanahan during all the offseason drama between he and Albert Haynesworth. Shanahan had to show Haynesworth that he was the boss and he would decide when, how, and where Haynesworth played.

But once it became clear that nothing was going to get through the Haynesworth, it was time to move him. Keeping him on the team just to make a point wasn’t worth it. There were suitors, but Shanahan and GM Bruce Allen were too stubborn in their asking price.

So Haynesworth stayed and, as everyone expected, things only got worse. It has now escalated into a suspension of Haynesworth for the final four games — the most a team is allowed to do — after he decided he was no longer going to have any interaction with his head coach.

"“Despite the club’s numerous attempts to persuade Albert Haynesworth to abide by the terms of his contract, he has repeatedly refused to cooperate with our coaching staff in a variety of ways over an extended period of time,” Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan said in a team-issued release.  “Among other things, he has consistently indicated to our defensive coaches that he refuses to play in our base defense or on first-down or second-down nickel situations.  He has also refused to follow the instructions of our coaches both during weekly practices and during actual games as well."

"“Yesterday, when Albert was at Redskin Park, he told our General Manager Bruce Allen that he [Haynesworth] would no longer speak with me,” Shanahan said.  “Although suspending any player is not a decision that a head coach enters into lightly, I believe the situation has reached the point where the club clearly has no alternative.”"

At first, I applauded Shanahan much in the same way I’m assuming most of you are right now. But once I got to thinking about the situation, it’s become clear to me that Shanahan has botched this every step of the way.

First of all, Haynesworth didn’t make it a secret that he planned on being a pain in the ass for the entire season because of the switch to the 3-4. He intentionally came into camp 30 pounds lighter to throw a wrench in the team’s plan to make him a nose tackle, and was defiant from the start.

As previously mentioned, teams around the league noticed the dysfunction and offered to take him. From what I recall, teams offered as high as a third-round pick.

But the Redskins said no. Shanahan was going to whip Haynesoworth into shape and make him a contributing member of the team one way or another.

Well, so much for that.

Now, instead of trading him away when they had the chance, the Skins will be forced to take the highest offer in the upcoming offseason. And if they think teams are going to offer a third-round pick now, they’re out of their collective mind.

Teams now know that the Skins cannot keep him, and they’ve seen Haynesworth acting like a petulant child. His talent will still mean teams are very interested, but the Skins have no leverage anymore.

They can’t keep him on the roster because he’s made it very clear he’d rather do anything than work with Shanahan, and they can’t suspend him for any longer than four games — and even that requires clear evidence of “conduct detrimental to the team.”

So now the Skins will likely have to take a mid-round pick and ship Haynesworth off to either Detroit, Tampa Bay, or Tennessee and watch him go with a boat-load of Danny Snyder’s money.

That’s the only option.

Well, it’s not the only option, I suppose.

Would anyone put it past Danny Boy to fire Shanahan and his staff and bring in a head coach who will run the 4-3 and try to get Haynesworth back on board? Haynesworth has shown, after all, that his problems lie with Shanahan and not the organization as a whole.

In fact, the feeling I get is that there’s a few other players — including quarterback Donovan McNabb — who are less than fond of their coach.

That course of action would still surprise me to a degree, but it certainly wouldn’t be unlike Snyder to do something no one sees coming and not give a damn what any of us think about it.