When the Washington Redskins first hired Mike Shanahan to be their next coach, many — including myself — applauded the move as a step in the right direction. I was never the biggest Shanahan fan, but he seemed like the right guy to rebuild a once-proud franchise from the ground up.
And then he actually got to Washington.
The first mistake was the hiring of his coordinators. The first thing a head coach usually does is go out and find his guys to run the offense and the defense. Apparently, Shanahan thought it would be a good idea to hire his son as the offensive coordinator.
There’s several problems with that, the most prevalent being the fact that Mike is Kyle’s superior. Mike is there to keep Kyle in line and make sure the offense stays within the parameters of the entire team’s gameplan. Therefore, Mike must be able to shoot down some of Kyle’s ideas and keep him in check.
Some would say the dynamic was already there since they’re father and son and that’s what their whole life has been. I suppose that’s true to a point, but Mike also has a desire to see his son succeed. How can Mike be the guy who puts a stop to his son’s growth?
If he calls him out one week or fire’s him as he’s deserved several times throughout the season, he’s sabotaging his own son, and he would never do it. No father would.
So from the start the dynamic is different than it would be had he hired anyone else. He doesn’t have a stake in a guy like Mike Martz (first OC to come to mind) and whether or not he succeeds. In Kyle, the motivation is obvious.
Then there’s the defense. No, he didn’t hire his brother to run it, but the choice was almost as bad by picking Jim Haslett and then switching to the 3-4.
In 2009, they had a top 10 defense will playing the 4-3. All of their personnel was built to run the 4-3. The biggest need for a 3-4 (the nose tackle), wasn’t on the roster. They thought it was Albert Haynesworth, but that clearly was not the case.
So they went from the 10th-ranked defense in ’09 running the 4-3, and have plummeted to the bottom of the barrel and are currently ranked dead last in defense.
To say the switch was a mistake would be an understatement. Coming in, that’s all Shanahan had to work with. But instead of attempting to add some talent to it and revamp that side of the ball, he goes ahead and switches the whole damn thing.
And for what? The defense certainly hasn’t improved. In fact, it can’t get much worse.
Then there’s Haynesworth, which has been re-hashed to death. Quick recap: Haynesworth hates Shanahan from day one, hates 3-4, wants traded, Shanahan decides to play tough man and keeps Haynesworth who finally talks his way into a suspension, and now the Skins will have to take the highest offer for Haynesworth rather than just trading him.
Once again, good job Mikey.
Then there’s the fiasco with Donovan McNabb. After essentially calling him fat and stupid over the course of about three weeks, McNabb and the team came to an agreement on a contract extension. I don’t believe for one minute that, had the Shanahans been truthful with McNabb, he would have still signed the deal.
He’s not their guy. They’ve made that clear. The infatuation with Rex Grossman is enough to make your head pop off.
But what they have now is McNabb’s rights. Instead of letting him walk in free agency, that can ship him off to the highest bidder. And you can bet they won’t care what the destination is like Andy Reid did.
It looks to me like they duped McNabb and his agent by making some sort of half-hearted commitment to him for next season and have now changed their minds without any real reason.
McNabb hasn’t had a great year, but given the weapons he has, he should probably wind up in the Redskins’ Ring of Honor for winning them five games. Seriously, even the biggest McNabb detractors can’t tell me with a straight face that this team has any more than two wins with Grossman under center — or anyone else for that matter.
Coming off a game in which he threw two touchdowns, no interceptions, and gave the team a chance to tie the game up with nothing more than an extra point (which they could not pull off), there was no reason to bench him. Benching him after the game against the Buccaneers shows that the Shanahans were just looking for an excuse to sit McNabb and began to realize he wasn’t about to give them one.
So he made one up.
They have to see what they have in Grossman. They have to see what they have in Grossman? Give Lovie Smith a call, he’ll tell you what they have in Grossman. They have Jake Delhomme 2.0.
That’s certainly a better option than McNabb.
But it’s coming out that Rex is Kyle’s guy. Big surprise there, Mike gives Kyle what he wants. Kyle wanted to be the OC, and Mike gave it to him even though he’s proven he’s woefully unqualified. From where I sit, Kyle seems like that snot-nosed little brat who wanted a red porsche, got blue, and is now throwing an ungodly fit threaten to drive a Ford Taurus like anyone gives a damn.
Are you picking up the analogy? I’m not sure if it’s making sense. All I know is re-hashing the stupidity of the Shanahan family is making my head hurt.
In conclusion, Mike = bad, Kyle = pissy little ingrate, McNabb = by far best option on the team, Grossman = barely passable backup quarterback.
Questions? Direct them to the Shanahans, because I have not a clue as to what could be going through their heads as they run the Redskins franchise into the ground.