You would think that the last interview before Dan Snyder offered the Washington Redskins head-coaching job to Mike Shanahan went something like this:
“Mike, I am prepared to make you a rich man and bigger in Washington than Obama. I just need you to agree to my one condition. You can run my team completely hands-off by me provided you try my methods one last time. This team is playoff-ready. Vinny Cerrato told me so. With one last push, I just know I will hoist the Lombardi Trophy at Super Bowl 45. If it doesn’t work, then you have a free hand to do it your way. Otherwise, you don’t get the job.”
That, my friend, is the only way I can think of to explain the debacle of 2010 that followed the catastrophe of 2009.
By every source I can find, Snyder was hands-off last season. Yet, Shanahan’s every major decision was straight out of Snyder’s playbook, with similar results.
So it is gratifying to see how well the Redskins managed the 2011 Draft. Redskins Hog Heaven graded the effort an “A” for their player choices.
How about a Draft grade for the front office? They too deserve an “A.”
They are free for the most part of guaranteed salaries and up-front bonuses that tied players to the team beyond their performance value. Sunk costs sink teams.
They eschewed the glamour picks for value players you’ve never heard of that can fill immediate holes and have potential to build depth. Some of those players (Jarvis Jenkins, Dejon Gomes) may have been a tad of a reach, but none so far out to make you say “WHAT.”
They bypassed a quarterback class that looked very ordinary.
Every player drafted was a senior. Most were three-year starters who distinguished themselves as team leaders in some fashion. I think this is big.
In his several critiques of Snyder, former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson accused the Redskins owner of failing to understand that “a great 53-man roster is what wins championships, not five or six high-priced stars.” Johnson on other occasions said the Redskins have great scouts, “but no one listens to them.” (Sadly, no working journalist pursued that angle.)
Outside looking in, it appears the front office listened to their talent evaluators.
These are building block moves. There is no guarantee on how any of these guys perform, but you get the sense that we have a corps of players who, with other young talent now on the team, can be perennial contenders starting in 2012.
If that sounds too far out, consider that win now strategies served to push winning further away. Doing the right things now will bring a title that much sooner.
I think Shanahan and GM Bruce Allen got it right this time. At least, I hope they did.
Point after: Moving up and down in the Draft is normally GM work. So the atta’ boy may go more to Allen than to Shanahan. Scott Campbell is the Redskins director of player personnel. If this Draft class pans out, he gets a large share of the credit with a nod to Shanahan and Allen for listening. Morocco Brown is the director of pro player personnel. Free agents are his area. May he be as astute as Shanahan, Allen and Campbell appear to have been.
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