No. 1 ‒ Nick Saban is the premier name in BCS coaching. The BCS is as close as you can get to the NFL without actually being a pro team ‒ officially anyway. Mr. Snyder loves big names. He goes for it every time. Snyder needs a home run to sell season tickets and sponsorships in 2014. It's not strategic. It's business.
No. 2 ‒ Nick Saban is defense oriented. The Redskins need a defense-oriented thinker to reconstruct a unit bound to be blown up. Special teams is a depth talent issue that can be fixed by Draft picks, free agents ‒ and an experienced Teams coach. The defense has nice pieces, but not enough to be a consistent Top-5 unit. Jim Haslett takes the hit here. I give him credit for making the most from talent at hand, but he played some role in selecting that talent.
Thirteen defensive players will be 2014 unrestricted free agents. There is no better time to hire a fresh cook to buy the defensive groceries.
No. 3 ‒ Nick Saban is not Art Briles, Part 1. The last thing that Snyder, the Redskins or Robert Griffin need is to fight the perception that the player picked his coach. This isn't golf. It's football. It's never good when the inmate runs the asylum.
No. 4 ‒ Nick Saban is not Art Briles, Part 2. Saban coaches a pro-style offense and defense. The NFL is on to Briles' option spread offense. The league incorporates option concepts as a change of pace. Even the Redskins moved away from read option as a major feature of its offense. That's not likely to change, unless Mr. Snyder hires Art Briles.
No. 5 ‒ Pete Carroll's second bite at the NFL apple makes it safe to consider a college coach with NFL experience. Hog Heaven is no fan of hiring college head coaches to the same level in the pros. (Fathers, tell your sons to start their NFL coaching career early.) College football and professional football are the same sport. They are not the same game. But we are analytics, too. We cannot ignore the evidence of the Harbaugh Brothers. We want to see more from Chip Kelly and Greg Schiano before declaring success for them.
Nothing else that happens would shock Redskins fans more than eruptions of the past three weeks. Please don't give me the line that Alabama locked Saban to a long-term contract. All those deals have out-clauses in teeny-weeny fine print. If Snyder extends his hand, Saban will shake it.
Discuss.
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