Who Can Lead This Team?

[dgack]

Originally Posted by fanarchist

Wikipedia is really not most reliable source for information. I saw an excerpt from Wikipedia that claimed Dan Snyder was gay for dinosaurs. It's funny, but highly doubtful in the fact catagory.

I understand what you're trying to say here, and in many cases you're correct (I wouldn't rely on their entry on chemistry experiments) but in this case Wikipedia is a reliable source because the disagreement was whether anyone else thinks of Rex Grossman as a "gunslinger". The fact that someone went to the trouble of editing Grossman's entry to include references to this would seem to indicate that there are people who feel this is true.

Further, the article itself was located as a result of typing "Rex Grossman gu.." into Google, where "Rex Grossman gunslinger" is the #3 search term (behind "Rex Grossman guarantee", "Rex Grossman guarantee nfc east" and just after "Rex Grossman gut").

I realize that they're in the past, but the McNabb and Haynesworth debacles didn't really instill a solid foundation for trust. Larry Johnson, Joey Galloway. I'm not going to just accept these shaky decisions based on a lulling adherence to the Shanahan's past achievements. I will question.

Well, I don't disagree with disliking many of those moves, but hindsight is 20/20. Signing McNabb was a risky move but one that a great deal of pundits thought would make us instant contenders. Nobody realized how far McNabb had fallen physically and the bigger issue probably turned out to be his attitude.

I'm one of those guys who thinks that the real issue with McNabb was that he refused to take direction from coaches. I read an an article that hinted that he'd always been this way in Philly, but Reid covered for him and for the most part, he used his physical attributes to brute force his way through bad decisions. But because he wouldn't take any coaching, and would just wave off instruction as "beneath him", be started to become less and less effective as he got older. What can you say, the guy was really good at saying the right things, and he was just too old to help us.

As for Haynesworth, I really don't understand what anyone can hang on Shanahan there. He didn't sign the guy. He made his intentions to switch to a 3-4 clear (and it's paying dividends now, so he seems validated) and they gave Fatal Bert plenty of opportunities, but Shanahan refused to kowtow to a spoiled player, and I think that was absolutely the right move. The inmates ran the asylum for far too long, and again, the discipline and cohesiveness we're seeing with this year's squad is proof that it was the right move.

LJ and Galloway, I mean, whatever, you bring in warm bodies for camp, if you think they can help you give them a shot. Hell, Gibbs brought in McCardell when he was 37. Lots of coaches bring in veteran players for a variety of reasons; they're cheap, they're experienced, they provide leadership and stabilize a team, and they're expendable if a young guy starts to shows promise and overtakes them.

I really can't say anything definitive about Davis being a non-factor last night except that I noticed it too and assumed he was just well covered the defense when he was in. It's safe to say teams know who he is now and he won't be able to get open quite so easily. Cooley has a lot of experience against Dallas so it would make sense to try and work him in often, but I agree with you that he's starting to look like he's really slowing down.