Mike Shanahan

[skinsfaninok]

2 years ago the Redskins were coming off of a 4-12 record and yet another firing of a HC, Jim Zorn of course. The skins hired a new GM in Bruce Allen and at that point most of us finally thought Dan had seen the light and decided to let true football minds take over. Bruce wasted little time and hired former 2 time super bowl winning head coach Mike Shanahan to take over this disaster of an organization. Mike preached patience and promised to work his hardest to get this team relevant again, well it's been 2 seasons and with a horrific QB situation and his son Kyle running the offense the redskins win total doesn't show any progress.. (11 wins in 2 seasons) The team is younger and more hungry but we still don't have a "Face of the franchise" In Washington, will we in April? Perhaps but at this point its mainly an unknown team for most folks around the country. 2012 is a make or break year for Mike IMO, another 5 win season should result in a new head coach again is DC, I'm a fan of his and I really believe we are getting closer and closer but the time to win is closing in on him. Agree? Again I know some here have wanted Kyle to go but he isn't leaving unless Mike goes, I think this team will draft it's QB and start getting that win column up next year. Here's a good read on Mike from NFL.Com

HTTR!


"We needed to get depth at all positions," Shanahan emphasized, over the phone from his office recently. "We had no depth at all. And now, with a good draft and run in free agency, we'll be right in the thick of things next year. I really believe that. I told the owner when he hired me, 'This is not gonna happen overnight. You hire me for five years, you're gonna have to give us that time.' We're getting there."


"I feel very good, especially going into next year with what we'll have back, especially having gone through some adversity," Shanahan said. "We're gonna keep building on it the right way. We're not gonna take guys just to get guys. Only one team is happy at the end of the year, and to be that team you have to build the organization the right way. To do that, you make sure you limit mistakes, especially with the cap, and bring in the right guys."


"We want to try to be able to dominate teams," Shanahan said. "I thought with the Giants game, we played very well, did what we had to do in the second half, and took it to them physically. What we have to do now is do it week-in and week-out. Sometimes, when you have a young team, you have to grow. We have to learn how to win, and we've been close playing against some very talented football teams."


NFL.com news: Shanahan practices patience as Redskins rebuilding continues

[SmootSmack]

Not to be rude, but what exactly is the point of this thread? Are you asking if we agree that next season is win or go home for Shanny and son?

[SirClintonPortis]

Having Shanahan sure as hell beats bug-eyes neglecting depth and signing every big FA that becomes available. At least Shanahan recognizes some of the mistakes he made.

[GTripp0012]

I've moved off my opinion that the Redskins should fire Mike Shanahan immediately because I'm not seeing one guy in the 2012 draft at the QB position that we need to get and start over offensively in order to justify our existence. At least not where we will pick.

One more year for Shanahan isn't entirely more thrilling than the idea of bringing back Jim Zorn for another year in 2010. And to me, I'm just not sure what the Redskins expectations will be in 2012 with Mike Shanahan.

I mean to put it into context, anything less than a NFC East title will be a disappointing result after the events of the last two years. Even a 9-7 second place finish would be a "we waited three years for THAT?!" kind of deal. But predicting something beyond that would be totally unrealistic.

Mike Shanahan hasn't built the Redskins into anything except the same old Redskins. We would all be totally thrilled with a second place finish in a weak division next year, but then what? Would we admit that the standards that got Norv Turner, Marty Schottenhemier, and Jim Zorn fired have lowered to the point where keeping Shanahan is acceptable.

Dan Snyder has to decide where the Redskins are as an organization. If we're just striving to be accepted as a pro organization, I think Mike Shanahan can get us there. If we're trying to be a great organization that can compete to win the super bowl, I think we would have seen something better in the last two years to suggest that was obtainable.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by SirClintonPortis

Having Shanahan sure as hell beats bug-eyes neglecting depth and signing every big FA that becomes available. At least Shanahan recognizes some of the mistakes he made.

That's a pretty big difference.

Both Cerrato and Shanahan have plenty of hubris, though I suppose that goes with the territory of being a high ranking sports executive. And neither is exceptionally good at their job. But Shanahan's ability to admit he might sometimes screw up makes him a more viable option to run an organization than Cerrato ever was.

I would say if Mike really truly fancies himself as the president of an organization like Holmgren, he shouldn't also be on the sideline. I think Mike Shanahan knows a lot more about football than I or anyone else here does. But that doesn't always show up in the product. I think he's in over his head.

[Chico23231]

10+ losses next year....booom, outta here.

His future relies on the his QB choice...if we see improvement, Shanny becomes a great survivor story.

Shanny's comments recently about turnaround being slower than he thought, reaffirms the reality this organization was run so damn bad into the ground, NO ONE would have succeeded. Limited talent, lack of depth is a mutherf*cker, even the best coaching couldnt have waivered such a bottomless pit of what the Skins had become. talent talent talent

[FRPLG]

I think the success rate of dual HC/GM is so low in this league I truly wonder why any owner even tries it. Shanny's issue isn't football. Its football players...as in he hasn't shown the ability to build a decent team of them.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Chico23231

His future relies on the his QB choice...if we see improvement, Shanny becomes a great survivor story.

Absolutely. It would be a heck of a save job by a great coach if he managed to win in Washington.

Shanny's comments recently about turnaround being slower than he thought, reaffirms the reality this organization was run so damn bad into the ground, NO ONE would have succeeded. Limited talent, lack of depth is a mutherf*cker, even the best coaching couldnt have waivered such a bottomless pit of what the Skins had become. talent talent talent

Talent wasn't great when he took over, but he also opted not to bring back multiple pro bowlers and young developmental players. No one is saying that Cerrato left him a team that anyone could have won with but

1) I think a lot of coaches could have won with the 2010 team. The 2010 team was littered with 28-31 year old veterans who either had been pro bowlers in the past or are pro bowlers now: Andre Carter, Carlos Rogers, Clinton Portis, Mike Sellers, London Fletcher, Brian Orakpo, Albert Haynesworth, DeAngelo Hall, Santana Moss, Chris Cooley. Shanahan INHERETED every one of those players, then added McNabb and Jammal Brown, more pro bowlers.

It's true that not all of those pieces helped positively last year, but it kind of destroys the argument that the team didn't have any talent. I don't think it had much YOUNG talent, but it was definitely a win-now roster. If that's is limited talent, then I hate to tell you, but some team is going to win the super bowl this year with limited talent.

I mean, it's not like Bill Belichick was available, but he probably wins 9 or 10 games with that team easily. And yeah, that doesn't make the future any more certain.

2) Thankfully, Shanahan was able to get five pro bowlers off the roster without replacing them for the 2011 season (well, I guess he replaced Carter with Kerrigan). So yeah, the 2011 team didn't have much talent, and all of it's young talent was pretty much rookies. We weren't going to win this year with Vince Lombardi coaching this team.

But the reason the roster is talentless is because Mike Shanahan makes the personnel decisions. Now I don't think the Redskins will ever be as talentless as they were this season at any point in the next ten years. This year was the aberration. But we saw in 2010 that simply having a talented roster that should be able to win 9 or 10 games doesn't mean that it won't underachieve.

[MTK]

I'm not seeing where the 2010 team was ready to win much of anything. A lot of those guys were either over the hill (Portis) or not a good scheme fit (Carter), or were just flat out bums (Haynesworth). That was a team that went 4-12 in 2009 too.

[skinsfaninok]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Not to be rude, but what exactly is the point of this thread? Are you asking if we agree that next season is win or go home for Shanny and son?

LOL Sorry just wanted a Shanny thread tired of him being discussed in all the other ones, might as well have just one

[MTK]

In the end to even discuss firing the guy now is ridiculous. Going in a different direction at this point would only guarantee the franchise will stay stuck in the mid spinning it's wheels.

That said I think the pressure will be on in 2012 to show some serious improvement in the 'W' column. 9-10 wins at least.

[skinsfaninok]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

I've moved off my opinion that the Redskins should fire Mike Shanahan immediately because I'm not seeing one guy in the 2012 draft at the QB position that we need to get and start over offensively in order to justify our existence. At least not where we will pick.

One more year for Shanahan isn't entirely more thrilling than the idea of bringing back Jim Zorn for another year in 2010. And to me, I'm just not sure what the Redskins expectations will be in 2012 with Mike Shanahan.

I mean to put it into context, anything less than a NFC East title will be a disappointing result after the events of the last two years. Even a 9-7 second place finish would be a "we waited three years for THAT?!" kind of deal. But predicting something beyond that would be totally unrealistic.

Mike Shanahan hasn't built the Redskins into anything except the same old Redskins. We would all be totally thrilled with a second place finish in a weak division next year, but then what? Would we admit that the standards that got Norv Turner, Marty Schottenhemier, and Jim Zorn fired have lowered to the point where keeping Shanahan is acceptable.

Dan Snyder has to decide where the Redskins are as an organization. If we're just striving to be accepted as a pro organization, I think Mike Shanahan can get us there. If we're trying to be a great organization that can compete to win the super bowl, I think we would have seen something better in the last two years to suggest that was obtainable.

I think it's unfair to say he hasn't built much, our team is younger and more competitive but I will say Mike has ****ed up with our QB situation, he looks like a complete clown after the Mcnabb-Rex-Beck experience.. My big problem with Mike has been his overall record, in 2 full seasons Jim Zorn of all people will have had a better record than shanny, thats bad and those teams weren't any good either so there is no real excuse for mike on that one. I say give him one more full season rememeber he was the one that "sold" us alll on John Beck and that dude blows, anything less than 8 wins and he should be fired IMO.

[skinsfaninok]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

In the end to even discuss firing the guy now is ridiculous. Going in a different direction at this point would only guarantee the franchise will stay stuck in the mid spinning it's wheels.

That said I think the pressure will be on in 2012 to show some serious improvement in the 'W' column. 9-10 wins at least.

I think 8 because our QB may be a rookie but still anything less and he's done

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

I'm not seeing where the 2010 team was ready to win much of anything. A lot of those guys were either over the hill (Portis) or not a good scheme fit (Carter), or were just flat out bums (Haynesworth). That was a team that went 4-12 in 2009 too.

None of those three entered the 2010 offseason as any of those things. Maybe Portis as over the hill, but in the five games he managed to be healthy enough to play that year, he did pretty good.

While creativity hasn't been Haslett's major weakness, the inability to make Andre Carter a useful player in his scheme given his exceptional 2009 and 2011 seasons is one of his biggest failures as Redskins DC. Even Gregg Williams made a number of errors over his four seasons here (Pierce, Clark, Archuleta), so it's not like Haslett is a total stiff, but that's still a pretty big failure. Oh well, we're better off with Kerrigan anyway.

There's no reason to rehash Shanahan's role in the Haynesworth saga. It was a dumb situation through and through, and when neither is associated with the Redskins any longer, I think the franchise will be better for it. The only thing we've learned recently is that he's not exactly Randy Moss.

The 2010 team was not much of a team when Shanahan got his hands on it. The Redskins needed to move Zorn out, and find a coach who wasn't a roster tinkerer, but someone who could come in and win right away with a veteran team. Mike Shanahan wasn't that guy. He's a tinkerer. Window dressing is important to him. And that's not what the Redskins really needed.

Originally Posted by Mattyk

In the end to even discuss firing the guy now is ridiculous. Going in a different direction at this point would only guarantee the franchise will stay stuck in the mid spinning it's wheels.

That said I think the pressure will be on in 2012 to show some serious improvement in the 'W' column. 9-10 wins at least.

Wait, I'm not sure I understand.

9-10 wins will be a pretty big improvement, and certainly is within the realm of possibility, but if that's the improvement we need to show, I don't understand why it's too soon to talk about where the franchise will be if we fail to meet that goal.

I am not expecting the Redskins to win 10 games next year. And I think our best chance at winning 10 games would be getting lucky and finding the right coach for the job. Be that Bill Musgrave, Marc Trestman, Rob Chudzynski, Josh McDaniels, Chuck Pagano, Brian VanGorder, Jeremy Bates, Dave Toub, Clyde Christensen, Bill O'Brien, Matt Patricia, Pete Carmichael, Matt Cavanaugh, Jay Gruden, Bruce Ariens, Mike McCoy, Dennis Allen, Rob Ryan, Perry Fewell, Shane Day, or Mike Trgovac. Obviously, I couldn't tell you which of those coaches is the next great NFL head coach, but that's what the interview process is for.

You know, that thing we skipped last time.

[sandtrapjack]

Before Allen and Shanahan arrived, the Redskins were famous for one thing. That being spending way too much on high-priced free agents, mostly past their prime. And trading away draft picks for high-priced veteran players. Those type of deals and decisions will set a franchise back as much as ten years. And it is something a franchise simply cannot recover from in only 2 seasons.

I agree with Shanahan, patience is the key. But he is such a professional that he will not come out in public and say what we all know. That being the franchise is currently paying the price for years of mis-management by his predecessors.

Stay the course.