Albert Haynesworth on Sirius NFL

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by Rajmahal33

This little excerpt is pretty bothersome to me because i think this is why our front office seems incapable of making objective decisions. As heartless as Belicheck is, he runs a tight ship over there and has shown that he can make tough decisions even at the cost of his closest players. I'm not saying we have to do that here but the proof of that approach is in their on-field product. We can give any excuse(s) we want to but the Redskins have simply not gotten it done on the field in the Vinny Cerrato years (and i'm not blaming only him). Maybe a good reason for our failures is this "different" easy going culture we have in Ashburn.

Hate to be pessimistic here but I don't want the skins to be known as having a "great" lockerroom atmosphere if it means putting out a soft team on the field. I think the stigma in some player's minds is that its a free lunch on a redskins roster. You can't tell me that, for example, Jason Taylor really had the fire and passion that he had in Miami when he came here. It just raises some flags for me...

I'm sorry but I beg to differ with your Belichick example. Yes, Belichick has made "tough decisions even at the cost of his closest players." But that does not mean that Belichick is distant from them. Plenty of former New England players have had nothing but nice things to say about him as a person. They say that in the locker room Belichick is much friendlier than his cold press conference persona might indicate. So, even though he makes "objective" personnel decisions, he is still friendly. Therefore, if New England is the desired standard, having a friendly and open atmosphere is not a problem.

Compare Mangini, who by all accounts is distant and perhaps sometimes rude to his players. Notice that he has a new job because he did not turn the Jets into strong contenders. Mangini would be an example of a "cold" locker room becoming dysfunctional.

As for Jason Taylor, by his own account he was hurt, didn't jell with the defensive scheme, didn't jell with Blache, and missed his family in Miami. These might be factors in what you perceive as his loss of competitiveness.

As for the Redskins making tough personnel decisions, there are many examples, including a recent one: Jon Jansen.