FanPost

On Snyder



This is a minor gripe about the critisms of the evil emperor, Dan Snyder. The most common point brought up is the number of coaches he goes through and how often he fires them. The point about coaches is valid, the point about him firing them is not. What should be looked at is how lacking he is at chosing quality people to surround himself with and his many other personnel decisions.

Let's look at his Coach history:

He started his tenure with Norv Turner, who he inherited. Norv was fired in the middle of a 7-6 season. Questionable timing on the fire, since he was still on the better side of .500, but Danny was new and Norv was not his choice.

Terry Robiskie was the interim replacement coach who finished Norv's final season 1-2 giving the Redskins a final record of 8-8 on the season. He was not renewed. Personally, I didn't see a problem not rehiring an interim coach, but he was a talented offensive coach, it might have been better to keep him in that position rather than promoting him to head coach since in this league once you've been promoted you probably can't keep that guy around on your team in a lower position than head coach.

Next came Schottenheimer. Schottie is a good coach who tends to put a good team together that under performs when it counts the most. He and Snyder hated each other and for this reason alone was a horrible choice for Dan, unless he could have catered his ownership style to his coach. He couldn't and after Schottenheimer finished the season with an 8-3 (on a 2 game winning streak after starting the season 0-5) he fired him. Another questionable firing to be sure.

After Schottenheimer came the Ol' Ball Coach era. This was an awful hire. From spending more time on the golf course than in the film room to assembling a team made up of washed up former Florida players he'd coached, Spurrier didn't have the work ethic or the simple know-how to succeed in the NFL. Snyder was prepared this time to let Spurrier have 3 years to put his system in place and try to make it work before moving on. Spurrier took his 2 years and retired only to go back to College ball and assemble competitive teams for South Carolina. He was not fired, he quit. This was a bad hiring, but Dan was willing to hear him out.

Next came Joe Gibbs' second tenure. This hiring had tremendous potential, bringing back a legendary coach who was a known quantity: he'd been successful in the league and for the 'skins, no less. The only problem was Gibbs was aging and the Sport had changed tremendously in his absence, from free agency, to salary caps, to roster limits, to play clock shortening, to only being able to call time out once in a row (wasn't that always a rule?). Gibbs was the most successful coach Snyder hired, making it to the playoffs twice and actually winning one of those games. Joe Gibbs retired again after 3 years. The only fault in this hiring was that too much power was given to Gibbs in terms of personnel and Cerrato, the GM was/is/shall always be incompetant when it comes to player personnel.

Most recently was the Jim Zorn era. Zorn went from Horny for Zorny to what the hell were we thinking in two short years. He was a goofy, laid back guy who let his players call the shots and relied on gimmicks because his players were not physically or mentally prepared to play. The gimmics worked the first half of his first season, sporting a 6-2 record. He was quickly proved to be a fraud completing the next year and a half 6-20. Snyder & Cerrato either realizing his incompetence or caving to fan and media pressure put so many buffers between Zorn and the game that the team went back to being a running joke in the league that they had a former bingo caller questioning Zorn's play calls. Zorn was rightly fired. The problem with Zorn's firing was that he was hired in the first place not as a head coach but as the offensive coordinator. Shouldn't the new head coach be making that decision? Secondly, Snyder & Cerrato tore apart Gibbs' coaching structure keeping only Danny Smith and Joe Bugel. Gregg Williams who coached up a stellar defense was lead on for weeks before eventually being told: sorry guy. Williams went on to win a Superbowl as the D-coordinator for the Saints.

By my count, the only firing I can fault Snyder for is Schottenheimer, which happened 9 years before his next firing, Jim Zorn.

I can't blame him for removing the tepid Turner. When a new coach or owner comes in it's expected that they bring in their own personnel of their choosing. Turner was under performing (except, ironically, when he was fired) and he was inherited. Nor can I blame him for not keeping Robiskie. It wasn't Robiskie's team that lost, but he was kept on as an interim coach and unless an interim coach blows your socks off in their try out, there's no need to keep them around.

Basically, my point is, he's fired 3 Coaches of the 6 former coaches he's had. 2 coaches quit and one wasn't renewed. It's not the firing that's Snyder's problem...It's the hiring. Most of the coaches shouldn't have been hired, his hiring process seems bizarre and disrespectful to the interviewee, and his front office has been stocked full of cronies and sycophants rather than quality football personnel.