Hopeful Redskins fans remain optimistic that Coach Gibbs has wrestled some or much or most or all of the decision making from Dan Snyder though there may be reason for skepticism. At a minimum, we're better off than we were during the Spurrier era as there is little doubt he wasn't the most involved decision making Coach. My blogging colleague ETVal at Big Blue View provided a very telling example to that end, per his amigo and former Washington Times contributor Rick Snider:
Steve Spurrier's initial draft in 2002 was the first sign that the college coach wouldn't make it in the NFL. Spurrier was supposed to be part of the triumvirate making decisions with owner Dan Snyder and personnel director Vinny Cerrato. Instead, Spurrier knew so little about one mid-round pick that he just read the guy's stats. When someone asked for more given Spurrier faced the SEC player when coaching at Florida, Spurrier got ticked and stormed out. He couldn't believe reporters would ask for more than height/weight when Spurrier was exposed for not knowing anything about the offensive player. On the second day of the draft, Spurrier was joking around in the press room when the Redskins' fifth-round pick came up on the TV. He stuck around with the media to see who the Redskins picked. Guess he wasn't involved in that choice, either.
Well that is just outstandingly bad Coaching. Most terrifying is that as recently as five years ago 66+% of the Draft Day decisions were made by Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato. I say 66+% not because 2/3rds is actually .66 repeating but rather because it isn't clear that Steve Spurrier really contributed much of anything at all.
So count me among those that do not miss Steve Spurrier or his 12-20 record or the College Football mastermind's pedestrian 19th and 23rd ranked Washington Redskins offense. For this we lost two years? Yikes.