So Jim Zorn had a press conference today (go see for yourself at The Official Site). I'm downloading it right now as I missed it in real time, but both Redskins Insider and The Bog did highlights from it. Per the Bog, er...
* If I'm not mistaken, he said that his family members were excited to start wearing "maroon and black." And I think he added "and yellow." I believe he now has the Redskins confused with the University of Chicago Maroons. I also believe this will be in the first four paragraphs of at least 50 percent of tomorrow's stories.
Researching your employer prior to an interview is either vastly overrated or else Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato just stared at Jim blankly throughout the interview process. Yes, he'll do just fine.
Other news, per Redskins Insider:
* He also said he would definitely hire an offensive coordinator.
I sure hope so, and also that that was the plan from minute one. Bill Lazor ditched town just a bit too soon; had he stuck around he might have landed himself an OC position. Is Al Saunders still available? Oh well.
* He favors a balanced attack and, duh, the West Coast offense, "This whole game is about rhythm, not about hanging onto the ball until you see a guy open."
I'd note that our
sack percentage increased from 2006 to 2007. I don't know how much that is attributable to Jason holding on to the ball a second too long, but to his credit we were far more banged up on the O-Line than we were a year prior. This certainly caused a brand new fumbling problem but still I think Campbell handled it well. Though he threw five more picks in '07 than he did in '06, his int % actually decreased from 2.9% to 2.6%.
Here is an alleged link to video from the press conference, though I can't get the damn thing to work properly.
Pro Football Talk weighs in on their crazy theory of why Jim Zorn got hired that is actually lacking in the "crazy" department:
There's a theory making the rounds in league circles that the promotion of offensive coordinator Jim Zorn to head coach in Washington has more to do with Vinny Cerrato than it did with Zorn.
As the theory goes, Zorn was deemed to be the least likely of the candidates to challenge Cerrato's authority as the new Executive V.P. of Football Operations.
"For as long as he has been in D.C., Vinny has been second fiddle to the coach," one league source said. "This time, he gets promoted and hires an inexperienced coach who will not make waves. . . . Mooch and Fassel would have threatened Vinny because of their past success and experience. The fact that Vinny was promoted before the head coach hire was a veiled sign that Vinny would be making the call. In the end, it was own insecurity that made for the hire of Zorn."
Right now that's heresay, but it's heresay that makes too much sense to dismiss outright.
Sportz Assassin at AOL Fanhouse weighs in on Zorn's pedigree:
Zorn is a twig off the giant Bill Walsh coaching tree ... off the Mike Holmgren branch. Holmgren has begat guys like Mike Sherman, Andy Reid, Marty Mornhinweg, Steve Mariucci, Jon Gruden and Ray Rhodes. Not all of them have had outstanding head coaching careers, but most have had some sort of success. Plus, it is interesting to see how well those Mike Holmgren quarterbacks coaches move on to head jobs.
Steve Mariucci was Holmgren's QB coach from 1992-1995. Marty Mornhinweg (who later was the head coach in Detroit) was the QB coach for the Packers' Super season of 1996. Andy Reid was a QB coach for Holmgren in 1997-1998. Zorn has been Holmgren's QB coach in Seattle since 2001.
And
how much patience Dan needs from me and my ilk:
Still, Snyder needs to keep asking for fans' patience because this wasn't the smoothest hire. I mean, Zorn was hired two weeks ago to be the offensive coordinator ... and yet the team continued to interview other people for the head coaching job. Only after Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo bowed out did Zorn get the complete consideration.
I'm a patient dude. Unless my owner is
Dan Snyder Al Davis? Aww, shit.
