Jim Zorn's poll position

None of this is scientifically done. The last place I'd start is here, with the majority of an insignificant sampling size saying: I still don't know what the shit is going on. I've now read more than one media commenter proclaim without hesitation that Zorn's hiring to head coach will be met by Redskins fans with a majority of apprehension -- and that has certainly been the reaction by most bloggers -- but perhaps that simply reflects the general perception of Redskins fans as overwhelmingly grumpy types that like to shoot Dr. Z emails about how much of a giant asshole he is for taking so long to vote Art Monk into the Hall of Fame. I don't know if that perception is justified whatsoever, but there's reason to doubt the conclusion; the polls I'd pay attention to to gauge the typical Redskins fan response have showed approval as the norm. Per Extreme Skins for instance:

That's still just around 2500 votes in as of this moment, and just of Extreme Skins members, but whatever anyone thinks of ES, I'd say it is a fairly representative sampling of what a large portion of the Redskins fanship feels. And nothing about those figures is contradicted by this poll at the Official Site: Reading the results into the ES poll, it would appear that at least some of the people who want to wait and see (not an option there) are still marginally supportive of the move whereas some smaller number of wait and see folks are negative about it. In any event, we see a majority of deciders still reaching the conclusion that Zorn is better than not-Zorn. With a hat tipped to Dan Steinberg, I pause now to honor Deuce of Davenport's majestic shirt design skillz as it seems an appropriate time. Buy them while they're still available:

Finally, this Adam Schein article at Fox Sports is loaded with polls, though we'll get to them after we flesh out his thoughts on our newest Head Coach. His position cannot be characterized as "wait and see":

Yowza.

The polls on that same site leap out at me, at least as of this moment, in the somewhat inconsistency of their results. Who will be the best new coach (out of John Harbaugh, Mike Smith, Tony Sparano, and Jim Zorn)? Zorn is 3rd with 22% of the vote. Who inherits the best situation? Zorn is 2nd with 34%. The evidence shows that there's at least one guy who that poll thinks will be a worse new coach (Mike Smith, Atlanta) and at least two that inherit worse situations than Zorn (Smith and Tony Sparano, Miami). And they ask: Who will be the first coach out of a job? Surely either Sparano, who has a worse situation, or especially Smith, who has a worse situation and a smaller percentage of voters thinks will succeed, should be more likely to win on this question. And they answer: Jim Zorn, 66% of respondents, more than all the other three coaches combined.

Which says something about the general state of our front office, at least in the minds of NFL fans that frequent Fox Sports. We're a more favorable coaching situation to inherit than Miami and Atlanta. Jim Zorn is considered to have a more promising future than Mike Smith. Yet there is very little doubt that in spite of these two things, Jim Zorn will be the first shown the door.

For the record, though I found the results inconsistent, and though I think Jim Zorn could very well make a fine head coach and agree that he's entering a more favorable situation than at least Miami and Atlanta and maybe even Baltimore, I ended up voting for him being the first ousted. My general prediction for Zorn's tenure tends to coincide with that of Fox Sports readers: This is not an easy city owner to work for (that's not entirely true, he pays well). I would love to be wrong.