Fassel meets with Redskins over coaching vacancies

Latest from JLC on Redskins Insider. Looks like this is gonna happen people. :doh:

Posted at 9:10 PM ET, 01/22/2008

Fassel and Rex Ryan

Continues to look like a pair of former Ravens could be perched here in a matter of time.
I keep hearing that Fassel is in a great position to get this job, and when it all hits the fan that former Baltimore DC Rex Ryan would replace Gregg Williams if it goes down this way. That is the hot rumor at the Senior Bowl, and Rex knows Jim and Vinny Cerrato has ties to Rex. Makes sense. So you would be looking at major overhauls to the staff.
Snyder and Cerrato are mulling this over tonight but I would not be surprised to see someone get an offer Wed. At this point I am told the Redskins have still said nothing to Williams and the rest of the coaches and all signs pointing to Fassel. Snyder could always go the other way, and, this organization is capable of anything, but there is lots of angst among the players and coaches - especially those down at the Senior Bowl in Mobile.


Doesn't Rex Ryan run the 3-4 defense. Talk about rebuilding changes that need to be done to the team as a whole if Fassel/Ryan are hired.

Snyder is a lame excuse for a symbolic figurehead of an organization. He said at the Gibbs presser that he wants stability and likes the roster as is. He pulls the trigger on this and all he is doing is lying to the very fan base that makes the Redskins as profitable as they are.

I just know when I wake up tomorrow that I'll see Fassel being introduced as head coach. Can you imagine how hositle that conference is going to be?

To hire Jim Fassel, and disrupt the continuity and rhythm built up with Gregg Williams would be a tremendous setback for the Redskins.

Dan Snyder has to realize that he is the steward of the Redskins, but the spirit of the team belongs to the fans. If he blows up the stability and train of progress that has been building with the team, and hires Jim Fassel, leaving not just Gregg Williams possibly out of a job, but many other coaches also crucial for continuity - it would be the height of foolishness.

The weight of criticism that Snyder will ultimately bring down on himself if he does this - he will be a very unhappy man I am confident.

I have to hope that this is a momentary loss of perspective for Snyder, and he will regain his focus and select Gregg Williams. Williams isn't certain of success, but to go in any other direction will take the Redskins off the rails in all likelihood.

If Fassel becomes the new coach there needs to be a new thread started titled:

"What time are all members of Redskinswarpath.com meeting to collectively boo Jim Fassel's name when announced at the press conference?"


...pre-emptively, 3:30pm at the Redskins Park guard house is best for me.

Why in the world the Skins would hire this guy to be head coach is beyond me. He is yesterday's news. Of all the choices this would be maybe the worst of the bunch. Its another quick fix, stop-gap measure. He'll stick around a few years then be gone. This hiring would prove again that the skins are a disfunctional organization that will never be a consistent winner.

Like it or not for a QB ...Fassel is the way to go.
exactly what young qback has Fassel done anything with? Kerry Collins? Kyle Boller? give me a break. im not a big Greg Williams as head coach man. but in the best interests of the skins, i think that would be the best choice

You know, those who question why there would be despair at the thought of Gggrilliamsss not getting the nod should think back to the time the "has the game passed Gibbs by" talk began among fans and sports journos.

Looking back now, what we have perspective on is that what Joe restored was a sense of stability, continuity, and perhaps most importantly, an atmosphere where the players believed that the team was headed in the right direction.

It also seemed that some of "The Gibbs" rubbed off on "The Danny" and what Fossil/Ryan represents is a scary regression there.

Passing by Gggrilliams sends a clear message that Snyder honors whatever his lawyers say he has to by the letter of his contracts, not necessary the spirit of his agreements, much less what's the "right" thing to do. It also sends a message that he knows better than the players and isn't really interested in what they think -- they'll play for who the hell he tells them to play for. I'm getting Lavernues Coles flashbacks here, people.

Considering the degree to which this team came together at the end of last year after a horrible tragedy, it just seems so callous to throw that all aside and basically break with everything there for what smacks of some kind of nepotism or Old Boy Network mentality.

If this happens, it seems pretty clear that Snyder really hasn't learned much from Joe, and maybe he wasn't really listening at all while Joe was here anyway.I think you are jumping a pretty big gap in logic here. Just because Gibbs supports Williams and Williams coached under Gibbs does not automatically make him more fit for the job.

The players endorse him, much because they have to. That doesn't mean Snyder should be cornered into hiring Gregg Williams if he doesn't feel he's fit to be coach of the Redskins.

The Redskins went through due process on this one. They interviewed a bunch of candidates. They gave second interviews. Snyder included Vinny and Gibbs in the process. The methodology of this decision had everything we as fans could ask for.

I already know the single best candidate for the job (Schwartz) is going to get passed up. The point is, if Danny feels that Fassel makes a better coach than Williams (and the evidence is conflicting), we really can't produce any conclusive evidence that the team is better or worse off. Why not just optimistically wait and see?

Quick look at the great Fassel:
As HC of the Giants, 3 out of 7 seasons w/ winning records. 2-3 record in playoffs (2 WC losses and a beat down in the SB). Career at Utah even more impressive: 8-4 first season there but ended 25-33 (that's 17-29 in last four seasons there).

There's a difference between trading two mid round picks for TJ Duckett, or two mid round picks for Brandon Lloyd, and hiring Fassel over Gregg Williams.

The difference is there is no evidence to assume on that Williams would be the better choice, while you can look at Duckett's production, or Lloyd's production, and pretty much know right off the bat the Skins got jobbed.

This is going to be very interesting over the next couple of days.

exactly what young qback has Fassel done anything with? Kerry Collins? Kyle Boller? give me a break. im not a big Greg Williams as head coach man. but in the best interests of the skins, i think that would be the best choice

In fairness to Fassel, Kyle Boller really is the exception and he has had success with QBs in his career. Kerry Collins had by far his best years in the three year stretch between 2000-2002, Fassel was also in Arizona when Jake Plummer was a hot commodity in the mid-1990s. He also gets credit for working with John Elway (kind of a softball there, no?) and Phil Simms. Of course, wasn't Norv Turner also good for QBs ... as an OC?

In some ways you can say that this search does represent something of a departure. Fassel is far from the 'sexy' pick and there is some case to be made that someone with his credentials does make a legitimate candidate. I am concerned, however, by at least two things. One is the fact that the search represents (it certainly seems at least) an even more heightened role for Vinny Cerrato (or at least a continuing prominence), which causes many of us here much concern. Gibbs provided us all with some security that a check existed against the Synder/Cerrato faction and with that gone it seems a lot like 2003 all over again. Also, if someone other than G. Williams was going to get the job I, like GTripp, would have preferred a younger assistant (specifically Schwartz) though that also would probably have caused similar angst amongst most fans.

The bottom line is that no one other than Synder trusts Cerrato so when we all see his level of influence so clearly, and without the Gibbs check, it looks like a return to old ways. More than anything I think that is what is driving our collective concern, even more than G. Williams apparently being shown the door. The one is merely a symptom of a larger problem. Obviously only time will tell as to whether the concern was justified.