Analyzing Mike Shanahan at the Midway Point

I gave him a B.

Ive never been a huge Shanahan fan, and really wanted Gruden. But with what hes done with the team since the season has started has pretty much been what weve all wanted.

The one really dumb move hes made so far wasa benching McNabb with 2 mins to go, im completely cool with McNabb being bench but not with 2 mins to go for a guy who hasnt really played in almost 2 years.

Also im not crazy about cutting Devin Thomas, he seemed like he was playing hard every time he was on the field (for teams) and i could care less if he had dreams of become a actor or model. Maybe he was messing up in practice. I trust that it wasnt just personal with Shanahan, or at least i hope it wasnt.

Well someone else got to Moss first, so that's really a moot point.


Not really. We were ahead of the Titans in the waiver order. It's not like beat us to him. We passed on him.

I gave him a B. Solid job overall, my one major gripe was his handling of this McNabb situation. The more he talked about it, the worse it got. If he would have just come out from the start and said 'McNabb was struggling so I went to Grossman looking for a spark', I think this wouldn't have gotten so out of control. Instead he just kept adding fuel to the fire.

Not sure if he's just not a great communicator, funny because normally his style is very Belichick like in that he doesn't offer up much of anything. Or maybe this was all to give McNabb a public kick in the pants since private ones haven't worked, regardless of what his plan was right now it just looks bad. If McNabb heats up and the team wins 9-10 games it probably goes away. If not it's only going to fester the rest of the way and end in a one and done for #5.

Yeah, my guess is either the team as a whole or McNabb has to play lights out the rest of the way for this to considered a "misunderstanding" between the two parties.

The media won't let this rest just because the Skins had a bye week and with every dirt ball McNabb throws, the fan base will continue to grow impatient. But it wouldn't be D.C. if there wasn't a quarterback controversy.

I gave him a B. Solid job overall, my one major gripe was his handling of this McNabb situation. The more he talked about it, the worse it got. If he would have just come out from the start and said 'McNabb was struggling so I went to Grossman looking for a spark', I think this wouldn't have gotten so out of control. Instead he just kept adding fuel to the fire.

Not sure if he's just not a great communicator, funny because normally his style is very Belichick like in that he doesn't offer up much of anything. Or maybe this was all to give McNabb a public kick in the pants since private ones haven't worked, regardless of what his plan was right now it just looks bad. If McNabb heats up and the team wins 9-10 games it probably goes away. If not it's only going to fester the rest of the way and end in a one and done for #5.

I think you're right on here Matty.

In my own opinion, I don't think DM has a god image but I think the fact that he felt needed here would have helped him more than (Your just another number round here with sheriff Shanny in town.)

I think he responded well to being benched in Philly because of the mutual respect with Andy. But personally, I don't think he is going to respond to the public slap on the hand by Shanny.

As questionable as Coach mike has been I rank and grade Kyle lower. I'm starting to worry the reins will be passed to him. I dont think he is that productive in the absence of a Schaub/AJohnson. Tough shoes to fill but no one has been able to define why McNabb is struggling b/c the OL only as of late are at fault.

A "C" is an average grade.

4-4 is an average record.

Therefore MS gets a "C."

So far he gets a B+ in my book.. He was charged with more important tasks than just winning ballgames when he was hired and from all accounts, it's been an overwhelming success. He was brought in to instill an overall culture change-from the top down in the organization and he has done it. Accountability is now present where it was missing before. Discipline is obviously more prevalent than it was in year prior. As it's been said many times over, it's clear the grown-ups are in charge now.

The Trent Williams draft pick looks like a winner, bringing in Torrain, bringing up Armstrong, moving Landry to SS, promoting Banks from the PS all seem like positive moves for the team short and long term. While I didn't care for the way he handled the McNabb situation, I think he handled Haynesworth like no other coach could/would have, he made the right call in retrospect on Devin Thomas so he has enough credit for me to give him a pass on McNabb with an eye open to how it turns out the rest of the way.

As for our record, we're just about (if not sightly ahead) where I expected us to be at the break. I figured we'd lose to Indy, GB, Houston and Philly and beat Dallas, St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit. Shows how much I know! I think we won games (Green Bay, Dallas) that we would have found a way to lose in years prior. We were inches from also winning the Houston game and a healthy RB away from probably winning the Detroit game as well. To be sitting at 4-4 with a new offense, new defense and the number of injuries we've had is a testament to Shanahan's program.

This is what Jake Plummer had to say about Shanahan:

"It just seemed like every game I could have completed these four more passes or these five more shots here and it would have been perfect. And that just wasn't my personality... But Shanahan wanted perfection and he wore a lot of us down there."

Isn't this what everyone should want? I would never hire someone who didn't want to do his job to perfection and I expect nothing less from myself. Praise, praise poke. We can always do better and should strive to do so.

Plummer seems to be a little thin skinned