Lombardi's column

On that note, I think it's fair to note that there are 19 players on the roster now with 1 year or less experience. And a lot of them are getting playing time. The one thing I wish that Allen and/or Shanny would have done this past off-season is tell the fans give us 2-3 years.

That may have been a hard sell when you consider all the damage that was done to the fan base last year. Ticket and merchandise sales took a tumble, in an effort to repair some of the damage, selling the team as a retool as opposed to a rebuild would serve better towards getting fans back in the stands.

The writer extracted the words of his article from my mouth. The truths he recite is/has been common knowledge to just about everyone who closely follows the Redskins. As a result, I'm not totally committed to blindly following the resume of Shanahan and Allen. They both have to prove their worth HERE, never-mind what they did someplace else. I am however, willing to give him time because that's what he's going to need.

That may have been a hard sell when you consider all the damage that was done to the fan base last year. Ticket and merchandise sales took a tumble, in an effort to repair some of the damage, selling the team as a retool as opposed to a rebuild would serve better towards getting fans back in the stands.

The writer extracted the words of his article from my mouth. The truths he recite is/has been common knowledge to just about everyone who closely follows the Redskins. As a result, I'm not totally committed to blindly following the resume of Shanahan and Allen. They both have to prove their worth HERE, never-mind what they did someplace else. I am however, willing to give him time because that's what he's going to need.

Shanahan may manipulate the public opinion in a lot of ways, but he and Bruce believe in "the future is now" because their actions this offseason are totally consistent with it. Why bother with Ma'ake Kemo as the default starter unless Kemo already "won" the position battle on paper. Offensive line was addressed adequately...on paper...by Hicks, Mike Williams, and Rabach the Cap'n. RB was more than addressed..on paper... by having Willie and Larry be the expected backups to CP. Haynesworth was going to be a superstar NT next to Kemo...on paper. Kareem Moore was adequate to be a FS...on paper. This team did look pretty damn fine on paper this offseason.

Shanahan may manipulate the public opinion in a lot of ways, but he and Bruce believe in "the future is now" because their actions this offseason are totally consistent with it. Why bother with Ma'ake Kemo as the default starter unless Kemo already "won" the position battle on paper. Offensive line was addressed adequately...on paper...by Hicks, Mike Williams, and Rabach the Cap'n. RB was more than addressed..on paper... by having Willie and Larry be the expected backups to CP. Haynesworth was going to be a superstar NT next to Kemo...on paper. Kareem Moore was adequate to be a FS...on paper. This team did look pretty damn fine on paper this offseason.

I feel ya!! CP....but there's just one little problem, paper can't play...... the future is always now when a coach is hired and feels pressure to win football games immediately.

I really respect Lombardi's opinion and he's 100% correct in his article. Shanahan and Allen have made some poor decisions in their first year. Gotta blow it up and start over, like Tampa Bay did....and somewhat how New England is doing with their defense.

The HUGE difference between the way Tampa did business in terms of rebuilding and the Skins is that Tampa accumulated draft picks and used them proficiently such that there are 15 rookies on their squad.


The Skins have traded off draft picks so that they don't have very many.


And from last year's draft, they got Trent Williams as a solid contributor and ...

Shanahan is a respected offensive coach. Shanahan went from being a QB to being an offensive coordinator to being a Head Coach that ran offense. Shanhan has never coached a defense and has zero experience coaching a defense.
Rather than hiring a very qualified defensive coordinator and letting him run his own defense, he took upon himself to dictate what defense his team was going to run and then hired a coach. Kind of like when Snyderatto hired Zorn to be offensive coordinator before hiring the head coach. No respected defensive coach will come into that kind of situation where he is dictated what defense he has to run.
This is a case where Shanahan got involved with something that he has little experience doing. In fact none of Shanahan's defenses in Denver were base 3-4 and the Redskins have never been a base 3-4. Most of the players on the Redskins defense have not played in 3-4 as the base defense. Not a good marriage.
I will be curious to see if Shanahan will show any flexibility going forward.
Or will it remain his way or the highway?
Snyder learned the lesson, let professionals that know what they are doing run your team.
Is Shanhan open to learning the same lesson?
Shanahan should let defensive coaches run the defense, personnel men run the FO and he should stick to running to what he knows best, running the offense.



I truly wish that I was as certain as you are that "Snyder learned the lesson".

True, Shanahan needs to let defensive coaches run the defense' that is not Shanahan's strangth. The problem here is that Haslett is a "defensive guy: and has been knonw as such for all of his NFL tenure.

Shanny tried to shoot the moon w/ McNabb.
He failed.
Time to dust off and try again the right way.
But, i respect him for giving it a shot.

I truly wish that I was as certain as you are that "Snyder learned the lesson".

True, Shanahan needs to let defensive coaches run the defense' that is not Shanahan's strangth. The problem here is that Haslett is a "defensive guy: and has been knonw as such for all of his NFL tenure.

Yes, but it has been overly argued when people defend Haslett from fault is that Shanahan is the one that made the decision to switch to the 3-4. So the guy that made this important decision is not a defensive coach or expert in defense, much has any experience ever using the 3-4 defense on any of his teams. This was a poor decision.

I'm surprised I'm the only one who really thought that article was ridiculous. I think we all know that it takes more than one offseason to turn around a 4-12 team no matter who the new coach is. I don't think shanahan has really done anything wrong this season - I'm not buying the whole "his ego hurts the team" garbage. Mcnabb trade maybe... but campbell must not have shown a propensity to run his offense.

As far as the 3-4 situation, it's not like he came in here thinking a 3-4 defense would make us better, I think he did understand that the personnel didn't quite match. I think his decision to run the 3-4 was based on the league-wide shift to the 3-4; I bet in 10 years every team will run it because it does have advantages over the 4-3. Unfortunately we weren't able to draft/trade for all the pieces we needed last offseason, but it's a work in progress.

You just can't write an article like that without mentioning that it's only been ONE OFFSEASON since he inherited a god-awful team. Jesus...

Did you read the comments at the end of the article? Its pretty bad when a cowboys fan is telling us to hang in there

"With all these (snicker!) "experts" posting their analysis of the Redskins' problems and advising of their miracle cures, I don't need to add my thoughts on who might be to blame. Instead, I'll just say that, as a Cowboys fan (and a football fan too), I would like to see all this ironed out in Washington and the 'Skins get back to being competitive, whatever it takes. This team has Super Bowl trophies they've earned, and it's sad to see a proud franchise fall on hard times like this. It happens to all teams from time to time, and I have no doubts that the 'Skins will eventually get it all together and start playing football. I remember times when Cowboys/Redskins games were the ones every fan waited eagerly to see, and that epic rivalry will return. Until then, I advise all the 'Skins fans to keep their chins up...your guys will once again give you something to be proud of. Keep the faith."

The HUGE difference between the way Tampa did business in terms of rebuilding and the Skins is that Tampa accumulated draft picks and used them proficiently such that there are 15 rookies on their squad.


The Skins have traded off draft picks so that they don't have very many.


And from last year's draft, they got Trent Williams as a solid contributor and ...

Let me finish that SC...

"And from last year's draft, they got Trent Williams as a solid contributor and ..." a conglomeration of used up veterans that have already seen their glory days pass them by but are still collecting one last big paycheck.:)