Who Calls The Shots?

This is an ESPN.com article on who calls the shots for everyteam. I gave the link, and pasted the part about the Skins. It was a surprise to me what they said, i thought Gibbs was President now and called all the shots. They seem to think that Gibbs just gives ideas but doesnt make any decisions. Three years ago this wouldnt have been a surprise, but I thought Snyder was taking more of a backseat role at this point.


http://proxy.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2007183

Washington Redskins
Dan Snyder: Owner
Vinnie Cerrato: Vice president of football operations
Joe Gibbs: Head coach

Despite the roller-coaster ride that has been the Washington Redskins since Daniel Snyder took ownership, this is still his team and his organization – and no decisions in personnel are made without his blessing. Because he is not a football guy and because he doesn't watch a lot of tape, Snyder leans on Cerrato to not only give him information and opinions, but to also be his mouthpiece.

One of the positives regarding this relationship is that Cerrato does watch film and does his research so that at least Snyder is getting an informed opinion. This duo will gather information from a lot of sources, including agents, draft experts and virtually anybody who has an opinion.

The rest of this scouting department is a hard working but nondescript group with virtually no decision-making power.

Eric Shaffer is the capologist and he does a solid job. Veteran Scott Campbell runs the pro department and Trent Baalke runs the college side. They gather information and keep things organized, but everything flows through Cerrato and Snyder.

Joe Gibbs will really be diligent this offseason as he tries to upgrade this roster after having a year to evaluate it – but his input may be more philosophical than anything else. Snyder and Cerrato will listen to what Gibbs wants, but not necessarily whom he wants and the assistant coaches will not have a lot of say on personnel issues.

One thing you can say about the Redskins' front office is that it is not afraid to spend money and will work at getting better. This may be a better roster than a lot of people realize and this may be an offseason when the Redskins don't make a lot of major moves, but instead just tweak and add to this roster. However, Snyder and Cerrato have to be movers and shakers and it's hard to see them not making some dramatic moves, especially in free agency

Getting Coach Gibbs was great, but Coach Gibbs not being able to convince Bobby Beathard to take over as G.M. was a downer. Iam not a Cerrato fan, something about him.

However, Snyder and Cerrato have to be movers and shakers and it's hard to see them not making some dramatic moves, especially in free agency

I'm assuming this was written before free agency began.

The way this offseason has gone so far it's hard to think Gibbs hasn't had alot of influence on tightening the reins a bit.

Snyder and Cerrato aren't known for this kind of restraint.

I'm assuming this was written before free agency began.

The way this offseason has gone so far it's hard to think Gibbs hasn't had alot of influence on tightening the reins a bit.

Snyder and Cerrato aren't known for this kind of restraint.
I'd love to see a date on this article. It appears to be wrong about our moves in nearly every respect.

I've been saying it for a while now. The title of President does not mean Gibbs is making the football decisions. If he were, lots of the sidebar events of the last year or so would not have happened.

I'm not saying that Gibbs is out of the loop and takes whatever players come his way due to the genius of Danny Boy and Vinnie. But this isn't the old Green Bay Packers with Lombardi in charge such that when All-Pro center Jim Ringo showed up for camp one year and had the temerity to send an agent to talk to Vince about a contract for the next year, Lombardi said he did not talk to agents and traded Ringo to the Eagles about 30 minutes later.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what "being in charge" means. Lombardi hated agents - they are a fact of life today - and he made a football decision on the spot and traded his starting All-Pro center rather than deal with some agent. And he did not have an owner who questioned him or second-guessed him or had dinner with the agent without Lombardi present or anything like that.

Joe Gibbs has a louder voice in the decision making than Spurrier did, but he's not "in charge". That would still be Danny Boy who the author of this article most correctly points out is not particularly knowledgeable about football players.

I think Gibbs has a little more influence than this article attributes to him, but it would be naive to think that Snyder and Cerrato don't have at least an equal voice in the decision-making process. Gibbs has said as much every time the decision-making process is brought up. I'm not sure why this is a surprise.

Why would anyone expect Snyder and Cerrato to step back and let Gibbs make all the decisions? Snyder owns the team, he has a vested interest in the marketability and profitability of the franchise, and Cerrato knows more about current league personnel than Gibbs or Snyder at this point. Gibbs would want their input, and he would probably want them to help guide his decisions, at least until he feels like he's comfortably up-to-speed on everything he's missed over the past 12 years.

But most of the personnel decisions that have been made this offseason have the appearance of a conservative approach, which would certainly be more emblematic of Gibbs' philosophy than that of Snyder and Cerrato.

I would imagine Gibbs sets the offseason agenda and goals, and relies heavily upon Snyder, Cerrato, Shaffer and the scouting department to work out the logistics and the particulars.

I think this distribution of power would look a lot more effective if Gibbs hadn't insisted on acquiring Brunell last offseason. That deal is having a very destructive trickle-down effect, as we are now witnessing.

Wow- that article was not a bash. I think Skins FO are starting to get some respect for the last three years. They have gotten better and better each year, and maybe, just maybe they are getting some respect.

They still take a lot of heat though

i totally disagree with what snyder is doing. he needs to just let joe gibbs make all the football decisions. it's like making a football player the head personel director of rugby. he doesn't know what the fuck he's doing, but he thinks he's doing it right. plus they need to get a guy like what's his name who worked for baltimore that got all those great players with draft picks. if the redskins could be like that, we would be a lot better.