Jay Gruden hired as head coach of the Redskins

Hey, at the very least we dodged the Billick/Gruden(Jon)/Cowher bullet. That's a win in my book.

I'm on the fence with Haslett sticking around. As long as they keep Keith Burns as ST coach I'll be happy.:Flush:

Speaking of Burns, all this HC, OC, DC talk has made me forget about the fact we don't have a special teams coach either. That'll be an interesting hire. I can't even remember the last time we ran a punt or kick off back for a TD. (During the regular season, none of the Brandon Banks, pre-season garbage)

A sober hire--so different from our usual drunk dialing. It's either: Shanny- He's so hot I gotta have him. Or: Zorn is the only one left in the bar...

Haslett is a tough call, but it's hard to deny that talent was sorely lacking and Shanny was meddling. If Haz really wanted to run a 4-3 and Shanny said no, then wow.

My guess is that Haz stays because of the TB connections. It's a bit like the Florida Blues Brothers: we're getting the TB band back together!

Glad to have moved forward. (Why do I only feel happy in the off season with this team?!?!?)

A sober hire--so different from our usual drunk dialing. It's either: Shanny- He's so hot I gotta have him. Or: Zorn is the only one left in the bar...Haslett is a tough call, but it's hard to deny that talent was sorely lacking and Shanny was meddling. If Haz really wanted to run a 4-3 and Shanny said no, then wow.

My guess is that Haz stays because of the TB connections. It's a bit like the Florida Blues Brothers: we're getting the TB band back together!

Glad to have moved forward. (Why do I only feel happy in the off season with this team?!?!?)

lol brillant

PS It's going to take time to build the roster. There's just no escaping that. And please build from the inside out and get some real talent in the trenches!

[QUOTE=Schneed10;1054338]Honestly how much can we really blame Haslett. The fact that he was able to do what he did when we won the division in 2012 was nothing short of remarkable, he had no talent to work with. He's shown he can coach defense, $36 million in cap space should help h

I think he can be blamed as much as Shanny. His D gave up so many points so quick it would have been hard for any offense to keep up.

A sober hire--so different from our usual drunk dialing. It's either: Shanny- He's so hot I gotta have him. Or: Zorn is the only one left in the bar...

Haslett is a tough call, but it's hard to deny that talent was sorely lacking and Shanny was meddling. If Haz really wanted to run a 4-3 and Shanny said no, then wow.

My guess is that Haz stays because of the TB connections. It's a bit like the Florida Blues Brothers: we're getting the TB band back together!

Glad to have moved forward. (Why do I only feel happy in the off season with this team?!?!?)

Beer goggles. You only wake up once the regular season starts.

Hey, at the very least we dodged the Billick/Gruden(Jon)/Cowher bullet. That's a win in my book.

Excellent point.

Overall his schemes were fine with me (with the exception of how he handles opposing TEs, WTF?!), it was the timing of his play-calls. I hope he at least learned some lessons because it always seemed he would have the least clutch call ever when we needed it the most.

Regardless of how our D works out next year, ALL I ASK is better third down defense. We seemed to be great on first and second only to fold on third no matter how far the down-and-distance.

That least clutch call you're talking about, I think, was the product of having no safeties with any skill. Safety is the position that gives you flexibility to make blitz calls. If you have a safety with speed and range, he can cover the space needed to limit big gains in the event the QB beats the blitz.

We just didn't have that, AT ALL. So when Haslett did dial up a blitz he was really taking a risk that our safeties would give up the whole shebang. And in a lot of cases as a result, he had to play cover 2 and let the TE free up the seam. At least with a TE you don't get beat over the top for a TD.

He just had nothing to work with. He has a good attacking scheme and two good edge rushers. He desperately needs safeties, then he'll put together a decent enough defense.

Hey, at the very least we dodged the Billick/Gruden(Jon)/Cowher bullet. That's a win in my book.

We just ended that experiment with Shanahan.

I don't see Cowher and Gruden ever coming back, they're making money doing next-to-nothing compared to a head coach and they're comfortable and happy in their new jobs. Billick...I don't think there's a market open for him any more.


If they were candidates:
*Cowher has been out of the game a long time. You also have to consider he coached for a solid organization who supports their coaches long-term. Pittsburgh is a job that's tough to screw up, so his past level of success may not come anywhere else.

*Gruden, was in the right place at the right time a few times. He was good at taking a solid team and getting them over the hump, but we need someone who can rebuild us INTO a solid team. He doesn't have that on his resume. His first year with the Raiders was 8-8 and his debut in TB went 12-4. He would have to work a bit harder for that immediate success here. He was 38-26 in OAKLAND...and in the previous 10 years before he took over there, the Raiders finished under 7-9 only ONE time. They were still respectable then. Tampa Bay...Dungy built that team for him.

*Billlick impressively won the Super Bowl without a QB but he also had a dominant defense. Aside from a few good years in Baltimore, his coaching record is nothing special. Also, a young Randy Moss can make any OC look good. Out of the game since 2007, I think his time has passed.


So I'm saying, the big names are not the ones we needed to pursue. They won Super Bowls, but they were also in very different situations than where we are now. We just tried the "hire a SB-winning coach" route and it failed miserably.

I like the new approach.