Some optimism on the 'Shanaplan'

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Paintrain

I'm not making excuses for the Shanny regime so far, just giving a perspective outside of the 'he's lost it, fire him, what the hell are we doing' chorus. That being said, I am far from giving up on this coaching staff. Part of the full 'Shanaplan' as I see it is a 5 year build before Mike steps off of the sideline and upstairs for good and hands things off to Kyle. And that's not a bad thing. One thing we've sorely lacked is a long term plan, vision and system. Look at the successful teams, they have had a system in place from the top down for a long time and stick with it through good and bad. Even through coaching changes they don't vary from the system. At the end of Mike's contract, Kyle would have had 7 years as a coordinator, hopefully be 3 years into a young stud QB and have the pieces to fully run a Pittsburgh style 3-4 defense.

I don't think Shanahan has "lost it", I just don't think he was a smart hire, or more to the point, a hire that suggested that we had broken out of the loop of hires/fires that alternated between someone unproven and an overvalued retread. It was natural to follow Zorn with Shanahan, much as it was natural to follow Spurrier with Gibbs. Gibbs, at least, made a ton of sense as a hire for the franchise in 2004, Shanahan made no sense, ever. He's pretty much coached like a guy who doesn't have a clue, and I don't understand why more was ever expected.

A 5-year rebuild seems like a total give up at winning at this point. Just move in the right direction. I don't think Kyle is ever going to head coach any team, much less the Redskins. I don't know or think that this will be his last shot at calling offensive plays in the NFL or at least college, he's young enough to earn a chance.

The biggest problem with a 5-year rebuilding plan is that it is essentially an admission that nothing we're doing right now matters. Rookie contracts are only 4 years long, and beyond that, the entire roster has already been overturned since the Shanahan's took over. It's not that there aren't positives to take away from the last two years, it's just that we have no more young talent now than we did when Shanahan took over, gutted the young talent from the roster, and set us back.

No, I'm not suggesting he's going to cut Kerrigan or Orakpo or something crazy, but the Cerrato picks that panned out are all at the end of their contracts and there's still no clear picture as to where guys like Landry, Fred Davis, Will Montgomery, Rob Jackson, Graham Gano, Anthony Armstrong, and Darrel Young fit into a long term organizational philosophy. Fletcher is at the end of his contract, as is Carriker, Golston, Buchanon, et al. The Shanahan pickups that have contributed such as Banks, Wilson, Gaffney, Chester, Torain, Cofield, and Bowen, have done so incredibly inconsistently.

Who are the best players on the Redskins? Ryan Kerrigan, London Fletcher, Brian Orakpo, Fred Davis, LaRon Landry, Santana Moss? Anyone else belong in the top six? That's two Cerrato acquisitions, three Gibbs acquisitions, and just one from Shanahan/Allen.