My evaluation of Shanahan starts now

[takethecake]

Originally Posted by The Goat

I'm surprised nobody has balked at the premise of the thread (title). Why on earth would an evaluation of Shanahan NOT begin two years ago...unless you're a total homer for Shanahan and want to "throw out the bad data?"

Mike has made myriad mistakes over the last two years. Every decision at QB has been errant up to RGIII. McNabb was a mistake. Rex a mistake. Beck a mistake. Campbell today is better than any of them so the honest observer would add getting rid of him was a mistake. Jamaal Brown was a huge mistake.

And that's just on the roster side. Bringing his kiddo (Kyle) was a mistake, as was not upgrading defensive coordinator at the first possible chance e.g. Wade Phillips goes to Houston and makes one of the worst defenses in the league (right there w/ the Skins after the 3-4 switch) to a top 5 defense in ONE year. Mike and Wade already worked together so why didn't Wade come aboard?

It's also noteworthy that our two best targets on offense (Davis and Moss) are guys Mike inherited, rather than developed.

Mike gets credit for making the team younger (depth) and RGIII. Hopefully things come together this year and we see results, but as someone else said I won't be the least bit surprised if Mike never wins the division or a playoff game in Washington.

The thing is about the QB situation, what could he have done differently that would have been significant? Because of the dearth of talent on the team, it's not like we could have thrown in someone else and been instant playoff contenders. Shanny has done a great job improving our front 7 on D without breaking the bank, and that process takes time. We would have been set at secondary if Landry had stayed healthy and if we weren't handcuffed by that absurd DHall contract.

There are certainly areas of the team lacking talent, but he just hasn't had the ammunition to address them all in the short time he's been here. Okay, I'll concede we could have used the picks we gave up for mcnabb and jammal, but if brown had been able to stay healthy that would have been a great move to get a 1st round pick RT.

Bottom line: like everyone's said, everything he's done so far pales in comparison to the RG3 move. He's made a hell of a lot better decisions than Vinny, but his career still rests with RG3's success or failure