Hello Coach Shanahan, Good Bye to Many

Welcome aboard coach Mike Shanahan. Redskins' fans can breath a sigh of relief now that Daniel Snyder has assembled our new management team quickly while the NFL playoffs have only just begun. This will give Bruce Allen, Mike Shanahan and newly hired defensive coordinator, Jim Haslett, a full offseason to evaluate the team's current players and begin moves and preparing for the draft. What may be even more important is the fact that "Danny Boy' hired this staff the right way this time starting with the GM, then the Head Coach and then the offensive and defensive coordinators. Perhaps, Danny learned from his last mistake two years ago with Jim Zorn and company.

Our fans have known all season that big changes were coming and they are finally here. As exciting as it may be, it is still difficult to say goodbye to some familiar faces. Some players are sure to be gone soon including Philip Daniels, Randy Thomas, Renaldo Wynn. Chris Samuels may and should retire after his neck injury this season.

Other players that will most likely be gone are Fred Smoot, Mike Sellers and Rock Cartwright. Then, there is the "on the bubble" list. This list, of course, includes Jason Campbell, Carlos Rogers, London Fletcher and Antwaan Randle El.

If he Redskins had extra draft picks, that would make the decision much easier for some of these players. However, the Redskins are left with only 5 draft picks for April. All season long, popular opinion has been that the Redskins will dump Jason Campbell and select a QB in the first round of the draft. However, do not be surprised if Campbell stays with the team for one more year. With so many needs along the offensive line and other areas, the Redskins to choose to select an offensive tackle with their first pick or they could very well try to trade down in the first round to get extra picks. The team needs not only quality, but quantity as well.

For now, the team is off to a good start with its new management team in place. Much of what happens in the draft will depend on what happens with the collective bargaining agreement and free agency. Keep your fingers crossed.

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JacksGhost
Washington Redskins Hog Blog

Week 17 vs. San Diego Chargers

San Diego - The 2009-10 NFL season came to a merciful end for Redskins' fans and ended in a fitting manner. The season finale with the San Diego Chargers was a virtually meaningless game as the outcome did not effect either team. With a win or a loss, the Chargers are going into the thick of playoff battle and Redskins' coaches, players and fans are going home again trying to forget about the last 4 months of their respective lives.

The Chargers are clearly a better team than the Redskins. Their offensive unit, led by perennial Pro Bowl QB Philip Rivers, are in a completely different league compared to their counterparts in burgundy and gold and it showed when the game began.

Rivers only played for the first two possessions in the first quarter and wasted no time throwing for 99 yards and giving his team a 10-o lead before being replaced by backup QB Billy Volek. Volek continued the push and gave the Chargers a 13-0 lead early in the second quarter.

As the Chargers' second and third stringers quickly began coming into the game, Jason Campbell was able to gain some brief momentum in the second quarter and he connected with two the team's top touchdown specialists, TE Todd Yoder and FB Mike Sellers. As usual, though, it was not enough. The Redskins mustered only two field goals in the second half and gave up a late touchdown with only 35 seconds left to Billy Volek and company that gave the Chargers the win.

Jason Campbell finished the day with good numbers, at least, on the surface. He finished 28/42 for 281 yards, 2 TD's and 0 INT's. However, he did not move the ball at all against San Diego's starting unit. As he has done all season and career long, Campbell racked up his numbers either against second and third units or at the end of the game playing against prevent defenses. Even against San Diego's backups, Campbell still only manager a 6.7 yard per catch average.

The Redskins running game was virtually non-existent as it has been all season. Starting RB Quinton Ganther managed a mere 27 yards on 12 carries. Surprisingly, Jason Campbell was only sacked one time. On the receiving side, WR Malcolm Kelly had a personal record 84 yard catch. On the downside, how many WR's have you seen make an 84 yard catch and still do not score a touchdown? Besides the record catch, Kelly had an uninspiring 4 catches for 25 yards.

It was nice to see long-time Redskins favorite FB Mike Sellers end the season and possibly his career with a touchdown catch. Sellers will be 35 next season and the Redskins already have rookie FB Eddie Williams that they drafted in 2009. Williams spent much of the year on IR so it is still possible that Sellers could make a return for one final run with the team. Iron Mike has a total of 46 rushes, 102 receptions and an impressive 21 touchdowns in his 10 year career. If this is the end of his career, Mike will be truly missed by hard core Redskins fans.

A bright spot for the Redskins was the kicking game. PK Graham Gano was 2 for 2 kicking field goals. Albeit, his long for the day was only 25 yards, but that is besides the point. The Scotland born, Gano, was signed late in the season and finished 4 for 4 with the team. Now, the Redskins need to lock him up for the 2010 season. Gano had an impressive training camp with the Baltimore Ravens before being let go at the team's final cuts. Besides, every NFL team should to have at least one Scott or one Irishman on it. Between, PK Graham Gano and P Hunter Smith, this would be one important box already checked off on the Redskins' offseason to do list.

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JacksGhost
Washington Redskins Hog Blog

Week 16 vs. Dallas Cowboys

Washington - After 3 straight surprising outings by the Redskins scoring 24, 30 and 34 points against the Eagles, Saints and Raiders, the Redskins have quickly come back down to Earth and are finishing the season the same way they started off. For the second straight week, the Redskins offense was utterly dismantled.

This week's game against the Cowboys looked more like a fathers vs. sons game at summer camp. The offensive line once again was flat out run over by the Cowboys defensive and Jason Campbell rarely had time to turn from his left to the right before getting hit by someone.

The running game fittingly looked like they had a third and fourth running back carrying the ball. Even after newcomer, Quinton Ganther, only mustered 13 yards on 7 carries, many are calling him the starter at RB for the Redskins in 2010. Good lord.

Even while mounting losses, the Redskins were at least beginning to manage some positive feedback for their offensive output since Sherman Lewis joined the club. However, the last two weeks against the Giants and Cowboys have put an abrupt end to that sentiment. At least the Cowboys only scored 17 points. The loss to the Giants was one of the most embarrassing losses I have ever seen and I have seen quite a few now. The San Diego Chargers are already in the playoffs and are one of the hottest teams in the league now and they will most likely continue the trend of the last two weeks and end the Redskins season with a third straight thud.

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JacksGhost
Washington Redskins Hog Blog

Week 10 vs. Dallas Cowboys

Dallas - After pulling off an upset win against the Denver Broncos, the Redskins almost pulled out another one of their patented ugly wins. Almost. For Redskins fans already planning for the 2010 season, it was a relief when the Cowboys scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter to take the lead and ultimately the game.

The Redskins' disappointing season is figuratively over. There will be no playoffs or big second half of the season run for this squad. The team will simply play out their remaining schedule for pride and some players and coaches will use the remaining games an audition for next season's team. Instead, the Redskins are now in a heated battle with some of the NFL's elite basement dwellers for prime draft pick position. Right now, the Redskins are slotted to pick at #9. An upset victory over the Cowboys this past week, while it always feels good to stick it to the Cowboys, would have put the team in a much weaker position for drafting a top QB next April.

There are already several teams currently ahead of them including the Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams, who both need QB's. The Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks are the second wave of teams that could also draft QB's in the first round. The competition is stifling. While this is a deep draft for QB's, the Redskins naturally want to be able to pick the QB they want as opposed to whoever falls to them in the draft.

Sam Bradford's name has been linked to the Redskins for some time and his name has quietly faded. Lately, the hot name is Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen who is a junior and will most likely enter the draft early. The Redskins would also consider Washington QB Jake Locker and Texas QB Colt McCoy.

Despite the Redskins solid defensive play, the team probably has too many injuries on offense to muster many upsets late this season. After losing the likes of Chris Cooley, Chris Samuels, Clinton Portis, Ladell Betts, Chad Rinehart and Randy Thomas for all or most of the remaining season looks bleak. With the loss of star TE Chris Cooley, fans have at least begun to see some contribution frolm second year TE Fred Davis. It would be nice to see the team end teh season on an up note by getting WR Devin Thomas and WR Malcolm Kelly involved as well. Kelly, who began the season as the team's #2 starting WR has been an overwhelming disappointment and has a mere 10 catches on the year. As a comparision, FB Mike Sellers has 11 catches on the year. Perhpas he could start at WR next year.

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JacksGhost
Washington Redskins Hog Blog

Dan Snyder Running Off Coaches

Little Danny's 'yes-man', Vinny Cerato, continues to make a fool out of himself speaking to the media. While a few Redskins' players have come out and asked management to announce that Jim Zorn would not be fired during the season, Vinny decided to take it a step further and announce that Zorn will be coaching "the rest of this season and hopefully into the future". Of course, as Redskins fans know, this is Snyder code for "Mike Shanahan turned down the job".

One thing is for certain. If Jim Zorn is the head coach of the Washington Redskins for the 2010 season, it is strictly because no one else would agree to work with Daniel Snyder and Vinny Cerato.

The media has talked often about the Redskins hiring one of the 'big name' coaches that will be available for the 2010 season including the likes of Bill Cowher, Mike Holmgren, Mike Shanahan and John Gruden, but let's be realistic. None of these coaches need money. They have each already made a ton of cash in their career's and Gruden is still being paid by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If you don't need money, why else would you agree to work 'with' or 'for' (you choose) Daniel Snyder? These coaches have major accomplishments under their belts and it would be highly unlikely they would be willing to sit down and be told what to do by Snyder. These type of coaches are going to want control, and a lot of it, over their new team.

Aside from money and power, the Redskins are not close to being a contending team. At this point, they are a borderline rebuilding project, which will probably take at least 3 years to turn around and have a legitimate shot at contending, if things go well. Let's look at the ages of these big name coaches: Holmgren, 61; Shanahan, 57; Cowher, 52; Gruden, 46.

If Mike Holmgren and Mike Shanahan come back to coach, they will probably want to join a team they think is close to winning now and already has a proven QB. It is hard to see either of these two men coaching more than five years and with a rebuilding project like the Redskins that would be a tough sell. Albeit 5 years in Dan Snyder's world is like 27 years for the rest of us, but I digress.

Mike Holmgren will most likely stay with Seattle in some capacity. Mike Shanahan is most likely the top candidate for the Cowboys and the Cowboys are closer to winning. If you had to pick between working for Dan Snyder or Jerry Jones, who would you pick? Jerry Jones wins.

The best thing Dan Snyder could do right now is offer Bill Cowher an unheard of 10 year contract with full control of the team. Cowher would give the Redskins something they haven't had for the last decade, consistency. A 10 year deal with Cowher would put this franchise back on the NFL map in a huge way. His experience, football knowledge, player relationships and everything else he brings to the table would instantly make the Redskins a better team. And with 10 years at the helm, he could restore order to this once proud franchise and put them back on the right path for years to come. One big problem here is that no one is sure if Cowher is ready or willing to leave the broadcast booth and go back to coaching. If he is ready, the Redskins should go all in and give him anything and everything he asks for.

With all that said, Redskins' fans who were paying attention to the commentary during last Monday night's game against the Philadelphia Eagles, couldn't help but notice how politically correct and positive John Gruden sounded while calling the game. He made more positive comments about the team in the first half than anyone else has all season.

Gruden is the most likely of the 'big name' coaches who would be willing to work with Snyder because he is the youngest and still has the most to prove. While Gruden did win a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay in his first season with the team, many say it was only because the team was already a powerhouse that was built before he got there. After his first season in Tampa, the team steadily declined each year. With that said, Gruden would be a step in the right direction for the Redskins after what the team and, more importantly, the team's fans have endured over the last decade. He has experience, he has a style and he has an attitude. All of those, the Redskins currently lack.

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JacksGhost
Washington Redskins Hog Blog