Jump to content
Washington Football Team Logo
Extremeskins

A fundamental problem: We don't understand what kind of bad owner Snyder is


Lombardi's_kid_brother

Recommended Posts

Dan Snyder is bad owner. Agreed? Agreed.

 

This has pretty much been evident since training camp 1999. Aside from a few loyalists and pollyannas, it's an accepted law of the universe.

 

F=m*a

P=F/A

Dan Snyder = Doesn't know what the hell he is doing.

 

But after - Jesus, Mary and Joseph - 15 years, I think there is still a big misunderstanding as to why he is a terrible owner. Everyone - especially the media - goes back to 2000 when he signed a bunch of big name free agents that underperformed and then fired his overmatched coach with three games left and nearly hired a clearly insane Pepper Rodgers to run the show.

 

He was the meddling fantasy football player owner. He probably was briefly. But I see no indication that he has been that kind of owner - with a few relapses here and there - for a very long time.

 

He is not Jerry Jones, staring at a draft board, moving a linebacker from Troy State in front of a linebacker from Nevada because of some kind of hand technique that only Jerry Jones is capable of seeing while killing a fifth of Scotch in front of a 72 inch tv. (I can't paint that scene more vividly, but I'm trying to keep this PG-13 today).

 

I don't think Dan Snyder has a lot of opinions on the draft, because I don't get the impression Dan Snyder watches a lot of football aside from Redskins games. I'm not entirely sure Dan Snyder like football to be honest. I think he likes the Redskins, and I think he really likes football culture. And that ties into the kind of bad owner he is.

 

He is the kind of bad owner who fails to build a top-notch organization that fosters talent. And this not be shocking as Dan Snyder has never built this kind of organization in any part of his life.

 

He basically was a failed small businessman until Snyder Communications came along. I don't even know how to describe Snyder Communcations. I've studied it for years and really don't understand it. It seemed to grow exclusively through acquisitions, was rushed into an IPO in the go-go 90s, and was sold at the peack of the 90s M&A frenzy. It's never been clear to me how many employees Snyder ever actually had or who his executives were. It seems like this company grew as big as it did as fast as it did because Mort Zuckerman really really liked Dan Snyder. That company no longer seems to exist in any real sense, I might add.

 

After that, Snyder has largely failed in every business endeavor (aside from the NFL, where it is literally impossible to lose money) and generally for the same reasons.

 

He goes after well-known brands - Six Flags, Dick Clark Productions, Johnny Rockets. He sticks in a management team filled with well known names and cronies. And he slashes costs until it all goes to hell or he sells out. He's not Mark Cuban who has invested a lot of his time and money in odd niche entertainment ventures and grown them. He just buys distressed big name properties and hopes to flip them before they burn out.

 

So, the problem with Snyder is that he does not know how to build an organization - any organization. His only real success was Snyder Communications which basically did what he needed it to do within 8 years. He doesn't really know how to identify, hire, foster, nurture, and keep executive talent.

 

And he seems utterly incapable of not mixing friendship into this equation. His high profile exectuives have either been people he got along with fabulously - Vinny, Allen, and Gibbs. Or people he nearly came to blows with - Marty and Shanahan.

 

If you notice, everyone of those people had a name and pedigree before they came here. Vinny is a bit of a stretch, but he had all the connections Snyder looks for (championship rings from two organizations) and immediately formed a bizarre friendship.

 

All his top advisors - either formal or informal - seem to fit the same mold. Back-slapping ex jocks with big personalities. (Vinny again may be the exception but he is a good-looking former Division 1 college QB who seems to have a lot of friends in football and media. He can't be a dud, right?). He loves Sonny. He loved Pepper. He loves that insular football culture. He reminds me of one of those guys who spent a semester abroad during Junior year and came back acting like they were born and raised in Milan.

 

I think these types of friendships further cloud his ability to build any kind of organization, because he's been locked in this specific world without really having any context to it. And his desire to befriend jocks undercuts the team often as well - Lavar, Portis, and RGIII are obvious examples of players who had the owners ear to the detriment of the team at times.

 

The bottom line is that in 15 years, there has not been one exec or coach who has been "poached" from this organization. John Schneider was here for a minute and a half but no one stole him away. Marvin Lewis was here, but his name was made in Baltimore and he was just in a holding pattern here. (Maybe I'm missing someone).

 

Our two lesser known important hires were Zorn (which happened at the end of the most bizarrely dysfunctional coaching search in recent NFL history) and Gruden (who is as little known as one can be when his brother is one of the five most high profile coaches of the past 15 years).

 

The Redskins are dysfunctional in every facet of the game, and it has nothing to do with Snyder being overly involved in player acquistion. There has never been a vision for what this team is supposed to be. There has never been a person with that vision. And there has never been a person in the wings ready to either take over that vision when the time is right or bring it somewhere else.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is this a thread to defend Snyder and argue he is not involved?  If so it's a silly thread.  Who cares if he is involved or not, the only thing that matters is he fails.

 

I would take Jerry Jones as a GM at this point, can't do worse than what we have here.  Heck, just following one of the major draft analyst mock draft board would produce better results than what we have here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

This agression will not stand, man.

No identity, ever. No vision, not one thing we can hang our hat on, except a reputation for free-agent signings.

Also, how tone deaf is Snyder? Sitting with those American Indian reps last night. Does he not realize how desperate and cheap that looks? TYPICAL.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is this a thread to defend Snyder and argue he is not involved?  If so it's a silly thread.  Who cares if he is involved or not, the only thing that matters is he fails.

 

I would take Jerry Jones as a GM at this point, can't do worse than what we have here.  Heck, just following one of the major draft analyst mock draft board would produce better results than what we have here.

 

I don't think it matters if we have a GM or don't have a GM. If the problem was just picking players, we would have lucked into a good team by now - the way the Bengals have. The problems are far beyond picking players.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"The bottom line is that in 15 years, there has not been one exec or coach who has been "poached" from this organization. John Schneider was here for a minute and a half but no one stole him away. Marvin Lewis was here, but his name was made in Baltimore and he was just in a holding pattern here. (Maybe I'm missing someone)."

 

Danny Smith is now with Pittsburgh....don't know if he was "poached" or not.

 

Aside from that this is stated well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think it matters if we have a GM or don't have a GM. If the problem was just picking players, we would have lucked into a good team by now - the way the Bengals have. The problems are far beyond picking players.

 

No, the problem is picking players, it's also always thinking we are ahead of where we are and not recognizing the team as constructed is flawed.  We should have never franchised Orakpo and signed Hatcher with so many other issues.  We needed a rebuild, not a continued fail at free agency to build a winner.  We need to draft players and mold them as Redskins, not field free agency laden rosters.  This starts with blowing things up and rebuilding.  We should be getting compensatory picks each year for losing players, not signing more free agents than we lose.

 

We have no architect for the team, in IT as a developer we call this spaghetti code.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The way I see it, Snyder isn't dropping INT's in critical situations. He's not throwing multiple picks in the 4th quarter. He's not failing to sustain blocks, or maintain coverage assignments.

 

This team has had horrible injury luck this year, but if you want to blame somebody, I'd suggest pointing the finger at the coaches and players. Or Bruce Allen, who assembled the roster.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The way I see it, Snyder isn't dropping INT's in critical situations. He's not throwing multiple picks in the 4th quarter. He's not failing to sustain blocks, or maintain coverage assignments.

 

This team has had horrible injury luck this year, but if you want to blame somebody, I'd suggest pointing the finger at the coaches and players. Or Bruce Allen, who assembled the roster.

 Who Dan Snyder hired because he had the right name.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think it matters if we have a GM or don't have a GM. If the problem was just picking players, we would have lucked into a good team by now - the way the Bengals have. The problems are far beyond picking players.

 

Um,...no, actually picking the wrong players (either in the draft or FA) is a major reason the Skins are a loser franchise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

 

Lots of ins, lots of outs, lots of what-have-yous here.

This agression will not stand, man.

No identity, ever. No vision, not one thing we can hang our hat on, except a reputation for free-agent signings.

Also, how tone deaf is Snyder? Sitting with those American Indian reps last night. Does he not realize how desperate and cheap that looks? TYPICAL.

 

Am I the only one around here who gives a **** about the rules???  I could do this all day, but seriously.  He's so tone deaf.  He's a petulant child and always has been.  He's not a mature decision maker.  He's the worst thing that ever happened to this franchise, and it doesn't look like he'll be going away anytime soon. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This agression will not stand, man.

No identity, ever. No vision, not one thing we can hang our hat on, except a reputation for free-agent signings.

Also, how tone deaf is Snyder? Sitting with those American Indian reps last night. Does he not realize how desperate and cheap that looks? TYPICAL.

 

 

I still fail to see how that was a bad move for the organisation.

 

Hail.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The way I see it, Snyder isn't dropping INT's in critical situations. He's not throwing multiple picks in the 4th quarter. He's not failing to sustain blocks, or maintain coverage assignments.

 

This team has had horrible injury luck this year, but if you want to blame somebody, I'd suggest pointing the finger at the coaches and players. Or Bruce Allen, who assembled the roster.

 

This is the perfect kind of super fan that Dan Snyder loves.   P. T. Barnum . . .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A dead Jack Kent Cooke -- propped up like Weekend at Bernie's -- literally couldn't do any worse than Snyder.

 

That and with estate tax laws changing, the market bubble popping, the org would be different.

 

It is not to say that John Kent Cooke would have been great, he could have sucked also, seeing the results of him running the team during the Norv era is blah. However it would not be this debacle 

 Who Dan Snyder hired because he had the right name.

 

It is incredible how the guy before found every big name before they became a big name

 

Sparky Anderson. Jerry West. Bobby Beathard. Joe Gibbs

 

How many owners in sports history had that kind of success across different sports? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because 6 games into a new regime, with a ton of injuries including at the most important position, it can rightfully be determined that the team has no vision.

 

The team certainly has no vision of the offense, which is why they didn't hire an offensive-minded HC and bolster the receiving corp, and bring in better position coaches than were on staff.

 

Now if you want to say the IMPLEMENTATION of the vision is an issue, then by all means. We should never have gone into the season with Chester and Polumbus on the right side. I blame Allen for keeping Orakpo instead of using those resources for a RT. I also blame Forester IF he stuck up for either OL and for not insisting on putting younger players out there or making more noise about the OL. Hard to imagine others would be ok with the OL unless the unit coach was saying they were ok and it was a system issue.

 

I blame Gruden for making a rookie mistake and keeping Haslett for a year. Sure he has HC experience, but so does Raheem. He should have just outright said no to Jim and looked elsewhere.

 

But as for Allen, this is his first year actually calling the shots. So I'll hold off on judgement of Snyder for going with Allen until more time has passed.

 

Snyder does get blame for the Shanny hire and giving him complete control. Hopefully he's learned not to give coaches that much control. I like that he has stepped back. Snyder is a bad owner in the sense that the people he has given control to have not worked out. However, let's not act like they are all crazy, dumb decisions. It's easy to criticize but we shouldn't forget that the majority liked Gibbs being brought back and liked the Shanny hire. Doesn't mean he's absolved of criticism, especially not when Cerrato and Zorn are in there, but the losses are definitely causing over-criticism.

 

I remember people wanting Snyder to step back, hire a GM who hires a coach, and let things develop. That's happened, but in return you all give no time for development at all and IMO that's BS. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Very rarely do new regimes succeed immediately, especially not with the injuries we've faced. But instead of showing patience, it's "oh, Allen isn't a real GM," "oh, Snyder is still making decisions," "oh, Gruden was hired only because he's buddies with Allen," etc. etc. Like it or not Allen has NFL pedigree and is qualified for his position. Like or not Gruden was a logical choice as HC, he has a proven track record of developing an NFL offense. One look at our conservative moves in FA shows Snyder isn't involved.

 

Despite a bad DC who needs to go and an OL that isn't even mediocre, and with all the injuries we've faced, we've been competitive in every game but 1 this season. Each loss the blame can largely go on the shoulders of the back-up QB. I want to see what the team looks like with RG3 back in and what they do in the offseason. I'll say this much: if OL and a new DC aren't priorities, THEN I'll be right there with you guys demanding a complete overhaul. But if we bring in a talented DC like Wade or Ryan, and have 2 quality starters at RG and RT then I believe this team is solid, but that is also because I believe in RG3 and the offense.

 

 

Losses are frustrating, but one thing I'm starting to get disturbed by is the number of frustrated fans who are letting the anti-Snyder agenda and the frustration of losing start swaying them on the name. The past Redskins were amazing, and giving up on the name would sully the past greatness. We shouldn't give up on the little good we have.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think Bruce is a bad GM, but we need a better scouting department. I agree he probably shouldn't be picking players.

Probably need a better scouting department? There is no probably about it. But you can't sell season tickets to an imaginary 200k waiting list based on a brand new scouting department, so just like the practice bubble, it's going to be a while before he gets around to it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Snyder is INDEED where the main focus should be. It's also the most frustrating aspect of all of this, because there's NOTHING we can do about it. 

 

So, so depressing. It's not like you can even have any faith that the people at the top are working diligently and IN THE RIGHT WAY to turn things around. They don't even know what the "right way" is. 

 

Having someone you despise at the head of your organization really makes the losing so much worse. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...