Brian Mitchell's postgame comments

[RySkins]

Rene Knott of channel 7 asked him after the game if he could believe have far this franchise has fallen.

His respone - "Yeah, Dan Snyder and Vinny are running it. They don't know what the hell they are doing."

[Hoosierskin]

Originally posted by RySkins

Rene Knott of channel 7 asked him after the game if he could believe have far this franchise has fallen.

His respone - "Yeah, Dan Snyder and Vinny are running it. They don't know what the hell they are doing."

I second that. I got the last laugh though today. I got all of my Christmas shopping done during the game. I was not about to waste another 3 hours of my valuable time. :laugh:

Snyder better find a real GM to run this team. Once he does that I will not have to worry about Christmas shopping during Redskin games in December, hopefully ever again.

Hail to the Redskins, baby...and Merry Christmas!!!

[fuji869]

Brian is correct. He hasn't missed much since getting the boot from the Redskins. I hope he enjoys the post-season party, what does that make it now 3 post season appearences to 0 since being cut to make room for prime time!

[Larry Brown #43]

Brian is absolutely right, unfortunately. I love the Redskins but I hate Snyder. Now I know the frustration that diehard Cowboy fans feel being saddled with Jerry Jones.

[Awesome]

I was almostly rooting for B. Mitch today. I can't believe the Redskins let go the guy with the 2nd most yards ever!!!! In history!!!!:gus: And has a good shot at breaking the record!!!:puke:

[Sarge]

Can't argue with a thing he said.

[Art]

Given that Cerrato is little more than a glorified scout at present the statement is without merit. People seem to think a GM will solve everything. We've had a GM right up until 1999 and how did we do after Gibbs left?

We don't need a GM. If we get one, that's fine. But, what we need is to stop tinkering now. We need to solidify what we do have and let the players grow together as a team. We need to keep changes to as minimum as we can. Sprinkle in the right free agent for the offense at guard and receiver perhaps, but, leave that alone. Add youth to the defensive line and leave the defense alone -- and this even means we can live with Terrell, though, finding a bit more of a playmaker there would be nice.

Do whatever you can to keep young players and let these guys grow as a group. Whether you have a GM or not it matters little if you won't allow yourself to stick with a plan. This offseason was an excellent beginning to a long term plan. Stick with it. Sign the core guys. Stay young. Stay together. Grow. We'll be fine.

[Awesome]

I agree with everything you said Art, except the part about being able to live with Terrell. The guy can't make an open field tackle to save his life. There were several key plays where an Eagle blew right past him. At safety he's the last line and is the priamary reason the D has given up so many big plays.

[gridironmike]

It was awful to be reminded all day long that five former Skins were contributing to their win (although we got Kalu and Thrash from the Feebles to begin with). The one that hurts the most is Brian Mitchell. He should have been a lifelong Redskin. !@#$%^ Deion!:gus:

[fuji869]

Originally posted by gridironmike

The one that hurts the most is Brian Mitchell. He should have been a lifelong Redskin. !@#$%^ Deion!:gus:

He should have been one, JB of Fox Sports even said on the halftime show that B. Mitch was the heart and soul of the team. But Deion was a great pick up, he had a great one season with us. Maybe old Primetime will be in the Redskin's Ring of fame some day. :jerkoff:

[ljer]

Brian Mitchell has heart, guts, desire.......

That's why we got rid of him.:shootinth

[Larry Brown #43]

Originally posted by Art

Sprinkle in the right free agent for the offense at guard and receiver perhaps, but, leave that alone. Add youth to the defensive line and leave the defense alone -- and this even means we can live with Terrell, though, finding a bit more of a playmaker there would be nice.

So who makes these decisions on which players we "sprinkle" with if we don't have a GM? I don't trust anyone we currently have in the front office to make these decisions. Vinny is useless. Snyder has no credibility as a football man (he's Jerry Jones minus the experience as a football player). Spurrier is still learning the rules of the NFL, let alone the players (he still doesn't know how to pronounce the names of half the players on our roster). Mendes will probably be fired. So who are we counting on to make our personell moves? I'm all for continuity, and I think we can achieve that with a real GM. Snyder has shown no interest in continuity since he arrived, so there's no reason to believe he will anytime soon.

[Sarge]

What you said LB43. Who does make these draft picks and free agent pick ups. Let's see, we have

Danny - Who got rid of B Mitch for Deion, Brad Johnson for Jeff George and proclaimed Steven Davis a "Redskins For Life". No thanks

Cerrato - Who was working for ESPN this time last year because NO ONE ( Not even the Bengals) would hire him. No thanks.

Mendes - Great with a wallet, but sucks at picking personnel, even before danny came along. No thanks.

Spurrier - The most palitable of the bunch, but someone who still thought he could win with Woeful and Matthews and the rest of the Florida boys.

That's a pretty grim effing scenerio, if you ask me.

[Atlanta Skins Fan]

Originally posted by Art

We don't need a GM.

Art, with the exception of Terrell, who must be cut, I agree with the general outline of your post. But I can't let this comment go.

The front office is making critical blunders, from the disaster on the interior OL (which I partly credit to Helton), to the holdout with Ramsey (solved easily with no-lose starter incentives), to cutting Serwanga.

I've always thought we had a decent draft, so the front office is not completely stupid. My hunch at this point is that the draft reflects Cerrato's influence more (college scouting), and the free-agency blunders on the OL, Stai trade, Ramsey holdout, and the cutting of Serwanga reflect on Mendes.

It's nice that Mendes has been able to impose some financial discipline on Snyder. But that's about as far as we can go praising him. He's hurting the team.

I'm undecided on Cerrato -- I think he's better than a lot of people give him credit for at talent evaluation, but as top dog he might just encourage Snyder's worst tendencies to go for big splashes and emphasize skill positions over the OL. So if we can't trust Cerrato/Snyder running the show without gorging, the alternative is to look outside the organization for a true GM.

This is why I support the hiring of Wolf or Ruskell as GM.

[bulldog]

well, a team might not be required to have a GM to be successful, but I go back and look at the successful franchises around the NFL over time and there haven't been many that reached the top without one.

some teams such as the Raiders have had an owner running the front office, but as I mentioned before Davis had been in coaching and had done personnel work before becoming managing partner.

this front office simply lacks that critical decisionmaker with experience.

Snyder doesn't have the experience. Cerrato as indicated is little more than a glorifed golfing buddy.

And Mendes, who has been in the NFL for 20 years, hasn't been actively involved in personnel for quite a long time and has never been responsible for an entire front office/personnel operation for an NFL club.

If the Redskins manage to buck the trend and achieve success, great news.

But in the NFL wishful thinking without having the rocks in your pocket to back up that optimism usually results in the kind of middling seasons the Redskins have suffered through the past 2 years and the subpar season we are having in 2002.

As an aside, part of the issue of maintaining consistency, showing patience and knowing enough to resign key players to ensure stability..........they may seem like obvious things to people outside the situation but in cases where owners and other experienced people are running the show they usually fail to show that kind of patience and forebearance.

That is the hallmark of someone with maturity and self-confidence.

And despite all the brave talk about returning to glory and smoking the big victory cigar, I haven't seen that maturity and self-confidence on display much with this bunch.

It appears each summer we make things up as we go along and then look for excuses to point to a bright future when all the hype of the late winter and spring has dissipated

[88Comrade2000]

We need someone of quality aquiring players.

A plan? Who's plan? I don't think anyone is one the same page. Mendes plan? Is his the same as Snyderrato? Is it the same as Spurrier? I don't see a plan that everyone agrees to.

I think you can forget whatever we did in 2002 and startover in 2003.

We need an owner, gm type person and coach on the same page.

First set up the appropriate team:

Owner, GM type,coach. WE've got two out of 3 already in place. Mendes is gone. The question is whether Cerrato gets the job or Spurrier takes more control or a quality gm type person takes over.

Define the roles of each person and then look at the roster and see who stays and who goes. See what you need to improve the team in 2003. We won't be able to do it all but we already got a core and then build on that.

[Art]

LB,

Tell me what mistakes we made in player signings this offseason? Tell me the guys we signed or brought in that are just utter failures. The closest you could come is to name a Florida guy, but, since none cost us anything and all did help other players learn their jobs, they can't even be called failed players.

The front office did a very sound job of improving our team in the offseason by retooling us from a bit of an older group to a bit of a younger group. The players we lost were replaced by younger guys. Generally the younger guys were players who had starting experience elsewhere.

Obviously we played it thin along the offensive line and that has been a spot that has been hit and miss for us all year. But, again, when you have a plan that requires specific budgetary specifications for every group of players, you have to be willing to stick with it.

What we currently have is a bunch of people here who are willing to say that Daniel Snyder is the root of all evil even in situations where it's far from a deserved label. Air Sarge says Snyder kept George over Johnson. That's a joke. Marty did that as Marty had complete control over the makeup of the team from the players to the salary cap to the type of milkshakes players could have.

Bulldog,

Teams have been successful without a distinct GM. Our situation is a bit different because we don't have a coach filling both roles but, rather, a GM by committee of management and coaches with the ultimate sway held by the guy who controls the purse strings and Mendes does that well.

ASF,

The front office has done what it's done within the confines of a plan. Just as Marty did last year when he was given an $80 million budget and he only spent $53 million. Our problem hasn't really been the offensive line all season, though, it has not been a point of strength at all.

Today we had three turnovers. None of them were caused by the offensive line. Against the Giants we had five turnovers. Only one was directly on the line. And the line hasn't played well the last two weeks. We can win with this line. We can't win with the mistakes we make on positive plays. Essentially we've made six of our last eight turnovers on plays that were positive for us.

Let's not continue to scream about the line. It's not the line losing games, with the possible exception of the Packers game, though that's still more on Ramsey to me. We aren't losing because we aren't able to get time and protection and positive plays. We're losing because even when we do that we screw it up. That's a far deeper problem that is more directly attributed to coaching than to the front office.

[Skins24]

Rene Knott of channel 7 asked him after the game if he could believe have far this franchise has fallen.

His respone - "Yeah, Dan Snyder and Vinny are running it. They don't know what the hell they are doing."

Hmmm....

Could someone help me out here.

The franchise has fallen from what?

I thought Brian Mitchell was with the Skins during some of our worst years in Redskins History.

Now no, we haven't been very good, but it certainly is an improvment from most of the years you were here Brian.

[fuji869]

And all those lean Norv Turner Years Mitchell sayed with the Redskins when he had offers from other teams! :deal:

Brian was the heart and soul of a team that had underachievers Michael Westbrook, Albert Connel, Desmond Howard, Stanley Richard, Gus Frerotte etc.

Before he was cut Brian said he would stay in D.C. for the league minimun because he wanted to finish his career with the Redskins. If he wants to be upset at the Reskins for what they did I can totally understand. :mad:

I love the Redskins as much as any other fan but I don't feel the need to defend everything the organization does or bash players that made a difference when they were here just becauase they are no longer with the team!

:soapbox:

[Larry Brown #43]

Originally posted by Art

LB,

Tell me what mistakes we made in player signings this offseason? Tell me the guys we signed or brought in that are just utter failures. The closest you could come is to name a Florida guy, but, since none cost us anything and all did help other players learn their jobs, they can't even be called failed players.

The front office did a very sound job of improving our team in the offseason by retooling us from a bit of an older group to a bit of a younger group. The players we lost were replaced by younger guys. Generally the younger guys were players who had starting experience elsewhere.

Obviously we played it thin along the offensive line and that has been a spot that has been hit and miss for us all year. But, again, when you have a plan that requires specific budgetary specifications for every group of players, you have to be willing to stick with it.

What we currently have is a bunch of people here who are willing to say that Daniel Snyder is the root of all evil even in situations where it's far from a deserved label. Air Sarge says Snyder kept George over Johnson. That's a joke. Marty did that as Marty had complete control over the makeup of the team from the players to the salary cap to the type of milkshakes players could have.

The past offseason may not have been a disaster, but that doesn't prove anything. One could argue that the Cowboys had a solid offseason too, but ask any Dallas fan if they are comfortable with who's running their ship. We may have an OK offseason here or there, but that doesn't change my belief that the makeup of our front office is fundamentally flawed.

I don't like Snyder's entire body of work since he arrived. And it's not just player personnel. The Deion, Carrier, Bruce, George mess lands squarely at Snyder's feet, but I think the Marty fiasco is really indicative of the chaos that Snyder has wrought over this franchise. People love to applaud Snyder for dumping Marty, but they seem to forget who hired Marty in the first place. And the current Marvin Lewis mess -- Snyder hired a defensive coordinator we all knew probably wouldn't be here for more than a year.

The only thing that has been a constant under Snyder is CHANGE. Ask the players what they think of that. When Lavar was on the radio last week being interviewed about the prospect of having yet another defensive coordinator next year, he sounded so frustrated I was expecting him to say he wanted out of Washington. You talk about continuity, but continuity to Dan Snyder is a four-letter word.

As for the Jeff George/Brad Johnson situation, it was Snyder's decision to bring George in to look over Brad's shoulder in the first place, which was a mistake. I can still remember the unamused tone in Brad's voice when he commented on Snyder's signing of George: "What Mr. Snyder wants, Mr. Snyder gets."

[tex]

Originally posted by RySkins

Rene Knott of channel 7 asked him after the game if he could believe have far this franchise has fallen.

His respone - "Yeah, Dan Snyder and Vinny are running it. They don't know what the hell they are doing."

Brian is shooting straight from the hip as is his way.

I think he loves rubbing their faces in it as repayment for canning him.

[Art]

Again, LB, look at the names you mentioned that Snyder was credited with bringing in before the 2000 season. Snyder's move to bring in Carrier, Bruce and Sanders improved our defense 24 spots in the rankings. What an amazing success to lay at Snyder's feet.

People like to say Snyder did something wrong with George. But, it wasn't Snyder that guaranteed George money. That was Marty. Snyder gave him $2 million. We could have cut him before June 1 and took a total cap hit of $1.5 million. We could have cut him after June 1 and took a total cap hit of $750,000. Instead, Marty gave him $3.8 million in guaranteed money and when we cut him, we took a $4.3 million hit.

So, lay the blame on Marty where it belongs.

I do not disagree with you that this franchise needs continuity more than anything else. And, I hope Snyder realizes this more than anything else. But, what we can't do and shouldn't do is fictionalize errors on Snyder's shoulders that weren't his. Remember now that if Snyder were in control of the 1999 offseason we'd NEVER have had Brad. We probably would have had Kearse or Culpepper.

That's what a GM did for us when last we had one.

[panel]

I think I should be the new GM.

[88Comrade2000]

Originally posted by Art

So, lay the blame on Marty where it belongs.

I do not disagree with you that this franchise needs continuity more than anything else. And, I hope Snyder realizes this more than anything else. But, what we can't do and shouldn't do is fictionalize errors on Snyder's shoulders that weren't his. Remember now that if Snyder were in control of the 1999 offseason we'd NEVER have had Brad. We probably would have had Kearse or Culpepper.

That's what a GM did for us when last we had one.

Continuity? We've been mediocre- some continuity.

1999 was a unique situation that was made worse by the nfl not having the guts to immediately reject Milstien.

CC panicked and traded for BJ. Had the offseason folded differently, we'd probably would've overpaid Trent Green.

You say Mendes has a plan and that's probably true. Thing is, I don't think we have a coach or owner that agrees with that plan. I expect Mendes to be dismissed in early January. The issue on the front office will be who is aquiring the players in free agency/draft. Is it Snyder? Is is Cerrato? Is it Spurrier? Do we hire some GM type person to help Spurrier?

On offense who really comes back? WE an offense suited for Martyball not Spurrier's fun'n'gun. So Spurrier will have to mold the offense to his image.

QB- Ramsey-projected Starter?? Are we sure Synder/Spurrier won't go after a veteran? As we see in today's nfl, you need a good backup. Is Danny W the guy?

WR- Gardner is coming back but I don't view him as our #1 WR in Spurrier's . The Skins will definitely sign a free agent or maybe two. I think the Skins will also draft one WR from rounds 1-3.

C,OG- do we go with what we have? I'd prefer one free agent signing and draft a couple of players that could eventually start. Maybe keep some some of the players we have also. Can't have enough HOGS.

RB- Betts, Watson? are we really comfortable with them? WE need to replace Davis and if they aren't the answer; then RB maybe have to addressed in draft or free agency.

PErsonally I would do everything we can to get Spurrier his offense in 2003;then fill in the holes Defense with cheaper free agents or lower round draft picks. Think is the defense is on stronger ground then the offense- which really needs retooling.

On defense just resign Gardner and then draft a DE/DT in the draft- the only position I'd be willing to spend a higher round pick on. I think this offseason will have more of an offensive feel than a defense feel.

I know continuity is good but with our players, especially on offense- we need change.

[Art]

The change you seek on offense is already there for the most part. Stai and Jones are returning on the offensive line. That immediately improves our starting quality and depth. And, we may get rid of one or both if we make any major moves in the offseason. Moore certainly has been the least of our problems this year.

I think, also, we will go after at least one receiver. Probably just one, especially if we sign Thompson back. But, we're not talking a ton of change. Really, you bring Royal, one free agent receiver and Mo Collins into the mix and that's pretty much all you have to do with the offense to expect it to be a little to a lot better. Defensively I think we need some defensive line depth and speed and quality and we'll be fine if we do nothing else. Though, Terrell would be nice to improve upon and move back to a special teams ace.