2002 Front Office report card: grading Mendes, Vinny and Snyder

[Atlanta Skins Fan]

OK, folks: I'm going to ask you to forget your prejudices about Mendes, Vinny and Snyder prior to the 2002 season. It seems to me that Vinny is still being tried on charges based on past seasons with the Skins or 49ers. I don't want to settle that debate here. Also, I don't want to rehash prior mistakes by Snyder.

What I want to do is examine the actions of the front-office and especially determine as well as we can who did the better job -- Mendes or Vinny. Personally, I can't figure out much that Mendes did well, or much that Vinny did badly -- but some key evidence is missing either way.

Here's what we know about the key front-office players. I realize roles are changing (Levin is leaving or has left, for example), but let's take summer 2002 as our timeframe. Titles are from the Skins media guide:

• Dan Snyder writes the checks and makes the big final decisions
  
• Joe Mendes, VP of football operations, makes final decisions on player acquisitions and contract offers, with particular focus on managing the salary cap
  
• Vinny Cerrato, director of player personnel, makes final ratings of players -- current Redskins, players on other teams, and most especially college players
  
• Mark Levin, contract negotiator/salary cap, performs day-to-day details in contract negotiations and makes the detailed salary cap calculations on behalf of Mendes
  
• Scott Campbell, director of pro scouting, supports Cerrato in rating players on other teams
  
• Ron Nay, director of college scouting, supports Cerrato in rating college players
  

Now let me make clear my evaluations of various front-office decisions in the offseason

DRAFT

Overall grade: A+ The draft was superb, and the rating of college players even better.

• Ramsey (1) was a steal at the end of the 1st round -- great scouting, and great calculation about when we could get him. (We didn't pick too high, and the Bears would have picked him early in the 2nd round.) Grade: A+
  
• Betts (2) was a good pick, especially in light of the need to release Davis and the poor 2003 college RB class. Apparently the team hoped to draft Portis, picked a few picks ahead of Betts, so the team did its RB scouting well. Some people complain that Betts could have been picked later, but that's a guess. If Betts becomes a productive, lead RB for at least several years, 2nd round is good value. Grade: B+ (A+ for scouting of Portis; B for Betts at this moment.)
  
• Bauman (3) is terrific value for third round. I'm convinced he could start at CB if not for Champ and Smoot. He's also a special-teams demon, and might even be an option at FS. Grade: A+.
  
• Russell (3) seems like a risky pick, given his injury history. But his exceptional speed was confirmed in camp, and coaches were pleased with his pass-catching (which had been a question). Then he blew out his ACL by tripping on a flea. Hard to judge this pick: if Russell recovers, stays healthy, learns his routes and catches well, this is high 1st round value, given his speed. But his existing injury and his injury history suggest this at best a 50/50 shot. Grade: C (could go up or down dramatically).
  
• Lott (5): hasn't shown much, even on special teams. Where is he? In college he bounced between CB and safety, suggesting even his college coach wasn't quite happy with Lott. Grade: D-.
  
• Royal (5): looked very good in the preseason, then suffered injury that put him on IR. Unlike Russell, it wasn't a freak injury, so there's nothing to indicate Royal is particularly fragile. For a TE to look good in the 5th round is good value. Grade: A-.
  
• Coleman (6): looked terrible in preseason. Assigned to practice squad; acquired by Bengals. Got in fight with Bengals. Grade: F
  
• Grau (7): long snapper was puzzling choice when Skins had a good snapper and could still afford him. Grade: F
  
• Scott (7): buried on depth chart at DE. Hard to figure if he's making progress, but at 7th round he was viewed as a project. Grade: C.
  
• Cartwright (7): absolute steal for 7th round. A+
  

Summing up, it looks like we entered the draft with five (?) picks (plus two compensatory #7 picks), and through trades and good drafting ended up with a franchise QB, a productive RB, a starter-level CB, a starter-level FB, a TE who may start in 2003, and a WR wildcard. To get three starters at premium positions (QB, RB, CB), a starting FB, a promising TE and a WR wildcard -- six players in all -- is simply outstanding. Overall grade: A+

FREE AGENTS & TRADES

Gardener was forced on the team by Snyder. Overall grade, except for Gardener: D

• Daryl Gardener: Pro Bowl-level DT for dirt cheap. A+++
  
• OL: Vickers, Loverne and Stai were busts (Stai's knee troubles existed before he was acquired). Brown was at least cheap, though poor. Moore was mediocre but affordable. Jones was a questionable acquisition, then got injured. Huge missed opportunity to acquire LG Ray Brown at vet minimum. Grade: F
  
• WRs: Green, Doering, Anthony. Anthony was a bust. Green was useful at PR (sure did miss him after he was cut), but his poor attitude and poor play at WR forced him off team. Doering played a niche role, and was a surprise to make the team. Grade: D
  
• QBs: Matthews and Wuerffel were disappointing. Grade: D.
  
• DL (aside from the late surprise Gardener): Dotson survived six minutes. Wynn was disappointing but not quite a bust. Jackson was a pleasant surprise. Grade: C
  
• LB: Armstead played better than most people expected, particularly early in the year. Trotter played worse than most people expected, then got hurt. Money used on Trotter might have been better used on the OL. Grade: B-
  

NEGOTIATIONS

Overall grade: D

• Ramsey held out for starter incentives, which I thought was reasonable as a win/win option. The team played hardball and played a terrible price. By the time Ramsey reported 16 days late, Spurrier didn't bother to train him seriously for the season, making him the scout QB. Grade: F
  
• The team cut Coleman on the gamble they could re-sign him more affordably. This ham-handed technique backfired. Grade: F
  
• The team renegotiated the contracts of Smith and Davis during the season, helping the salary cap. Grade: A
  
• The team extended Jansen's contract. Grade: A
  
• The team entered the offseason having failed to extend the contracts of key free agents, including Gardener, Tre Johnson, Thompson, Powell and Wuerffel. Some of these players could have been given modest multi-year contracts in the summer of 2002, or been extended during the season. They may still be re-signed, but the team has lost control of their fate and their salary level. Grade: D-.
  

ASSIGNING CREDIT AND BLAME

• Great draft. Credit goes most to Ron Nay (director of college scouting), Cerrato, Snyder for pushing Ramsey (presumably with Cerrato's encouragement) over the reluctance of Spurrier, and Snyder for making some good trades of picks to improve draft position. Mendes doesn't seem to have a vital role in draft, since he neither rates players nor can be credited with pushing Ramsey.
  
• Poor free agents/trades. Spurrier overrated his Gators. Scott Campbell (pro scouting) gets an F for the stinkers at OL. Trotter seems to be a Snyder deal, presumably encouraged by Cerrato, with contract work by Mendes. Not clear otherwise where Cerrato is in this mix of free-agents and trades. Emphasis on getting cheap and available (and awful) OL players seems to be a Mendes allocation of priorities, with poor scouting work by Campbell and Helton. Overall, a poor show by all -- except the brilliant move by Snyder (presumably encouraged by Cerrato) to force Gardener on a reluctant team.
  
• Negotiations. Disastrous hardball with Ramsey seems to have been a Mendes idea, encouraged by Snyder. Snyder seems to have personally mismanaged negotiations with Coleman. Lack of foresight in getting existing free agents signed before the end of 2002 is a bonehead move at the door of Mendes. Renegotiation with Smith is credit to Snyder and his relationship with Smith. Unworkable Davis contract dates to earlier contract work by Mendes, but at least was eased by minor renegotiations. Logjam with Jansen seems to have created by Mendes and broken by Snyder at the end.
  

If we give Spurrier a pass based on his inexperience and temporary Gator bias, I'd grade the 2002 front office as follows:

• Snyder: A. He gets a slap on the wrist for pushing for Trotter over basic needs at OL, but was given bad information by his front office on how good the incoming OL players were. Another slap on the wrist for mismanaging Coleman. A real good smack for backing Mendes when Mendes dug in against Ramsey. But then he gets a gigantic bear hug for his trades during the draft, for pushing to draft Ramsey, for pushing Gardener on the team, and for getting Jansen signed when negotiations had collapsed.
  
• Ron Nay (college scouting): A+. Enough said.
  
• Scott Campbell (pro scouting): F. Someone's got to take the fall for the OL debacle. His job title makes him the first execution.
  
• Levin (contracts/cap): B. The cap seems to have been managed fairly well, but the release of Serwanga and the lack of in-season contract extensions make me wonder if we squeezed too close to the cap to make intelligent in-season decisions.
  
• Cerrato (player personnel): B+. The sense I have is that Cerrato's primary role is college scouting and draft board ranking. I'd give him an "A" for this, and an "A" for presumably encouraging Snyder with some of Snyder's bolder player acquisitions, such as Ramsey and Gardener, though I'm less fond of the Trotter acquisition. (I say presumably, because Snyder and Cerrato seem joined at the hip.) I'm downgrading him to B+ for failing to block the terrible OL acquisitions -- though I have no evidence that he was the "brains" behind those acquisitions.
  
• Mendes (VP, operations): D+. I see no reason to credit Mendes with the successful draft, which is highly dependent on the detailed grading of hundreds of college prospects -- the province of college scouts, Nay and Cerrato. I also blame him for the disastrous OL acquisitions -- mainly for making the OL such a low priority in the budget, and also for retaining such poor talent evaluators who would recommend players such as Vickers, Loverne and Stai. We know from media reports that Mendes and Helton led the Stai acquisition, when Ray Brown was available for free at the vet minimum. Mendes also appeared to be the lead strategist in stonewalling Ramsey and refusing to offer starter incentives. Further, Mendes failed to extend any significant pending free agents during the season except Jansen (Flemister was a questionable priority). To his credit, Mendes apparently instilled financial discipline in the organization, improving his grade from an "F" to a "D+". (However, to be fair, the real tough job in this direction had already been accomplished by Marty as GM.)
  

Summing up on the Mendes vs. Cerrato issue: forgetting whatever happened in the past, I just can't see how Cerrato has been anything other than very good this year. By contrast, I'm hard-pressed to identify areas where Mendes excelled (I regard fiscal discipline as "competence" not "excellence"), and I can identify several areas where he clearly failed.

Snyder hit a couple of grand slams (Gardener, Ramsey) and got an RBI double in finally getting the Jansen deal done (after negotiations broke down). His black marks this year are relatively minor by comparison.

[Thinking Skins]

I think u assumed a lot and based a lot on your assumptions. If I weren't in my right mind I'd call you a Washington Times writer.

[Zen-like Todd]

Damn BK, that's harsh. I dont think that was a Washington Times-ish article. That's pure ASF material, plain and simple. Agree or disagree, ASF believes what he writes.

[Thinking Skins]

Dont get me wrong, I dont mean to be harsh, but I dont see how you can distinguish between who did what in the front office last year. I dont see how you can be so positive on Snyder and Ceratto and so negative on Mendes? What's this the get Mendes fired thread? Who is to say that the disasterous free agent season was not the fault of Snyder and his persuit of Trotter (maybe it was Lewis). After acquiring trotter and armstead, there wasnt too much money left over for free agnets, and maybe Mendes should be thanked for bringing in the guys he was able to bring in and not putting us in salary cap hell.

Right now all I'm willing to say about the situation is that our front office did pretty well last offseason. I wouldnt give the draft an A+ because while we got some nice players, we still didnt address our needs.

[KevinthePRF]

I don't really like this post either.

It seems to state facts based on opinions, I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.

An A+ for effort though! :notworthy

[inmate running the asylum]

ASF, you made a lot of assumptions about Vinny and Mendes, which I dont agree with, but I give you an A for work and effort on this thread. This is the way I saw it.

Dan Snyder - grade B+ - Has made mistakes [who hasn't] but always is aggressive and is willing to put money where his mouth is. The offseason is always exciting because of his offseason acquisitions, and I would take him over most of the NFL owners and certainly over John Kent Cooke.

Joe Mendes - draft choice decisions - B

free agent decisions B:

Cap monitoring and contract negotiations B+

You can't grade any draft after only one year, but we finally seem to have gotten promising players below the 2nd round for a change. We acquired extra picks before the draft. To rate the promising Ramsey a "franchise quarterback" is to premature to say the least, so lets wait and see whether or not he turns out to be another Gus Ferotte. All his contract signings seem reasonable, unlike Vinny who agreed to let Davis' contract balloon to $11.3 Mil in only its 3rd year. :doh:

Free agents: The Skins passed on resigning Kenard Lang and signed Daryl Gardener. They passed on Westbroken and played Derrius Thompson. They passed on Shawn Barber and signed Jesse Armstead. They gambled on an old Marco Coleman but signed a younger Renaldo Wynn [who was injured but played better in the 2nd half]. They passed on Cory Raymer but signed Larry Moore. They passed on Stephen Alexander but I don't think he was a great loss. The Skins don't use their tight ends much in the passing game anyway. You might be able to argue we didn't need Trotter that much with Kevin Mitchell around.... although I still like Trotter who is only 26. This was the first year in a decade that I can remember the Skins were able to shut down the run MOST OF THE TIME, but certainly not all the time.

I would not rate Brenden Stai a bust yet, the same as when all along I said Ladell Betts was not a bust. Stai came in on the run and had to learn a new system, and then a few games later got injured. After recovering from surgery and a whole camp he may turn out to be an asset. There is still plenty of time to cut Stai in August, if he doesn't pan out Tre should be resigned at a minimum though with incentives based on his starts.

Spurrier - grade C-

Analysis - So where did the Skins go wrong then? SS gambled and relied on two quarterbacks who bombed and his Florida wide receivers. He admitted he called some bad games which may have cost us a couple of wins. He made too many weekly lineup changes. The performance of a couple of players slipped: Stephen Davis and Big Daddy.

By season's end the defense and offensive line were playing fairly well and the offensive line was not as bad as people stated, although an upgrade at LG would help. The defense had 40 sacks and the offensive line gave up 38. But compare this with other playoff teams such as: Bucs 43/41; Raiders 43/36; Jets 30/32; Falcons 47/36; etc. The main shortcoming were turnovers and beating ourselves. The defense had very few fumble recoveries and only 14 interceptions. Our quarterbacks turned the ball over too frequently in bad field positions with fumbles and interceptions. The special teams were generally bad to terrible. There were also too many blown timeouts and dumb plays.

I was going to add my 2cents..... and now I see it turned out to be 4cents. :laugh:

[Luca Brasi]

I think you have a lot of time on your hands.

[Art]

The fact is we don't really know clearly what any particular person did in our front office. We have rumors, but nothing solid. Remember, the Ramsey pick is said to be on Mendes with heavy Snyder backing. The Betts pick is said to be on Cerrato and totally his baby.

So, giving an A on the draft is great -- though a bit high -- but you can't give it to one person. We have a cooperative here. Where there's success it's spread over. Where there's failure it's spread over.

In all, I'd give the front office the following generic grades:

Draft -- B. Could be higher but two key injuries limited the team on the field. Little production on the field until late in the year. Certainly looks as if we found nice pieces. Needs more time to fully grow into an A.

Free agency -- A. We landed two wonderful linebackers off division rivals to fit into a linebacker friendly defense. We added nice pieces on the offensive line with Moore, Jones and Stai. Unfortunately two of the three got hurt. Then we balanced that out by signing Tre. Good work all around. Daryl Gardener was a great signing, though it could have been a horrid one if his back gave out. Still, it worked out, so we give thanks. In all the front office made a very good series of moves. Spurrier's Gators didn't work out, but as Spurrier has said repeatedly, his Gators were held to a much higher standard thant he rest. They had to overwhelm the rest to get Spurrier's same respect. That they came in and assisted with the implementation of the offense and helped develop players with more physical gifts is clear. The biggest failure in the offseason was with Matthews, who appeared to be the right man for the job early on, but just couldn't get his mind out of the WCO on time.

Cap management A -- Smartly done again, and here is where Mendes remains among the best. Sharply written contracts. Contracts that are carefully done and show the ability of the team to squeeze the player a little. The wonderful Ramsey negotiations were precisely what we needed to do with that player at that time. Unfortunately Ramsey started his career in Washington by lying to Snyder and Spurrier. Fortunately Snyder made him wiggle a little. Good play will make all that go away. In all though, the management of the cap was astoundingly good. Armstead and Jones were key signings done fairly and cheaply. Gardener was dirt cheap for the production. Jansen was redone excellently. Even Trotter's numbers were friendly in this learning year.

[Riggo-toni]

Good post, ASF, but Ramsey was Mendes' pick. Mendes was the one who didn't want to trade him to the Bears. Granted, Mendes mishandled the negotiations, but you have to give him credit for what might turn out to be our most important pick in memory (if Ramsey pans out).

Also, I would give the Jansen extension a B. It could have been an A if it had been done a year or two earlier for less money, but it is arguable that we may have slightly overpaid Jansen for the sake of continuity.:deal: :peace:

[Art]

P.S.

ASF, just so you know, the team hasn't lost control of the fate of any of its own free agents. First, the offseason hasn't started in the NFL. The league is still playing. Second, free agency doesn't start until March 4, which is often considered the start of the offseason. Third, our staff is on vacation and our front office is scouting bowl games. Obviously they don't feel they've lost control of any situation. Likely because the facts are they haven't.