Oldfan Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 I have known a few Dan Snyders in my time. Let me tell you about him. Genuinely self-confident people act as though they have nothing to prove, to themselves or anyone else. Dan lacks self-confidence. He's a short, Jewish kid with a helluva lot to prove. His problem is narcissism, the same problem that plagues us all to some degree. In Dan, the problem manifests itself as a need to feel superior. The same need that drove him to financial success has worked against him as the owner of the Redskins. He came in thinking that he knew it all; he made mistakes and learned from them. He won't repeat those mistakes. He's not a fool. What did Dan learn from Joe Gibbs? I think he learned that he should never again turn over full control of the team to anyone. The owner should stay closely involved with the process. He has to set the objectives and approve of the plans to achieve them. I suspect that Dan Snyder wants a collaborative decision making process. He will stick with Cerrato and Zorn as long as both demonstrate that they can work together to identify and correct the problems. As long as progress is made, they'll stay. Both men seem to like each other, they're both bright, so it shouldn't be a problem. I foresee an intelligent, stable management process ahead. My guess is that you can put thoughts of Pioli, Parcells and Cowher out of your mind. The trade of draft picks for Jason Taylor didn't make sense to me, but with that exception, I have been on board for all the roster moves since the front office changed its course after the 2006 season. We still have a price to pay for the mistakes of the past, but we're headed for a deeper, more-talented roster. Bringing in Jim Zorn to work with Jason Campbell was a stroke of genius. Jason's sloppy mechanics imposed a severe limitation on his potential. He was a different, much improved QB this year. Unlike most fans, I was not disappointed in the overall performance of Zorn's offense in year one. It moved the chains, controlled the football and did well in the field position aspect of the game. I was less disappointed in the red zone failures than I was in the clock mismanagement which suggests lack of preparation. The scheme will evolve, of course. So, Redskins fans, I'd like to suggest that you take a look at the progress of this organization since the close of the 2006 season. IMO, the front office is making better decisions that ought to pay off in time. As I've said, I've known a few Dan Snyders in my time. They can be brash, obnoxious, really hard to take on a daily basis -- but if you had to go to war, and you found yourself in a foxhole needing a mate you could count on, you could do worse than a short, Jewish kid with a helluva lot to prove. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Operations Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 What does him being Jewish have to do with anything? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernie5 Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 I think the Jewish thing is just part of the character sketch. I agree w/ Oldfan on this. I think the decision-making has improved, but it's still a work-in-progress (unfortunately). Whether Snyder gets it right or not depends a lot on the 2009 season. A lot of successful teams have owners involved in the decision-making process, by the way. Bob Kraft's son is heavily involved in running the Patriots. Kraft himself was before turning things over to Jonathan. Jerry Richardson in Carolina, the Rooneys in Pittsburgh and the Spanos family in SD have always been busy working the football and business sides of their teams. Doesn't always work (ask Marty about DC and SD), but it's hardly unheard of. Most teams get input from the owner, at varying levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veteranskinsfan Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 As long as he keeps Vinny each year he is repeating one big mistake. Bring in an experienced football general manager and let Vinny be that person's assistant so he can still be involved in scouting (if the owner insists on keeping him around). This is what the 49ers did when Vinny worked there. Why did our owner ask himself this question- If Vinny is so wonderful then why did the 49ers let him go? Also when we consider bringing in players like Jason Taylor and pay him big bucks why doesn't our front office ask this question? Why is Miami so willing to let Taylor go? Over the last 5 years we have made so many bad free agency moves and poor draft picks that we are paying for these mistakes year after year; bad decisions are hard to recover from in one year's time. As a franchise dealing with one or two major mistakes, they result in a negative compounding effect. Think about the cumulative effect of making five or six bad personnel moves which then cripples any franchise for several years. (i.e. Lions) Plus are we still paying off Deion Sanders for example on his ridiculous contract?? Remember when Synder let Norv bring in several ex-Cowboys and each one of them was a total bust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jweisk1 Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 What does him being Jewish have to do with anything? He gets 8 nights of presents instead of just 1...:whoknows: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dictator Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Remember when Synder let Norv bring in several ex-Cowboys and each one of them was a total bust. mmm...no. I don't remember that. Please tell me more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goaldeje Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Couldn't agree more. While being frustrated this year at the sequence of wins and losses, I do think that we are on the right track. Those who contend that having Snyder take a hands off role with the team are fooling themselves. This man owns a Billion dollar sports organization. Do you really expect him to sit off to the side and allow others to run it? He (hopefully) has realized that he needs to leave the football decisions to football minds; but that doesn't mean he shouldn't be setting guidelines, policy, expectations, etc, and even motivating. That's what an owner does. I will throw out that I think the JT trade was troubling because it showed, imo, that in a moment of panic (Daniels going down), our FO reverted to form from several years ago, which is troubling. Bad things are going to happen, especially injuries. We need to be able to weather those storms when they happen, not go out and make foolish trades. :2cents: I agree very much with OldFan, I think our course now is the correct one. Now the question that has to be answered is, Is Vinny the right talent evaluator? Tough question to answer, honestly, just because we don't have a lot of data. We don't know how much input Gibbs had with Vinny. And last year's draft class is too recent to properly evaluate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernie5 Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 He gets 8 nights of presents instead of just 1...:whoknows: Nice work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasRoane Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Good observation. I'm willing to see what can happen. In my mind they have a 3 year deal to show that they got it. I don't HAVE to see us win the Super Bowl. Just add layers of good depth and show some progress. I'm very happy to see them keep Zorn. I think the guy is gonna be very good. And I think Vinny has some good Football people in the scouting/personnel department now. I'm willing to wait and see how the picks pan out before calling the draft a bust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernie5 Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Because the organization operates very much behind the curtain, it's tough to know how much input Snyder has, how good a talent evaluator Vinny is, etc ... I still believe and hope that the '08 draft will yield some real contributors. Other than the Taylor trade (which, at the time, I thought was pretty savvy), I've not seen anything that makes me think that this FO can't do just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoot Point Really Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 What does him being Jewish have to do with anything? At least the Juice can spell! NOTE: Sorry it's a thumbnail... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goaldeje Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 mmm...no. I don't remember that. Me either. As long as he keeps Vinny each year he is repeating one big mistake. Bring in an experienced football general manager and let Vinny be that person's assistant so he can still be involved in scouting (if the owner insists on keeping him around). This is what the 49ers did when Vinny worked there. Why did our owner ask himself this question- If Vinny is so wonderful then why did the 49ers let him go? Also when we consider bringing in players like Jason Taylor and pay him big bucks why doesn't our front office ask this question? Why is Miami so willing to let Taylor go? Over the last 5 years we have made so many bad free agency moves and poor draft picks that we are paying for these mistakes year after year; bad decisions are hard to recover from in one year's time. As a franchise dealing with one or two major mistakes, they result in a negative compounding effect. Think about the cumulative effect of making five or six bad personnel moves which then cripples any franchise for several years. (i.e. Lions) Plus are we still paying off Deion Sanders for example on his ridiculous contract?? Remember when Synder let Norv bring in several ex-Cowboys and each one of them was a total bust. Actually, I think our free agency moves have been pretty good since Gibbs was here. Which, in retrospect, may actually support your argument. Springs, Griffin and Washington have all played extremely well for all or part of their time here. Fletcher has been incredible. Archuletta was a waste, granted. In totality, I think our free agent evaluation has been slightly above average. Our mistake during that time wasn't FA, imo. It was ignoring the draft. Which is precisely what OldFan says we are doing better with now. I happen to agree with him. If we stay this course, over the next 5 years, I think we will see continues success. Certainly much more than if we kept going after free agents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IWANTOBEGM Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Lloyd was Danny's call, not the coaches (nice getting inside information from former skins employees who play golf with position coaches) hopefully he learned from that. It is not okay for owners with no playing experience to be involved in personnel decisions, until we see otherwise it will continue to be a problem. Dan should be involved more to a degree of a CEO, the most important aspect is making good hires to run certain areas like VP of Player Personnel, HC, GM (if there is one), etc...Not I like that player so I'm going to bring him in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernie5 Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 By the way, Cerrato left SF in the midst of an ownership change (1998-99), so I'm not sure you can really say that it reflects the 49ers dissatisfaction with him as head of scouting there. In the midst of that ownership change, he joined a new owner here with the hopes, I'm guessing, of eventually taking over as GM here. Who knew it would take 9 years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernie5 Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Lloyd was Danny's call, not the coaches (nice getting inside information from former skins employees who play golf with position coaches) hopefully he learned from that. It is not okay for owners with no playing experience to be involved in personnel decisions, until we see otherwise it will continue to be a problem.Dan should be involved more to a degree of a CEO, the most important aspect is making good hires to run certain areas like VP of Player Personnel, HC, GM (if there is one), etc...Not I like that player so I'm going to bring him in. How do you know? I've heard from several sources that Lloyd was brought in despite protests from Cerrato. If Cerrato is Snyder's boy, why did Snyder blow him off? Must've been someone else in the room who wanted Lloyd. I think it was Gibbs, but I don't know for sure. I do not think it was simply Snyder saying, "I want Lloyd, let's make this happen." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCranon21 Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Good observation OF. While I'm not happy with some of the things that went with the 8-8 season, I am happy that JC has improved from last season. You got a real QB Coach, who is your head coach now. Yes he is still hitting bumps on the way, but you will get that if your coach is calling the plays. So here's to a successful season next year, and hopefully JC will become even better than this season and last. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief skin Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 He has had 10 years of ownership and what do we have to show for it?? a 48 percent winning statistic. A lot of us are disgusted with his dog and pony show. What makes it worse this year is you look at miami and atlanta they decide to get real football people in there front office and boom overnight success. Meanwhile back at the danny vinny know it all franchise more of the sdame Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWINSKINS Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 I thought all the people who works for the owner has to call him mister snyder? Inferiority complex? The Redskins took a step backwards this year,we are the cellar dwellers. The jason Taylor trade(is he still here) is right up there with t.j. Duckett/Archuleta. Could have taken merling/laws in the draft to pair with demetric evans if they believed in drafting linemen. The owner picked a head coach who took a Gibbs offense and with no personnel change??? tried to get them to play west coast offense. Too funny. Congrats to jim Schwartz/ron Meeks/steve Spagnuolo who head off to the playoffs with their teams. Obviously not good enough material for the Redskins. 1999-2008 Not much has changed. One division title,usually a 7-8-9-win season. Good enough for some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttr77 Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 We can all sit here after another non-playoff season and debate on whether he is finally doing 'it right', but every single bit of it, on both sides, is speculation. However, I can't seem to get past the fact that this team is tied for the 8th worst record in the league since Dan took over, and has yet to produce back to back winning seasons. I hate to use the blind squirrel analogy, but come on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBass1724 Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 What makes it worse this year is you look at miami and atlanta they decide to get real football people in there front office and boom overnight success. Meanwhile back at the danny vinny know it all franchise more of the sdame Atlanta and Baltimore are doing very well with their ROOKIE HC and ROOKIE QB....where was our rookie QB??? :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoot Point Really Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 We should still go after Free Agents and acquiring players via trade... You use all avenues to improving your team. We shouldn't overpay for mediocre/old/injured talent (as we did in the past). We need to first extend DeAngelo Hall... Extend Carlos (can't believe he caught that INT) Rogers... Let Springs go... Let Washington go... Gather some talent along the OL and at Linebacker in the draft... Sorry, DL isn't our biggest need... it never really has been. We can survive another year with what we have on the DL (unless a can't miss is waiting for us at 13). We're desperate on the OL and at LB for youth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
askounes Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 What does him being Jewish have to do with anything? Oh, for God's sake, I think the guy was just using it to paint a more colorful descriptive phrase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttr77 Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Sorry, DL isn't our biggest need... it never really has been. We can survive another year with what we have on the DL (unless a can't miss is waiting for us at 13). I disagree...I really think the line needs a tackle that is able to collapse the pocket from the inside. The push was non-existent last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alleycat Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 However, I can't seem to get past the fact that this team is tied for the 8th worst record in the league since Dan took over, and has yet to produce back to back winning seasons.QUOTE]Wow...That sorta sums us up.But EVERY damn year I am right there in late August SURE !!! This is the year we get damn good. I wish we knew all the real stories so we could know for sure who to hate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alleycat Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Oh, for God's sake, I think the guy was just using it to paint a more colorful descriptive phrase. If all you did was post a blank age....Someone would be offended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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