Slow day thread: How different would the last 10 years be with John Kent Cooke?

[SkinsHokieFan]

We have now seen a decade of ownership under Daniel M. Snyder, and every Redskin fan should agree the results are downright unacceptable

1999- 10-6, division champions, 2nd round playoffs

2000- 8-8, no playoffs

2001-8-8, no playoffs

2002- 7-9, no playoffs

2003- 5-11, no playoffs

2004- 6-10, no playoffs

2005- 10-6, playoffs, 2nd round

2006- 5-11, no playoffs

2007- 9-7, 1st round playoff loss

2008-8-8, no playoffs

That is 4 losing seasons, three 10 loss seasons, 3 8-8 seasons, 3 winning seasons, one division championship and no NFC title game appearances

This with 5 different coaches (Norv, Marty, Spurrier, Gibbs, Zorn), 4 different "GMs" (Vinny, Marty, Mendes, Gibbs) and many many QBs

Now, lets go back to the winter of 1998-99 and pretend John Kent Cooke was able to secure the Redskins.

How different would this organization be?

A few of John's strengths-

Experience"leading" the organization (by the late 1990s he was attending the NFL owner meetings in lieu of his father)

Very unassuming to the point you forgot if he was the owner

"Allowing" the football people to do their job, by all accounts he did was not a leading driver of the 1997, 1998 or 1999 offseasons (he did control the team during the 1999 offseason). All those decisions were Casserly

Willing to spend money. See the signings of Stubblefield and Wilkinson prior to the 1998 season

Weaknesses

Seemed to accept mediocrity. He could have, and probably should have fired Norv after the 1997 season or during the 1998 season

The team as a business seemed to lack some umph

Probably too patient, again see Norv and see Casserly being around

So how would the team have been different?

A) It would be hard to tell how the 1999 season would have gone. 2 of the key acquisitions were Larry Centers and Marco Coleman, both Snyder moves. Along with that Snyder brought in Bill Arnsparger

The 2000 offseason wouldn't have happened

C) I think JKC jr sticks with his post Norv coach for longer then a season. There is no Spurrier ball in DC

D) Joe Gibbs never returns as head coach

E) I think there are more wins, a division title in there, and a trip to the NFC title game. In fact, with the right coach at the early part of the decade I could see a Superbowl team, seeing how the team was in great cap shape and had tons of picks going into the 2000 offseason

Thoughts?

[The Full Monty]

There aren't much guarantees on what if's, but I'd wager we would never have gotten into the business of trading draft picks as much as we have under Snyder. Yes I'm aware George Allen did it a lot and even Beathard did too.

The Redskins, since 2000, have had the fewest draft picks of any NFL team and in a salary cap era that means trouble if your FA's don't work...cough cough...

[Stophovr6]

I don't know how things would turn out but If i could snap my fingers and Snyder would have never been owner of the Skins, I would do it.

[SkinsHokieFan]

There aren't much guarantees on what if's, but I'd wager we would never have gotten into the business of trading draft picks as much as we have under Snyder. Yes I'm aware George Allen did it a lot and even Beathard did too.

The Redskins, since 2000, have had the fewest draft picks of any NFL team and in a salary cap era that means trouble if your FA's don't work...cough cough...

That is certainly a given. And with the resources the team had heading into the 2000 draft, in particular 3 first round draft picks and tons of cap room, the team was set up to be a powerhouse this decade

[paintrain]

There aren't much guarantees on what if's, but I'd wager we would never have gotten into the business of trading draft picks as much as we have under Snyder. Yes I'm aware George Allen did it a lot and even Beathard did too.

The Redskins, since 2000, have had the fewest draft picks of any NFL team and in a salary cap era that means trouble if your FA's don't work...cough cough...

Someone can do the research on this one but I don't think we were very active in trading draft picks during 2000-2003, Gibbs basically ignored draft volume but hit on many picks (Taylor, Rogers, Landry, Cooley to name a few), our first year post Gibbs we had 10 picks.

I wonder if JKC II would have fired Norv, hired Marty and what Marty would have done with more than one year in DC.

[elkabong82]

What would have happened if ES collectively bought the Skins and voted on moves?

[SkinsHokieFan]

Someone can do the research on this one but I don't think we were very active in trading draft picks during 2000-2003, Gibbs basically ignored draft volume but hit on many picks (Taylor, Rogers, Landry, Cooley to name a few), our first year post Gibbs we had 10 picks.

I wonder if JKC II would have fired Norv, hired Marty and what Marty would have done with more than one year in DC.

2001 draft we only had 4 picks

2002 we had 10 picks

2003 was when Danny first started to trade picks constantly. Only had 3 draft picks

[Stophovr6]

What would have happened if ES collectively bought the Skins and voted on moves?

Championship!

[IbleedBnG83]

Shoulda, coulda, woulda...

[Shilsu]

Here is an article written on April 7, 1997 that I found utterly hilarious.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/redskins/longterm/cooke/articles/future7.htm

[Chief skin]

Junior cooke stunk, he would still have Norv here. danny and vinny stink pick your poison

[redskin56]

Mr. Cooke did not trust John with the Redskins. That is precisely why the sale of the team was contained in his will. He gave John a shot to purchase the team for a "commercially reasonable" bid if there was a higher bidder, but the trustees of the Jack Kent Cooke foundation must have determined that John's bid was not "commercially reasonable" as to Snyders.

Notwithstanding John's involvement with the Team, Mr. Cooke thought John would not keep the Redskins as competitive and successful as they were under Mr. Cooke.

[youngestson]

Junior cooke stunk, he would still have Norv here. danny and vinny stink pick your poison

John Cooke never had total control of the team like his father, and what influence he did have lasted less then two full seasons.

What he would have been like as an owner completely up in the air, but chances are good he would have been better then Danny. Cooke at least had the sense to let football people make the football decisions.

[morpheusmeyers]

Another interesting what if question to think about...

What if Marty was still the coach 8 years later. My guess would be that he would have racked up 4 or 5 playoff seasons over that time frame.

[Darth Tater]

Norv may still be our coach, we'd have never even gone to the playoffs almost certainly, we'd have worse record.

[Oldskool]

We know that if Cooke SR were still alive and the owner, the FO structure would be very different than what we have now.

Hell, even if Jr. had manned up and kept the team it would have been night and day.

[Taylor 36]

I think some people have short memories, or no knowledge of this franchise in the past. The Redskins, even under JKC, were always one of the teams with the fewest draft picks.

Regardless, if you look at the record of this team under JKC, taking away the Gibbs years, we were not that much better. The last six years, before Snyder bought the team were dismal. So, don't think that JKC was a magician that would have fixed everything magically over the past decade.

[SkinsHokieFan]

Norv may still be our coach, we'd have never even gone to the playoffs almost certainly, we'd have worse record.

You think we'd have less then 3 winning seasons the last decade?

[ExoDus84]

I dunno....how well did we do between 1993-1999 before snyder bought the team? We werent exactly a powerhouse during that time.

[SkinsHokieFan]

Regardless, if you look at the record of this team under JKC, taking away the Gibbs years, we were not that much better. The last six years, before Snyder bought the team were dismal. So, don't think that JKC was a magician that would have fixed everything magically over the past decade.

I don't think he was magician either. He had some serious weaknesses which were evident after the 1997 disaster

My question is, in light of what Dan Snyder has done, which is really failure after failure, how would JKC Jr compare?

[FrFan]

Simply much better

[Rocky21]

Here is an article written on April 7, 1997 that I found utterly hilarious.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/redskins/longterm/cooke/articles/future7.htm

And I wept openly. If only JKC had put the Skins in some kind of trust.

[ECU-ALUM]

Who knows how things might've worked out...I think it is safe to say this though...Vinny would not be here.

[BAFGA]

What would have happened if ES collectively bought the Skins and voted on moves?

Worse than Snyder.

[BAFGA]

The stadium would not be called FedEx Field and would still have around 78000 seats (which would not be a bad thing).

I think the 1999 season would still have happened if Snyder had not taken over.

Casserly would have survived much longer, which could have led to mediocre results.

I think another question should be: What if Milstein took over this franchise instead of Snyder?