The Five People You Meet in the Redskins GM Search (Merged)

[E-Dog Night]

So conventional wisdom says that Michael Wilbon's last column was spot-on, and that he named the 5 best candidates for the Redskins GM position.

This is assuming, of course, that Daniel Snyder sees the light and lets Vinny Cerrato know that his services will no longer be required, after the Redskins return home from San Diego on January 3rd, 2010, with what projects to be another losing season.

Specifically, Wilbon printed the names of 5 people "who know personnel and are ready to build a football team", as relayed to him by someone in the NFL world who ostensibly knows such things. I'll allow that Wilbon is much more connected with such people than I am, and that his list contains merit.

So who are these guys, and which one of them is best suited to take on the task of wresting the Redskins personnel decisions from Snyder (good fricken luck)? I thought I'd check, instead of going to sleep like a normal person. In order of appearance...

:logo:

Chris Polian

General Qualifications:

Began his tutelage in 1994 as a scout for the Carolina Panthers under his father, current Colts GM Bill Polian. Followed his father to the Colts in 1997. Was promoted shortly thereafter to VP of football operations, a position he currently holds.

Pros:

With his father, has constructed one of the best NFL teams in the last decade. His research apparently contributed to the decision to draft Peyton Manning over Ryan Leaf. The vast majority of Colts players are draftees, including all 11 offensive starters on the Colts’ Super Bowl roster. Consistently finds top contributing talent despite regularly picking near the bottom of the draft order. Has "intuitive ability to know football players" according to Colts owner Jim Irsay. Forty Colts’ draft picks since 1997 are either currently starting on the team or started at least 1 year for the Colts. Three of the players drafted in 1999 started for at least 8 years.

Was instrumental in assisting his father in building the Panthers – a team that nearly went to a Super Bowl in their second year in existence.

Twelve years of experience under arguably the best GM in football, and will always be able to lean on his father’s advice in the future.

Cons:

Unproven in the role of GM/president of football operations. Difficult to say how much of his success is directly related to his father.

Likelihood of coming to the Redskins: Very slim. Has been offered GM positions in recent years by the Dolphins, Forty-Niners and Falcons, and turned them all down. Bill’s contract with the Colts is up in 2011 and Chris appears to be the heir apparent. Seems doubtful that he would leave that to clean up the Redskins’ mess.

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Eric DeCosta

General Qualifications:

Has been a top NFL scout since 1997. Promoted to the head of the Baltimore Ravens’ scouting department in 2003. Named Ravens Director of Player Personnel in 2009.

Pros:

Served under Ozzie Newsome for over a decade. Recommended Terrell Suggs with his first draft choice as head of the Scouting department. Other players drafted under DeCosta’s eye include Jamal Lewis & Travis Taylor in the 1st round (both 7 year starters), as well as Todd Heap, Gary Baxter, Casey Rabach, Ed Hartwell, Ed Reed, Anthony Weaver, and Dave Zastudil – all productive starters, at the very least, in the NFL. Has a number of successes in both the early and later rounds. Apparently played a strong role in drafting Joe Flacco.

Served as an intern in the Redskins’ player personnel department in ’95-’96, and scouted Rabach, so he has some familiarity with the Redskins organization.

Cons:

As his role increased, some Ravens’ drafts were definitely less than stellar. Drafted Kyle Boller. Some uncertainty as to how much success is due to Newsome. Has spent less than one year in a true executive role.

Likelihood of coming to the Redskins: Very possible. Has roots in the area and has worked with the Redskins before. Newsome doesn’t appear to be headed anywhere so DeCosta has gone as far up the ladder as he can go. There is a buzz surrounding him as the next great personnel guy. Snyder ostensibly would be able to outbid other owners.

:logo:

Mark Ross

General Qualifications:

Fourteen years’ scouting experience in the NFL including stints with the Eagles and Bills. Currently serves as the Director of College Scouting for the New York Giants, a position he has held since 2007 which, with the Giants, means he is responsible for all college scouting as well as drafts.

Pros:

Was the youngest scouting director in the NFL when promoted by the Eagles in 2000. Responsible for drafting Brian Westbrook, Lito Sheppard and Derrick Burgess. In 1999 as a scout, rated McNabb over Tim Couch and stood firm on McNabb over Ricky Williams despite media pressure. Three of his top 5 draft picks from 2007 (Aaron Ross, Steve Smith, Kevin Boss), are current starters for the Giants, two of which (Boss, Ross) started as rookies in the Giants’ win over the Pats in Super Bowl 42.

Noted for his great confidence and ability to learn from his mistakes.

Cons:

Had some notable misses, such as his public, on-the-record certainty that North Carolina's Na Brown would be huge for the Eagles (Brown was out of the league in 3 years, but hey, all GM’s miss from time to time). Lacks the experience of some other candidates.

Likelihood of coming to the Redskins: Not terribly good. Probably not a big enough name; may not have the personality to assume the massive challenge of being Snyder’s GM.

:logo:

Rick Spielman

General Qualifications:

Has been an NFL personnel man for almost 20 years, getting his start in 1990 with the Detroit Lions. Held top executive positions for the Bears (’97 – ’99) and Dolphins (VP, then GM, from 2000 – ’05). Named VP of Player Personnel for the Vikings in 2006 after a brief stint as an ESPN analyst.

Pros:

Older brother of former 4-time pro-bowler Detroit Lions LB Chris Spielman must have given him early insight into the finer points of what it takes to be a good NFL player (was also invited to 2 NFL camps himself but never signed). Lots of experience at various levels in the personnel arena.

Credited with drafting Adrian Peterson. Masterminded a splashy, aggressive offseason in 2008 which included trading for Jared Allen from the Kansas City Chiefs (Allen had 14.5 sacks & 2 safeties for the Vikings last season and already has 6.5 sacks, a safety, and a 52 yard fumble recovery for a TD this season, so it seems like a pretty good trade so far).

Experienced in handling the media after the Favre circus.

Cons:

Was widely derided for his perceived failures with the Dolphins. Traded a 2nd round pick for AJ Feeley. Traded 3rd round pick for Lamar Gordon. Was seen as unnecessarily trading up in middle rounds for players that would likely have remained available without the trades. Few of his moves with the Dolphins have panned out well. Has an itch for the flashy move. Hard to say whether his experience has finally paid dividends or if he just got lucky.

Likelihood of coming to the Redskins: Somewhat good. Age, experience and propensity for flashy moves for big names will surely appeal to Snyder. Has moved around a bit and 5 years seems to be about how long he stays with an NFL team (in his 4th year with the Vikings). Has a good thing going though, and might stick around. If the Vikings win the Super Bowl, he will surely be a hot commodity and Snyder might just make him an offer he can’t refuse.

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Tom Ciskowski

General Qualifications:

Has spent the past 17 years serving various roles in the Dallas Cowboys’ scouting department. Named assistant Director of College Scouting in 2000. Replaced Parcells protégé Bill Fisher as Director of Scouting in 2008. Was a college & HS coach for 15 years before becoming a scout.

Pros:

Long term experience as a coach on both the high school and collegiate levels, and nearly 2 decades as a scout. Has enjoyed recent hits such as Felix Jones and Demarcus Ware, and is credited with strongly recommending Larry Allen in the 1992 draft (gotta give him an A+ on that one).

Modeled his drafting philosophy after Jimmy Johnson’s, with whom he worked.

Has experience dealing with strong willed, meddlesome owner.

Cons:

Has tried, somewhat unsuccessfully, to shed image as a "yes man" for Jerry Jones. Admitted "it's his [Jones’] team, and he picks who he wants" after Parcells left. Recent drafts have produced mediocre results with more misses than hits. At 60, may not have the energy to take on a new team after 17 years with the Cowboys. Spent entire professional career with the Cowboys, which can only mean that he’s a douchebag.

Likelihood of coming to the Redskins: I hope really f****** bad. Why would you join the Redskins after nearly 2 decades as a Cowboy? This guy is just an older and wiser version of Vinny Cerrato. Would probably do well with a hands-off owner but would just fall into the same "yes man" role with Snyder.

[squatch66]

i said this to some other people i know but i would give an 0-16 season for chris polian to come be our gm. i can only imagine what that guy could do with the first pick in every round of the draft.

[LD0506]

i said this to some other people i know but i would give an 0-16 season for chris polian to come be our gm. i can only imagine what that guy could do with the first pick in every round of the draft.

I second this, Polian here? Un-freeking-believeable........ we instantly are valid again, the franchise is reborn, not just from what he could do here but the fact that a genuine high profile GM takes over. It would mean that the dark days are over now, not years down the road after serving some penance to convince worthwhile candidates.

[RFKFedEx]

Was instrumental in assisting his father in building the Panthers – a team that went to a Super Bowl in their second year in existence.

Actually, it was an NFCC game and not a SB. Though still quite impressive given that new expansion teams usually have nothing but rookies, washups, and unwanted castoffs from other rosters to work with.

That Panthers team defeated a dynasty Cowboys team in the division playoffs. The Cowboys were defending SB champions at the time. It was sweet to watch.

[zoony]

This is an outstanding thread. Thank you for taking the time to put it together.

[MattFancy]

I like DeCosta. Just look at all the players the Ravens bring in, besides Boller who was more a Billick pick, name a bust they have had? They seem to always bring in rookies and they produce. It just seems like when they lose a veteran, a young guy steps in and doesn't miss a beat. When's the last time that has happened here?

[Mark The Homer]

This is an outstanding thread. Thank you for taking the time to put it together.

Seconded. I'm adding this to the Noteworthy Posts thread.

http://extremeskins.com/showthread.php?p=6253592#post6253592

(the poll is still open, and I see the yays are gaining strength)

[SMOSS89]

This is an outstanding thread. Thank you for taking the time to put it together.

The good: This is an awesome thread

The bad: we won't get a new GM

[Jumbo]

Great job E-Dog. Very much appreciated. A real favor to the forum.

[SMOSS89]

Another guy they could consider is Morroco Brown.

[Oldfan]

Super post. Thank you for the time spent in putting it together.

I am in the minority on this, I'm sure, but in Dan Snyder's shoes, I'd stick with Vinny. I think he's done well since being put in charge after Gibbs left.

I think the main problem with the team right now is the O-line and the blame for it is 1) bad luck with injuries and 2) past mistakes in trading away draft picks, a problem which has been corrected since the 5-11 season of 2006.

When Randy Thomas and Chris Samuels were last fairly healthy, in the first half of 2008, this team was 6-2 even though our QB was in his first year of learning a vanilla WCO.

[RiggosMohawk]

Polian and DeCosta both sound like excellent choices. I don't base much in previous draft history, EXCEPT for qb picks - the GM is so reliant on good info from his scouts in most regards. Make the wrong QB selection, you're screwed for 4-5 years at least. That is the ONE pick you cannot get wrong.

[stebog]

... Spent entire professional career with the Cowboys, which can only mean that he’s a douchebag. ...

Where did you gather all this information? It's staggering. Mucho props to you. BTW, the above quote shows just how thorough and spot on your analysis was.

:dallasuck

[TheLongshot]

Super post. Thank you for the time spent in putting it together.

I am in the minority on this, I'm sure, but in Dan Snyder's shoes, I'd stick with Vinny. I think he's done well since being put in charge after Gibbs left.

I think the main problem with the team right now is the O-line and the blame for it is 1) bad luck with injuries and 2) past mistakes in trading away draft picks, a problem which has been corrected since the 5-11 season of 2006.

When Randy Thomas and Chris Samuels were last fairly healthy, in the first half of 2008, this team was 6-2 even though our QB was in his first year of learning a vanilla WCO.

I also stand with Oldfan on this on that Vinny has been working hard since 2007 at bringing in needed depth at various positions and has succeeded to a certain extent. The problem is, you can't fix every problem every year and the pickings were thin for OL help for us. Looking back, I didn't see much different that we could have done that would have improved today's situation. The only real issue with Vinny is that he's viewed as Snyder's sycophant and no matter how well Vinny does, he isn't going to shake that tag.

The bigger question is going to be is Zorn the right guy. That's something he's got the rest of the year to prove.

BTW, if you are going to do this, you might as well look internally as well. Campbell has done a good job as he's moved up in the ranks. It might be a good idea to consider him.

[zoony]

Super post. Thank you for the time spent in putting it together.

I am in the minority on this, I'm sure, but in Dan Snyder's shoes, I'd stick with Vinny. I think he's done well since being put in charge after Gibbs left.

Two things on that... I went on record when Vinny was promoted to Exec VP that he should at least get 3 years. This is his 2nd year, and I'm not sure he has earned a 3rd, lol.

His trade for Jason Taylor was just awful. And yes, I was one of the 3 posters to say so at the time, so I'm allowed to gloat. We STILL have to give up another draft pick this year for him :doh:

And the Zorn pick is pure hindsight of course, but I think it says something that Spags turned down the job (yes this is true) and Vinny had no other move to make so he offers the job to his newly hired OC. Newly hired OC is like "well golly gee whillackers, sounds good, I'll do it! :dunce:" That is no way to go thru a process like that. It just isn't, I don't care what the end result is.

And of course, why would he bring in a west coast guy to coach a Team assembled by Joe Gibbs? That makes no sense. But fine, if its the direction you want to go, blow up the roster. Vinny hasn't done that, instead he's re-signing guys like Sellers, etc.

His 2008 draft class is looking awful. Now a lot of that you can put on Jason Campbell (and I do). But at the end of the day, we are not getting production out of any of our 2008 draft picks. Even Horton was recently benched, our supposed gold nugget. Four straight picks... Thomas, Kelly, Davis, Rhinehart, all contributing zilch.

And I'm watching the replay of the Broncos game where I see Eddie Royal is the 3rd fastest player in the history of the NFL to get to 100 catches. sigh.

And the signing of Haynesworth... that much money for a guy who has never finished a season, and will never touch the ball. Our defense was fine last year, it was our offense that was losing the games.

I'm just not convinced he's a very smart person. Much less a football guy.

....

[zoony]

I also stand with Oldfan on this on that Vinny has been working hard since 2007 at bringing in needed depth at various positions and has succeeded to a certain extent.

Simple question because I'm curious. Do you consider Vinny a smart person?

I'm not talking about competence, I'm strictly wondering if you think he's smart or not.

....

[TheLongshot]

Simple question because I'm curious. Do you consider Vinny a smart person?

I'm not talking about competence, I'm strictly wondering if you think he's smart or not.

....

I'm not sure what kind of question is that. I've never met the guy so I don't know if he's "smart" or not. He does seem to hire smart people on his personnel staff.

[SMOSS89]

I'm not sure what kind of question is that. I've never met the guy so I don't know if he's "smart" or not. He does seem to hire smart people on his personnel staff.

Smart people that, if allowed to contribute more, could help build a winner. As Jimmy Johnson stated, they have a hard working scouting staff that goes all over the country and the Vinny almost ignores their work till probably the 4th or 5th round of the draft or later.

[JetSkins]

great roster of quality guys Snyder would never bring in, move on

[TheLongshot]

Smart people that, if allowed to contribute more, could help build a winner. As Jimmy Johnson stated, they have a hard working scouting staff that goes all over the country and the Vinny almost ignores their work till probably the 4th or 5th round of the draft or later.

Actually, that makes little sense. Vinny has usually done very well at the top of the draft. It is in recent years that we have done well in the lower part of the draft.

[SMOSS89]

Actually, that makes little sense. Vinny has usually done very well at the top of the draft. It is in recent years that we have done well in the lower part of the draft.

Yeah, which is also no coicidence that he had a guy like Morocco Brown during the recent years. In addition, the book is still out on Landry, as well as the first 4 picks of the '08 draft. So recently, as he has gained more responsibility, he has yet to hit consistently on higher picks (not that I expect him to hit on all of them). I'd say Orakpo is easily his best pick, but that was somewhat a no brainer (it was either going to be him or Oher).

[redskin301]

How about Jimmy johnson

[zoony]

I'm not sure what kind of question is that. I've never met the guy so I don't know if he's "smart" or not. He does seem to hire smart people on his personnel staff.

Well you seem to support him from where you sit. I guess you can make the judgement call that he's on the right track, but not whether or not he's smart.

It was a simple question.

....

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

We can debate whether Vinny is smart or not until the end of times.

The real issue to me is that this is one of the first times I have ever seen the front office "lose the locker room." Maybe this happened in Detroit under Millen, but I'm not sure.

Usually, the team wants the FO to fire the coach. Here, it seems like they want the coach to fire the FO.

This leads to two questions, "How bad are things inside the building in Ashburn?"

And, "How do the players even have an opinion on the FO? During the season in New England, do you think the players see a lot of guys in suits walking around? Do you think anyone in the Steelers' locker room even knows what Kevin Colbert looks like?"

[zoony]

We can debate whether Vinny is smart or not until the end of times.

I just want him to go on record