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Killer line from Bill Simmons' column this week regardng Shanahan


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As others have stated, not exactly a revelation is it? Shanny has had two losing seasons here after arriving with us having an almost zero talent roster when he took over. Last year we started the rebuild properly and he has great production from last year's draft picks, and remember we still have J Jenkins to come back from injury who looked great in pre-season. Another decent rebuilding job over the summer and we will be in ok shape next year but if we have a losing season then I'll suck it up. I won't enjoy it but I think we have to keep the faith in Shanny through next season, as I think we might still be two draft/FA's away from being contenders... particularly if we have to give up the farm for a stud QB this year. Shanahan and Bruce Allen have shown plenty to keep me onside, and back them to succeed in the long game.

Bill Simmons can say what he likes, but you can't win with no talent at the end of the day, and at the moment we have a few talented players - like Kerrigan, Rak, Helu etc but not a talented team. I'd love to see how Simmon's would have rebuilt this team, my guess is pretty badly.

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I am one of the biggest critics when it comes to our beloved B&G, but even I realize that Shanny and Allen are trying to repair years of damage done by Danny's puppet aka Cerrato.

That being said? I have no problem with people being critical of Shanny because his record the last few years he's been coaching speak for itself. Gibbs took a mess of a roster from the Spurrier era and took them to the playoffs twice and this after being away from football for over a decade.

Shanny is not exempt from criticism.

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I have no problem with people being critical of Shanny because his record the last few years he's been coaching speak for itself. Gibbs took a mess of a roster from the Spurrier era and took them to the playoffs twice and this after being away from football for over a decade.

They both started out on the same track - acquiring veteran QBs, but from there they diverged. Gibbs used FA and trades to acquire a lot of veteran talent with a definite "win now" approach, while this past off season was a glut of draft picks. The core of this team appears to be being built from the draft and only supplemented by veterans such as Fletcher and Hall. Same starting point, but with very different paths. In my opinion, the 2 playoff runs we had were more of a testament to Gibbs' coaching than an indication of Shanny's shortcomings. That being said, yes neither one of them should be exempt from criticism. I just don't think its a meaningful comparison between the two.

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It's a modern day version of The Emperor has No UnderArmor. (Though personally, I don't agree. Let's see where Shanahan takes this.)

BTW, did anybody read the footnote to Simmons' Giants/Cowboys writeup?

Before Week 16's games, reader Ryan Mac in Smithtown, N.Y., summed up the NFC East best: "As a diehard Giants fan and season ticket holder, I can't tell you how much of an emotional roller coaster this season has been (mostly for the worst). It's funny that the same can be said for our arch-rival Cowboys and (more recently) Eagles fans as well. We're all miserable. Therefore, I propose that Mara, Jones and Lurie all hold a press conference this week in which they unanimously announce that they have decided to nominate the Redskins as the NFC East division winner and playoff representative this year. The Redskins fanbase would be extatic to have a home playoff game, and the Giants, Eagles, and 'Boys fanbase and media won't have to talk ourselves into how we'll beat a better Falcons team in the wild card game and live in a false reality for the next three weeks. Done and done."

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I love how these columnist produce material with NO context. I would like to know if Bill Simmons even watch Redskins games. Most of the well respected analysts of the game say that the Redskins aren't that far off. And the only thing thats holding them back is a legit QB. Actually i've heard this sentiment about 3 times yesterday on Sirius NFL radio yesterday.

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I'm of the notion that these past two "disappointing in the W-L column" seasons might be the best thing that has happened for our team going forward. If anything, it has hopefully provided a reality check to our arrogant owner that he just can't plug in a big name coach and expect instant results.

This has probably been the first true rebuild we have undertaken since the early-to-mid 90s with Norv, and both of these instances have had double-edged swords. I think people were inclined to be a little less critical of Norv at first because the Skins had had a 20-year run of glory and thus there was more acceptance of a down period. Shanahan on the other hand has walked into a situation where we've been crap for so long and thus folks are so starved to see a winner and are thus impatient. On the other hand, Norv could've won several division titles here and still would've considered a failure because he essentially followed a guy where Super Bowl appearances were the norm. With Shanahan, we've had two straight double-digit loss seasons, and some here are calling the job he is doing "amazing" in large part because of the crap Vinny left here. Its all relative.

Which leads me to a couple of interesting "what ifs" to consider:

1) What if Pat Bowlen had fired Shanahan at the end of 2007 and Snyder had been able to land him after Gibbs retired in early 2008? And then we went 6-10 in both 2008 and 2009? Do you think the fans reaction would be the same as it is currently?

2) What if Snyder had fired Vinny at the end of 2009, brought in Bruce Allen, but Shanny wasn't available and Bruce had hired a coordinator from another team to be the HC here. That guy and Allen made the same personnel moves that Shanny has made here so far, and we had gone 6-10 both years. Do you think Snyder would be pressuring Bruce to fire the guy?

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That being said? I have no problem with people being critical of Shanny because his record the last few years he's been coaching speak for itself. Gibbs took a mess of a roster from the Spurrier era and took them to the playoffs twice and this after being away from football for over a decade.

It's not actually being critical of Shanahan, though...it's taking a simplistic potshot at him.

By the logic he's using, Wade Phillips was damn near a HOF shoe-in during his time with Dallas, as he amassed a 33-15 record during the three years he coached the Cowboys before he was fired in mid-season. And we knew all we needed to know about Belichick's ability to coach from him having won 36 of his past 79 games right before going on an insane run of Super Bowl appearances and wins.

Criticize Shanahan all you want...but to claim that his record over the past 79 games ALONE means he's not a good coach is asinine.

Shanny is not exempt from criticism.

Neither is Bill Simmons lol...nor is LKB for 1) thinking Simmons' comment was a "killer line" and 2) thinking that "killer line" was worthy of its own thread.

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This is pretty funny. I wish we would have gotten a young coach to pair up with a young team but it didn't work out that way and we are kinda stuck with the Shannys, for better or worse.
the team has gotten younger, and the shannys (& haslett), are respected in the nfl. I bet jerry jones wishes he had our coaching staff. some eagles and giants fans too.
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Shanahan is a great coach and an even greater administrator. If you watch him closely, you can see the elements of great coaching emerge on the field. He just hasn't been winning, and I think that's mostly because the QB situation has sucked something fierce. That's a personnel issue, not a coaching issue.

Plenty of mediocre coaches win because they've got great teams. Mike Smith, Jim Caldwell, Jason Garrett, Norv Turner, so on and so forth.

Plenty of fantastic coaches lose because the roster isn't good--Bill Belichick in Cleveland, John Fox at the end in Carolina, Andy Reid this season, so on and so forth.

Mike the personnel man is more of a mixed bag. But I'd say his personnel moves here for us have been far better than his moves the last five years or so in Denver. The process has been slow but the roster seems to be getting much better. I'm really happy with the way he's built the defense so far.

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They both started out on the same track - acquiring veteran QBs, but from there they diverged. Gibbs used FA and trades to acquire a lot of veteran talent with a definite "win now" approach, while this past off season was a glut of draft picks. The core of this team appears to be being built from the draft and only supplemented by veterans such as Fletcher and Hall. Same starting point, but with very different paths. In my opinion, the 2 playoff runs we had were more of a testament to Gibbs' coaching than an indication of Shanny's shortcomings. That being said, yes neither one of them should be exempt from criticism. I just don't think its a meaningful comparison between the two.

The big difference is that Gibbs had a win now approach made obvious with hindsight and he was a targeter (which seems to fail if you don't have good back office support). While Shanahan did bring in many old vets, they were cheap, available and many brought in a winning attitude. In hindsight, he did this because he needed to re-make the roster fast that had some chance of winning with little resources to do so. See where the Pats where in Belichick's first year, in his case, he had a large core left over from Parcells (many were older) including a pretty good QB while Shanahan did have a core of older players left over from Gibbs, it was much smaller, many were done by 2010 and no top QB. Zorn's team was worse than what Carroll left. Belichick had more resources to bring in new blood in year 1 so he had less re-tooling and more resources to do it.

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By the way, we just lost to the ****ing Vikings.

And I want someone to explain to me how we have more "young talent" than anyone else in the division. I've never seen two draft classes over-rated to the degree these last two have been. We have already put Hankerson in the Pro Bowl after one game. If we ever had a second year receiver like Antonio Brown, this site would have to be bought by Brazzers.

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By the way' date=' we just lost to the ****ing Vikings.[/quote']

And the Packers just recently lost to the ****ing Chiefs right after firing their head coach.

And I want someone to explain to me how we have more "young talent" than anyone else in the division.

Did anyone on this thread say we did?

I've never seen two draft classes over-rated to the degree these last two have been. We have already put Hankerson in the Pro Bowl after one game. If we ever had a second year receiver like Antonio Brown, this site would have to be bought by Brazzers.

And I've never seen so many strawman arguments presented in one post before lol ;)...

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