WP The Insider: Is Bruce Allen to blame for the Redskins' current mess?

[sempre_victrix]

Whoever decided to pull the trigger on the RG3 trade, whoever made the Haynesworth deal, whoever thought it was smart to pay Portis and Hall the big money, shanahan for believing that Haynesworth would play in a 3-4, Shannahan for the McNaab trade, whoever thought we should go to a 3-4, Snyder for not hiring a good GM, Snyder for always wanting the splashy signing or pick rather than solid blue collar players. I could go on and on.

[bedlamVR]

Can I address something here . As LS said - no matter how good the plan was in principle I would suggest that the fact we are sucking now we have the star QB on the shelf a bunch of players nicked up and sitting at 1-4 was not part of the plan.

 

It all depends where we go from here.

 

All Allen can do in the offseason is take a series of calculated risks. If those risks pay of fantastic if not we are at 1-4 and people calling for your head...

 

But lets look at those risks..

 

In the offseason he had a chance to hire a new guy on defence but do not forget he was here in the building and he saw what went on. When Hasslet says he can do better and he was stifled then maybe he was right . Jim had been with these players for years, building this defence, it is never a good idea to start over on offense and defence in the same year so taking the calculated risk that the defence would improve with additional freedom we retained Hasslett. The first two weeks we were no.1 or no.2 in defence (although our opponents were not offensive power houses). A lot of the break downs have been players not executing correctly (Rambo) or players thrust into to starting roles too soon because of injury. That said the defensive game plan against the Seahawks was just wrong. We should have been playing a spy on Wilson (Riley or Merriwether) (I am not sure if that adjustment was ever made) which makes this a gamble that turned bad. There are some things that he can do to mitigate that this year and that may include bringing in someone from the outside (Wade Philips Springs to mind) as a consultant but does give a dead man walking syndrome with Haz..

 

The second calculated risk was signing Orakpo to the tag. Okay well lets look at the situation dispassionately. Brian Orakpo is a good but not great pass rusher and had become a good all round OLB. On the roster behind him we had Brandon Jenkins (not interested in football) and Rob Jackson - (the normal Rob Jackson not the PED enhanced one we all knew and loved in 2012). We also had Ryan Kerrigan coming off an anomonous second half of 2013 and not much else in terms of pass rush. The quandary was, do you let your best pass rusher walk away (and the prospect of him flourishing elsewhere should not even be considered) and hope either that someone could step up or you could get an equivalent talent on the open market without spending stupid amounts of money.

 

There was a mixed response to this within the organization. They would have liked to resign him at around $8mil per season but he was not going for that he wanted more and I think we can be lucky the team did not simply cave in. The franchise tag was the safest of the different options . Not the best choice but the safest. Okay it has gone badly - but it could have gone worse had we now had to deal with a typical redskins mega bucks contract for X numbers of years for Orakpo.

 

We also did not simply give the Orakpo money to an insert name of favourite free agent here mega deal to replace him. I am not sure how not having Orkapo and having Byrd on our IR would have helped the defence which is what an awful lot of people wanted.

 

With the Orakpo situation we also hedged our bets. We took up the option on Kerrigan, drafted what I belived would have been Kerrigans replacement had we not been able to afford the super powered Orakpo and Kerrigan in the salary structure (although now it is becoming more evident that maybe Kerrigan is Orakpos replacement)... We also beafed up the internal pass rush with Hatcher and tried to improve the secondary but no one is really working out (Hall was but injured - did everyone forget we resigned him this season too)...

 

I know people want to call the Orakpo contract a train wreak but no one has yet given a viable plan B with actual names and actual player costs and actual players who would want to come and play here - (for instance there was NO WAY in hell Revis was coming here - or Byrd for that matter when it was us and no one I am sure he was looking to see if he still had the Bills FO on speed dial)....

 

So that plan did not go well but did not go badly.

 

As to the draft - Drafting is for tomorrow FA is for today - Drafting day 1 starters is a fools errand and better talents are overlooked for "NFL ready" players. Binto does look like the guy we should have taken but then there were a lot of linemen taken before Mosses and Long and how are they all doing - All HOF players 5 games into the season ? Or are they playing like Rookies (is Richardson actually playing yet?) I thought so..

 

So declaring the 2014 draft a bust 5 games into the season is a little, a smidge a tiny bit premature. Even then as of today we have Murphy getting reps, Breeland starting and the WR whos name escapes me who everyone hated...

 

It is all gambles - sometimes they work and sometimes they don't . Allen to me has a plan and I am interested to see what he does from here.

[chipwhich]

I have a feeling any plan that leads to an immediate losing record would be not a real plan to you.  Had your suggestions lead to the same results, you'd hate your own plan as well.

 

Actually it would for me.  The Redskins trot out these teams each year and play free agency like they have a real chance of winning.  If I were king, my plan would include unloading a number of these aging vets, take my lumps with young guys, build a foundation, and draft draft draft.

[Peregrine]

I think Bruce Allen is absolutely responsible for the current poor team.  For one, when given the opportunity to upgrade the defense, or the offense, he has always consistently and foolishly chosen offense.  But even then, he hasnt upgraded core pieces like the offensive line, its always been skill positions.  

 

Weve known for YEARS that the Offensive line is bad, and 3 years later, no upgrades.  Weve known for years the safeties are terrible, and 3 years later, one upgrade, a 37 year old minimum contract.  Instead of going out and getting upgrades at both, which we had the cash to do, we instead went out and got Desean Jackson.  Hes fast, its great, but what good does that do you if you give up 35 points per game and cant block long enough to get passes out?

 

His decision to go with an offensive coach, to allow Haslett to stay on staff, and his lack of any effective offseason moves means I think he has to go this offseason, unless the Redskins have a massive turnaround before the end of the year.

[TheLongshot]

 

Actually it would for me.  The Redskins trot out these teams each year and play free agency like they have a real chance of winning.  If I were king, my plan would include unloading a number of these aging vets, take my lumps with young guys, build a foundation, and draft draft draft.

 

 

No you wouldn't.  This thread is proof of it.  Five games into a losing season and people are looking for fall guys. 

 

You think it is bad now, put a bunch of young guys who aren't ready to play on the field and see how bad it could be.  Not to mention it wouldn't have been fair to Gruden to give him such a team and tell him to try to win with it. It also hurts their development if they are forced to play before they are ready.

 

Veterans are valuable.  They demonstrate by example how to play in the NFL.  They help the young guys with their experience.  Also, veterans are needed to fill holes in the roster.

[TheLongshot]

I think Bruce Allen is absolutely responsible for the current poor team.  For one, when given the opportunity to upgrade the defense, or the offense, he has always consistently and foolishly chosen offense.  But even then, he hasnt upgraded core pieces like the offensive line, its always been skill positions.  

 

Weve known for YEARS that the Offensive line is bad, and 3 years later, no upgrades.  Weve known for years the safeties are terrible, and 3 years later, one upgrade, a 37 year old minimum contract.  Instead of going out and getting upgrades at both, which we had the cash to do, we instead went out and got Desean Jackson.  Hes fast, its great, but what good does that do you if you give up 35 points per game and cant block long enough to get passes out?

 

His decision to go with an offensive coach, to allow Haslett to stay on staff, and his lack of any effective offseason moves means I think he has to go this offseason, unless the Redskins have a massive turnaround before the end of the year.

 

So, Hatcher isn't an upgrade on defense?  Also, it would be nice to know who we should have signed instead.  Remember, FA is expensive and not everyone is going to be worth the price.  Everyone was so hot and heavy about Byrd, but he was a disappointment in NO before he got hurt and was out the entire season.

 

He did address the OL by signing one guy and drafting two others.  No, the rookies aren't playing yet but I expect that they will eventually.  It is what happens when you go with young players.

[Stormy]

Kinda ironic how Russell Wilson just ran for some huge gains off the read option against us too. It almost feels like our edge defender never covered for the QB and only went for backside pursuit on their rb. You'd think our defenders would know how to play against it (always hit the hell out of the QB until they stop using it regardless of the gains from the rb).

True. Typical Haslett, a guy runs against him for more yards in one game, than he has run for in the entire rest of his season combined, and we never hit him once on a read or boot. He saw the play everyday in practice for years, but takes an entire half to adjust to it, and even then isn't ready for it when it reappears in the last critical drives of the game.

[drowland]

Not sure about this plan.  They kept the defense the same other then added a couple vets and brought in new LB coaches.  On offense they kept Shanny's zone run scheme and are mixing it with Gruden's passing scheme.  Signed a couple fast WRs and a mediocre OG.  Special Teams they hired a new coach and signed a FA LB who's made a career of playing special teams. 

 

To me the plan was lets fix RGIII and the passing game and try to win without having to make a lot of changes.  This plan works if you're set on the defensive side of the ball.  That's how it worked for Jim Harbaugh, Andy Reid and Jon Gruden.  Those coaches just needed to fix the offense and leave the already talented defenses alone.  The Skins defense was broken and they're trying to fix it with duck tape. 

[KDawg]

I'll tell you who the fall guys are right now: Vinny Cerrato, Mike Shanahan.

 

Guys who deserve credit for the nice additions to the roster: Mike Shanahan, Bruce Allen

 

Jury still out on the long term: Bruce Allen

 

Bruce Allen really can't be a fall guy yet. He's had less than a year at the helm. And there is a plan in place. I'll feel better about the plan if we, in year two of the Allen regime, start addressing the trenches in the draft... Early. I'm not advocating drafting specifically by position, but I think OL and interior DL positions need to be weighted heavily. OL more than DT.

 

But I can't judge Allen yet. The verdict is just now starting to come in on Shanahan's roster.

[Thinking Skins]

I'll bet you anything if you pull the same data on defenseive line you'll find a similar, if not worse record than the offensive line. It's pathetic how rarely and terribly we draft those two, most important positions. This isn't under just one or another personnel guy, its every guy under the Snyder regime. The message obviously comes from on high that skill positions and outside players are more important because that's about all we draft.

This is the point I was trying to make to KDawg - not that I approve it, but it just shows the methodology of the front office. I don't think its correct to say that we "don't value" these positions. I think its more of a consequence of the way we were going about business, particularly under previous regimes. I never approved of that way of doing business and was always pleading (on this board) to get a real front office, and I judged a "real" front office by the things they were doing, like not making stupid trades, not signing underperforming free agents to overvalued contracts, really only using free agency as a supplementary process instead of the primary process that we had it as before.

People like to talk about the curse of Dan Snyder or of this team, but the way I see it, the failures of this team date back to the implementation of free agency in the NFL, which was around 1992 (am I correct on that?). Casserly and Turner were not good at the draft (particularly in round 1) and would wind up depending more on Free Agents and a few low round guys to build their team. This meant we were constantly fielding a team of guys like Westbrook who had all the talent in the world but couldn't develop into anything, Shepard who all the fans loved but he was so limited in terms of his ceiling, and Henry Ellard who was an all pro, but was past his prime when he got here. That's just one position but it was repeated across the entire team. Shuler had all the talent in the world, but he didn't become anything. Gus replaces him, but he has a much lower ceiling albeit one that he reached.

Then came Snyder who kinda had a strategy of simply abandoning the draft and signing vets, ala George Allen and it blew up in his face - OVER AND OVER AGAIN. In my opinion, that's not a curse its a learning experience (hopefully) for a young owner who thinks he knows everything. Hopefully it was humbling enough for him to realize the importance of the draft. I think the biggest and most humbling experience was when he signed Haynesworth to the 100 mil contract (what did that wind up costing him, like 40 mil?) and got almost nil in return.

I was IN LOVE this offseason. The biggest signings were Hatcher and Jackson. I wasn't really a fan of Hatcher for a variety of reasons, mainly that I knew he'd only be a temporary stopgap and I'd like to develop our younger players, and was fearful that he, Coefield and Bowen would restrain the development of Baker, who's our youngest stud on the DL. But at the same time, I thought that Hatcher could make Orakpo more valuable and possibly help to hide the deficiencies in our secondary. There are other guys I probably wouldn't sign as well (Lauvao comes to mind), but hopefully he's like Hatcher, in that he's a stop-gap solution to help while we develop our young guys.

But look at our draft history:

1992 - 11 picks, 0 starters - Gibbs I

1993 - 9 picks, 3 starters - Petitbone

1994 - 7 picks, 3 starters - Norv

1995 - 8 picks, 4 starters - Norv

1996 - 6 picks, 1 starter - Norv

1997 - 8 picks, 3 starters - Norv

1998 - 7 picks, 2 starters - Norv

1999 - 6 picks, 2 starters - Norv

2000 - 8 picks, 2 starters - Norv/Terry

2001 - 5 picks, 2 starters - Marty

2002 - 10 picks, 1 starter - Spurrier

2003 - 3 picks, 1 starter - Spurrier

2004 - 4 picks, 2 starters - Gibbs II

2005 - 6 picks, 2 starters - Gibbs II

2006 - 6 picks, 3 starters - Gibbs II

2007 - 5 picks, 1 starter - Gibbs II

2008 - 10 picks, 2 starters - Zorn

2009 - 6 picks, 1 starter - Zorn

2010 - 6 picks, 2 starters - Shanny

2011 - 12 picks, 2 starters - Shanny

2012 - 9 picks, 3 starters - Shanny

2013 - 7 picks, 2 starters - Shanny

2014 - 8 picks, 0 starters - Gruden

So in the pre Snyder FA era, we were averaging 7.75 picks per year (getting on average almost an extra pick).

So under Snyder-pre-Shanny we were averaging 6.3 picks per year (less than a full draft).

Under Snyder-Allen/Shanny we were averaging 8.4 picks per year (getting on average more than an extra pick).

I think Allen values the draft and thats what I've seen in the front office's developments over the years. Look at San Diego and their draft history over that same period:

1992 - 13 picks, 2 starters

1993 - 9 picks, 6 starters

1994 - 9 picks, 3 starters

1995 - 13 picks, 1 starter

1996 - 8 picks, 0 starters

1997 - 8 picks, 1 starter

1998 - 6 picks, 0 starter

1999 - 6 picks, 1 starter

2000 - 8 picks, 2 starter

2001 - 8 picks, 2 starters

2002 - 8 picks, 3 starters

2003 - 8 picks, 3 starters

2004 - 11 picks, 7 starters

2005 - 7 picks, 3 starters

2006 - 8 picks, 3 starters

2007 - 6 picks, 2 starters

2008 - 5 picks, 1 starter

2009 - 8 picks, 1 starter

2010 - 6 picks, 2 starters

2011 - 8 picks, 1 starter

2012 - 7 picks, 0 starters

2013 - 6 picks, 0 starters

2014 - 6 picks, 0 starters

An average of 8.17 picks per year.

I can do similar things for other teams, but its simple. The more draft picks you have, the more chances you have at getting talent. Free agency at is core is a supplementary system. Its the set of players who teams decided were not worth keeping around, either because of their demands or their performance. So you generally wind up overspending in terms of return on investment. Some things like leadership are hard to quantify and there are other variables like recovery from injury that affect this. But most FAs are there for a reason. The draft is primary because you get a chance to get players who other teams haven't had a chance to see yet. They're "your guys".

Allen has changed the philosophy of this front office away from being primary free agents to being more draft focused. We still need to see him putting these draft picks on the field and get real reps, but I was encouraged by us going with Keenan Robinson instead of giving it to an ILB like Jordan or Hayward. I wish we had done it with Lich, or Long, but time will tell.

[drowland]

I'll tell you who the fall guys are right now: Vinny Cerrato, Mike Shanahan.

 

How is Vinny still a fall guy for the current state of the roster?  It's been 5 offseasons since his departure.  Plenty of time has passed to remove his stench from Redskins Park. 

[TheLongshot]

Allen has changed the philosophy of this front office away from being primary free agents to being more draft focused. We still need to see him putting these draft picks on the field and get real reps, but I was encouraged by us going with Keenan Robinson instead of giving it to an ILB like Jordan or Hayward. I wish we had done it with Lich, or Long, but time will tell.

 

Well, it helped that Robinson has been around for 3 years and isn't learning a new defense.  He's playing because he earned his spot.

 

That's the thing about rookies that people here don't seem to understand: you don't just play young guys because they are young guys.  You play them because they have worked their way into more playing time.  We've seen what happens when you are forced to play a player because you don't have any options with Rambo.  Last year, he was FS by default because we really had no other good options, and even so he eventually lost the starting job because he couldn't hack it.  The draft isn't immediate help most of the time.

[chipwhich]

No you wouldn't.  This thread is proof of it.  Five games into a losing season and people are looking for fall guys. 

 

You think it is bad now, put a bunch of young guys who aren't ready to play on the field and see how bad it could be.  Not to mention it wouldn't have been fair to Gruden to give him such a team and tell him to try to win with it. It also hurts their development if they are forced to play before they are ready.

 

Veterans are valuable.  They demonstrate by example how to play in the NFL.  They help the young guys with their experience.  Also, veterans are needed to fill holes in the roster.

 

Yes, I would.  I have been calling for a rebuild since Shanny was hired.  EVERY year, EVERY regime comes in thinking we can pick up a few free agentd and contend.  That's why the majority of our starters weren't drafted by the team.  Until we become more of a home grown team, we will never be a winner.

[Thinking Skins]

This is going to sound like blasphemy, but I'm going to defend Haslett (again). I did this last year when I pointed out that our defense (after the first two weeks of the season) was middle of the pact and sometimes pretty good. But I realize that its not a 14 game season, so that's kinda a moot point.

But I will say that Gruden is right in terms of his praise of Haslett. He's a smart defensive coordinator. I'm going to ignore things like sacks and turnovers because while I'd like them they're not how to judge defenses. If you look at Haslett's tenure here, he's done a very good job of taking away a team's primary option. It hasn't always worked, but he does make OCs get creative.

Want an example, I'm glad you asked.

Example 1: 2014 - Seattle. Primary option: Lynch. His stats on the day: 17 rushes, 75 yards
These were his runs.
17, 5, 1, 5, 3, 4, 5, 7, 0, 2, 4, 1, 9, 3, 3, 1, 2
Basically the guy had 3 good runs. You take away that first run and its a 3.6 yard average. He never got a chance to get into a rhythm and I think Has did a good job of taking away Lynch for most of the game and forcing Seattle to gameplan around Wilson's strengths, which they were able to do. 

 

Example 2: 2014 - Philadelphia. Primary option: McCoy / Sproles. Stats on the day: 19 rushes 22 yards for McCoy, 2 rushes 20 yards for Sproles, 3 receptions 30 yards for Sproles. 

He forced Foles to beat us. 

 

The problem with Haslett is that as much and as good as he seems to be at preparing to take away their strengths, he doesn't adjust well, and it seems he may overcomplicate things. So you remember the Gruden trick play to start the game in 2012 that got us. You saw how Wilson beat us when he planned to stop Lynch. 

 

People can say that they're tired of our defense being mid to bottom tier, but I can understand Haslett saying he's not focusing on those stats too much because a few bad games skews the average. In 2013 we allowed 354 yards per game - good for 18th in total defense. The league average was 348.5. So we were right in line with the league average. The 10th best defense allowed 333 yards per game. 

 

Our total yards for each game last year were

443, 580, 441, 298, 213, 359, 446, 410, 307, 402, 304, 286, 346, 243, 309, 278

 

That's half our games last year where we allowed less yards than the tenth best defense in the league averaged, including 5 of our last 6 and 6 of our last 8. That's a defense that at worse was up and down, but not one that needs to be called the worse in the league or one where the D-Coordinator shouldn't be given the consideration to stay. 

[Thinking Skins]

Well, it helped that Robinson has been around for 3 years and isn't learning a new defense.  He's playing because he earned his spot.

 

That's the thing about rookies that people here don't seem to understand: you don't just play young guys because they are young guys.  You play them because they have worked their way into more playing time.  We've seen what happens when you are forced to play a player because you don't have any options with Rambo.  Last year, he was FS by default because we really had no other good options, and even so he eventually lost the starting job because he couldn't hack it.  The draft isn't immediate help most of the time.

 

I agree, and since I don't have an all access pass I don't really know how these guys are doing in practice, but I do know that they've been in love with Robinson and not so much with LeRib. I know I was calling for Hurt or Gettis or Compton to come in for TyPo, but at the same time I was giving him a break last year because he had a good year. 

 

i think there's also a balance between the desire to develop young players and the desire of coaches to win now to save their jobs. This is where I'd like some direction from Allen to say that its not just about getting younger (like signing younger FAs), but its also about developing talent in-house. Our first round success rate in Snyder's reign is MUCH better than it was at any time under Casserly. I don't know why this is, and why the falloff between the first and the other rounds other than the lack of draft picks. But even with Vinny at the helm I thought if we'd have focused more on just drafting players we'd have been able to build a core of Redskins and possibly had better teams. Now we have that and I look at the 2011 and 2012 drafts as nice ones where we were able to find guys when we had picks. If Allen continues to have 8+ picks per draft, then we can continue this philosophy. And as much as I'd like to find more Alfred Morris's, but we can continue to find 2-3 starters per draft with the occasional draft where we can find 5 or 6 guys that's a winning team. 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I'll tell you who the fall guys are right now: Vinny Cerrato, Mike Shanahan.

 

Guys who deserve credit for the nice additions to the roster: Mike Shanahan, Bruce Allen

 

Jury still out on the long term: Bruce Allen

 

Bruce Allen really can't be a fall guy yet. He's had less than a year at the helm. And there is a plan in place. I'll feel better about the plan if we, in year two of the Allen regime, start addressing the trenches in the draft... Early. I'm not advocating drafting specifically by position, but I think OL and interior DL positions need to be weighted heavily. OL more than DT.

 

But I can't judge Allen yet. The verdict is just now starting to come in on Shanahan's roster.

I agree that it's too early to judge Allen.

 

But I also think there were things that were done that, even at the time, seemed questionable, and now don't seem like they are working out.

 

2 things I point out in defense of Allen. (After writing a couple huge, long winded posts against Allen:

 

1. The 'Skins have virtually 0 players from any draft prior to 2010.  The one contributor from a prior draft is Orakpo, and we're not going to get into that.  If you look at the blue-chip, in their prime players in the league, you're talking about guys with 4-8 years of experience, between the ages of 26-30. Those players were drafted, generally, from 2007-2011. To have not one player contributing from 2007 or 2008, and one from 2009, really puts a hurting on the roster.  What it means is that to get blue-chip players, you've got to get them from FA, which is expensive.  

 

2. The Haynesworth Contract was an anchor on the team for years.  Allen/Shanahan tried to dump the entire amount of dead money into the uncapped year, but "got caught" and ended up with the cap penalty.  If they hadn't, then they would have taken the same hit, in some way, to release him, because that money was due to him regardless.  Vinny/Dan really screwed the entire franchise for years with that deal. This is the first year since he was signed in 2009 when they don't have the weight of his contract around their neck in some way.  And it hurt the roster, no question.  And it's going to take a little time to recover from that.  

 

I still think that they should have cleaned house on the defensive coaching staff before hiring Gruden, should not have signed Orakpo to the Franchise Tag without a clear as crystal plan of how he was going to be used to live up to that contract (and how that would affect Kerrigan) and a better solution for the kickoff situation. I think all of those things were under his control THIS year, and he didn't get those things right. Yet.  Still time. 

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

Haslett is a pretty good defensive coordinator if you ignore things like stats, rankings, and points.

[Voice_of_Reason]

How is Vinny still a fall guy for the current state of the roster?  It's been 5 offseasons since his departure.  Plenty of time has passed to remove his stench from Redskins Park. 

Not quite.  The Haynesworth contract was an anchor around the organization until last year. 

[drowland]

Not quite.  The Haynesworth contract was an anchor around the organization until last year. 

 

That's more to due with to how Shanny and Bruce handled it.  They could of and should released or traded him him in 2010 when it was pretty clear Haynesworth didn't want to be here.  Taken their lumps with the cap hit and moved on.  I blame that on Shanny's ego.  He seemed more interested in breaking AH then removing a cancer from the team.  Then Bruce tried to be slick with restructuring his contract. 

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

They're all to blame. Total CF.

[Voice_of_Reason]

That's more to due with to how Shanny and Bruce handled it.  They could of and should released or traded him him in 2010 when it was pretty clear Haynesworth didn't want to be here.  Taken their lumps with the cap hit and moved on.  I blame that on Shanny's ego.  He seemed more interested in breaking AH then removing a cancer from the team.  Then Bruce tried to be slick with restructuring his contract. 

 If you release or trade somebody, the entire amount escalates to the current year.  The 'Skins HAD to pay him the money, and were going to take the hit regardless.  Because it was going to be $30+ mil.  

 

The one thing I will say is that what Shanahan/Allen and probably Snyder TRIED to do, (and failed, because AH's lawyer wasn't born yesterday on a turnip truck) is tell him that they would be happy to release him if he didn't want to be here, but that he needed to restructure so they didn't have to pay him $30mil to get out.  He said no. Then was a bum.

 

Hindsight being 20/20, maybe they're better off cutting him in 2010, but that's a lot of money to pay a guy to go away, and I completely understand the organization wanting to try and make something out of it.  Don't forget, he was, at that point, just 1 year removed from Defensive Player of the year (2008).  So, there was some hope that if they could get him to shape up, he'd be ok.  

 

They were going to have to eat the $40 mil guaranteed regardless.  What Bruce tried to do is dump it into the uncapped year, which was completely legal and legit, but Mara didn't like it.  

 

That entire debacle goes on Vinny's and Dan's room bill.  You don't sign malcontents to ridiculous contracts.  You just don't do it.  Maybe Shanahan had a little say in it.  

 

I don't blame Allen at all for trying to exploit a legitimate loophole to try and solve somebody else's mistake.  

[TheLongshot]

That's more to due with to how Shanny and Bruce handled it.  They could of and should released or traded him him in 2010 when it was pretty clear Haynesworth didn't want to be here.  Taken their lumps with the cap hit and moved on.  I blame that on Shanny's ego.  He seemed more interested in breaking AH then removing a cancer from the team.  Then Bruce tried to be slick with restructuring his contract. 

 

No matter how it was handled, the cap hit would have happened.  Not sure how to avoid it other than keeping him on the roster until the cap hit was more paletable.  So, they took what they felt was the best solution and rolled the dice. Then Mara had his good buddy Goodel screw us over.  Hard to blame Bruce for that.

[Thinking Skins]

Haslett is a pretty good defensive coordinator if you ignore things like stats, rankings, and points.

 

Funny. 

 

But I also think people are ignoring the experience factor that Haslett has. Dude won coach of the year before. I'm not saying he's a great coach or should be going to the HOF, but we have no idea the stresses involved in coaching an NFL team, the personalities involved, dealing with the owners, dealing with wins and losses, and time management, the media relations, etc. The fact that Has is a good friend of his that they've worked together in previous endeavors (and had success), and the fact that Has is both well respected and has had success in this league should mean a lot. 

 

I mean, we viewed Has so highly that other teams (the Jets in particular) wanted him for their DC spot, but we said no. 

 

Look at his career yards numbers, and this is just count of games with less than 333 yards allowed (which I call a dominant performance by the defense). 

2014 - 2

2013 - 8

2012 - 4

2011 - 8

2010 - 4

2008 - 6

2007 - 9

2006 - 10

2005 - 11

2004 - 5

2003 - 8

2002 - 5

2001 - 8

2000 - 11

1999 - 8

1998 - 11

1997 - 12

1996 - 11

 

So while people like to talk about Haslett being a bad defensive coordinator because of his league rankings, the dude has consistently been putting up defenses that are capable of putting up double digit win seasons. I especially have a problem people who like to blame last year on Haslett, don't think we can blame Griffin or Haslett or a number of individual things (other than special teams). I thought that after week 3, and especially after midseason our defense was fine overall. We still didn't get enough sacks or enough turnovers, but they weren't THE problem here. 

[SkinsFTW]

He's a smart defensive coordinator. I'm going to ignore things like sacks and turnovers because while I'd like them they're not how to judge defenses. If you look at Haslett's tenure here, he's done a very good job of taking away a team's primary option. It hasn't always worked, but he does make OCs get creative.

 

 

When you're ranked 24rd in yards and 26th in points on average over 5 years the turnovers DO matter much more than if you're ranked top 10 and give up 17-20 points a game.

 

To give up 27 points a game and then only get a turnover a week is BS. Bad defenses need to lead the league in turnovers if they are going to win. The defense was doing that during the 7 game win streak in 2012 and it may have been the primary reason we won.

 

During the 7 game win streak the Redskins gave up the ball 5 times. The opponents gave it up 15. That's 2 Turnovers a game for the defense and we won all 7 games.

 

Greg Williams had the 25th Ranked D in New Orleans the year they won the SB. They also had 26Ints and 8 more in the postseason. The next year his defense was ranked 4th but they had 9Ints and lost to the 7-9 Seahawks in the playoffs. I'm thinking a couple turnovers would have changed that.

 

Turnovers are definitely a way to judge a defense, especially one that can't stop teams from scoring 27-35 points a game.

[skins island connection]

Funny. 

 

But I also think people are ignoring the experience factor that Haslett has. Dude won coach of the year before. I'm not saying he's a great coach or should be going to the HOF, but we have no idea the stresses involved in coaching an NFL team, the personalities involved, dealing with the owners, dealing with wins and losses, and time management, the media relations, etc. The fact that Has is a good friend of his that they've worked together in previous endeavors (and had success), and the fact that Has is both well respected and has had success in this league should mean a lot. 

 

I mean, we viewed Has so highly that other teams (the Jets in particular) wanted him for their DC spot, but we said no. 

 

Look at his career yards numbers, and this is just count of games with less than 333 yards allowed (which I call a dominant performance by the defense). 

2014 - 2

2013 - 8

2012 - 4

2011 - 8

2010 - 4

2008 - 6

2007 - 9

2006 - 10

2005 - 11

2004 - 5

2003 - 8

2002 - 5

2001 - 8

2000 - 11

1999 - 8

1998 - 11

1997 - 12

1996 - 11

 

So while people like to talk about Haslett being a bad defensive coordinator because of his league rankings, the dude has consistently been putting up defenses that are capable of putting up double digit win seasons. I especially have a problem people who like to blame last year on Haslett, don't think we can blame Griffin or Haslett or a number of individual things (other than special teams). I thought that after week 3, and especially after midseason our defense was fine overall. We still didn't get enough sacks or enough turnovers, but they weren't THE problem here. 

 

 Ask yourself this; honestly.

 

 Haslett gets canned here. Can you name n NFL team right now that would be jumping for joy to hire him?

 2 teams come to mind.

 1. Raiders, because they will hire/sign anyone. Been doing it for years.

 2. Jaguars, because to them, Oakland is a role model.

 His COY award was an emotional victory more than anything. Hurricane Katrina had a weird effect on alot of people. And he always followed a decent year with a constant drop in ratings the following years, because he lacks creativeness; something that a constantly-evolving/changing NFL demands.

 Also ask yourself this; if Haslett WAS such a good DC, then why was he coaching some arena league before we made the mistake of hiring him?