Press Release: #REDSKINS NAME JOE BARRY AS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR

[Thinking Skins]

Only downside - we won't see Scot's impact for 3 years at least.

Nah, we'll see it through the number of draft picks kept on the roster, ans the amount of playing time given to those draft picks, how many of our picks ate seen as a reach vs value, lots of stuff like that.

At a basic level, we'll hopefully see the impact on special teams where the most value is supposed to come from the rookies.

[Thinking Skins]

I see no reason to ever not be optimistic as a fan. It sucks to feel this divide, but I hope most of you overly dramatic, know it all assholes have to eat a lot of ****.

I don't know if I'd go that far. My whole thing in this whole offseason is to stay level headed. I'm not getting too excited about anything and this team will not be the source of my anger or frustration any more. But i think we as fans and as reasonable adults (humans) can just have disagreements and sometimes get emotional about how this team has conducted business, even without knowing the future, the naive Bayesian approach says that this Is likely to fail, just based on a feature vector full of failure.

I do hope that everybody predicting this team to fail eats crow, just because i want the team to win, but i can't day what i expect cause this team has let me down way way too much. As far as fans needing to be optimistic, that just results in being delusional or getting even more disappointed if we do lose this year.

John Keim retweeted

Michael C. Wright @mikecwright · 59m59 minutes ago

Heard Fangio wanted to bring Donatell to Redskins, but they wanted to keep Raheem Morris... hence Chicago.

I think I would rather have Garret Morris at this point. Bam. Mercury. Anyone without Tampa in their resume

Has anything been tweeted or released about us actually keeping Morris?

[Birdlives]

I see no reason to ever not be optimistic as a fan. It sucks to feel this divide, but I hope most of you overly dramatic, know it all assholes have to eat a lot of ****.

Optimist or not, everyone eats **** with this franchise.

Some of us are just tired of it.

But by all means, enjoy the buffet.

Try the grass fed veal ****, it's fantastic.

[Thinking Skins]

This FO is loyal to a fault.

Surprisingly, that's what's changed about the front office

[Brokenstriker]

I am not going to judge Joe Barry based on where Detroit's D was ranked.  That was 6 years ago.  6 years is a pretty long time.

Plus, do you all relize that he is a 3-4 guy now, not a tampa 4-3?  A completely different coach based on the scheme alone.

6 years of not being a DC doesn't mean he's some how better as a DC

 

I haven't checked them all ... but so far every defensive team stat I checked was worse in 2008 than it was in 2007 ... and worst in the league each season 

 

pts/game ... 27.8 became 32.3

pts/play ... 0.408 became 0.512

offensive TDs/game surrendered ... 3.2 became 3.5

red zone TD percentage ... 64.06% became 67.19%

yards/game ... 377.6 becamse 404.4

yards/play ... 5.6 became 6.4

 

he might have inherited a historically bad defense for 2007 ... but he managed to make it worse in 2008

[TheItalianStallion]

I'm not optimistic at all about this, but I'll give him a shot. Still wanted Phillips though.

[FrFan]

Gruden was the one when he came onboard to praise Haslett like he was some kind of coaching "guru" to him. He said he will rely on him to give him clues and that he expected Haslett to prevent him from screwing things up. He praised and defended Haslett.

"I know a lot of offensive coaches that have a lot of respect for what coach Haslett brings, and how difficult it is to go against them. I’m one of those guys.” "Gruden also said he wanted to keep the staff intact to maintain continuity in their system." link

According to Keim he let Fangio and Donatell go because he wanted to keep his buddy Morris !

Gruden is on a hot seat, supposing he wants to keep his job next year, I don't understand why Barry is a better option than Fangio and Donatell ?

To me he has not much credibility concerning the coaching search process.

I would have rather let Scot handling the coaching search, send Allen to take care of the harvest fests wins.

He lacks experience as a matter of fact, but he might have learned a lot being a part of the 49ers and Seahawks (twice) organizations. He can't pick up and stick to a worst DC than Haslett. It would also have sent a very positive message to the fanbase : the end of both cronyism and insanity, the beginning of a new era where people are selected through talent and not out of a buddy list.

I guess we have to live with this, and for the sake of this team I wish Barry will prove me wrong.

[RandyHolt]

It's no longer speculation to think Gruden was saying those things about Haslett just to be nice, before parting ways.

 

Retaining Morris is proof that Gruden has no problem retaining coaches that should be replaced, and that Haslett was forced out, by Allen or Dan. Maybe our pitchforks and torches worked.

 

Is Morris being retained because he is a good rah rah raheem guy?  I figure those guys are readily available.

 

IMO he certainly was overseeing the most blown deep coverages I have ever seen watching this team. Maybe when Haslett was coaching the DBs up, his voice was drowned out by Rah's cheers. On what was Morris evaluated by at years end?

 

Bummer to hear we were close to major upgrades in the coaching department, instead the news is Barry a position coach minus Baker our best position coach.

[dballer]

It's no longer speculation to think Gruden was saying those things about Haslett just to be nice, before parting ways.

 

Retaining Morris is proof that Gruden has no problem retaining coaches that should be replaced, and that Haslett was forced out, by Allen or Dan. Maybe our pitchforks and torches worked.

 

Is Morris being retained because he is a good rah rah raheem guy?  I figure those guys are readily available.

 

IMO he certainly was overseeing the most blown deep coverages I have ever seen watching this team. Maybe when Haslett was coaching the DBs up, his voice was drowned out by Rah's cheers. On what was Morris evaluated by at years end?

 

Bummer to hear we were close to major upgrades in the coaching department, instead the news is Barry a position coach minus Baker our best position coach.

 

I can't really argue any of that. But. It is really hard to judge a position coach. Are we judging him on performance? I mean, was Baker our best coach or did he just happen to be coaching our best player. Raheem gets no credit for Bashaud's performance but is killed for the other DBs performance? How much could he really coach up Ryan Clark (who I would say was our worst DB)? or Merriweather for that matter. I actually thought Thomas was improving at the end of the year. Was he really telling Amerson to line up 5 yards deep in the endzone on a goal line play? I doubt it. 

LFletcher was convinced Morris should have gotten the DC job last year...may have just been some riff between he and Haz. Dunno.

 

I'm not advocating keeping Morris, I would rather see him replaced if for no other reason it would be nice to get some new blood in. But it is hard for us to tell how much is which coaches fault. 

 

By the way...Morris did coach up the Bucs secondary to the number 1 pass defense in the NFL when he was DB Coach there. 

[Wyvern]

I guess it's time I start moving past denial, bargaining, and anger ... and onto acceptance. Time to accept ....and bask in the glow of victory for this great off-season acquisition of Gruden/Allen!

.... Time to start sipping the kool-aid and be open to how Barry was a great hire. And to acknowledge how it was the result of a wide-ranging identification/pursuit of the best qualified candidates, as well as the result of a thorough vetting and best-effort selection process that resulted in the best candidate being chosen. That all was done in the best of "good faith" efforts, and that all avenues were explored.

Moreover, I should now realize that Barry has already displayed his time-tested acumen as a defensive coordinator by rewarding the stellar performance of Raheem Morris with retention and promotion, and by his ridding the Skins of Brian Baker since coach Barry is good enough to work both as defensive coordinator and undertaking Baker's work of linebacker development too. What a great hire!!

That said ... This team cannot play much worse, and I'm sure Gruden will point to any improvement as validation of Barry's value as a defensive coordinator and his own skill as head coach in building a young staff who've quickly learned their new level of responsibilities.

[Oddly, I really do hope that Barry surprises me and pans out, and that Raheem Morris proves that his inept secondaries were really all due to Haslett tying his hands (gee, where have I heard that before.). For now, I've no choice but to hope these guys grow into their new roles and really improve the Skins play going forward.]

[RandyHolt]

I can't really argue any of that...

 

...Morris did coach up the Bucs secondary to the number 1 pass defense in the NFL when he was DB Coach there. 

 

All good points as well... 

 

I clearly am still irritated by the ongoing cronyism. If it had shown signs of promise, I could stand to take on more tampa / tusker guys, and fire all the non tampa / tusker guys, but we have not seen that.

 

I know cronies are the way of life, but when rookies are making crony choices of more unproven guys, it's very different than a old cagey vet bringing into his staff his tried and true assistant (e.g Shanahan bringing in Kubiak). Gruden is just graduating his rookie season as head coach, and has punted who I suspected was one of his best assistants, Baker.

 

Certainly Kerrigan's words mean something.  Baker was a voice from a non Tampa 2 era.

 

Who was Gruden's best coaching selection in his rookie year?  I would wager a poll would suggest it was Baker in a landslide, albeit it's a short list of candidates.

 

If not grading his hires, what assistant was best overall?  Ike? Our WRs couldn't convert a 3rd and 10 for 3/4's of the year. Take away the 10 DJax deep balls that he pulls in on any team, our WRs were VERY underachieving. Grant came into camp with those great moves, IMO.

 

TEs sucked, backs sucked, DBs sucked, OL blew.... it was not all the players, either.

 

About Morris in that top rated tampa 2, I suspect Lynch and Sapp made life quite easy for him.

[Bang]

So in order to keep a coach who's unit was completely lost all season and actually regressed, we decided it would be OK to allow one of the most sought after candidates to walk out the door and go with the absolute worst defensive coordinator we could find.

 

What the ****.

 

Ryan Clark FORGOT how to play simple zone coverages after playing for Dick LeBeau 8 years.

David Amerson went backwards so far he looks like like he's learning in reverse.

 

Tight ends and receivers running absolutely uncovered all season long. More than i've ever seen. Not a guy a step or two behind,, no one on the same side of the field. No one else in the picture.

 

hhhh

 

I am not typically a griping fan. I am not typically a pessimist. Especially at this time of year,, i am always given over to allowing a benefit of the doubt.

But i can't. I am beyond asking WTF and I'm getting to the point of downright anger.

It's like they're trying to do the worst things they can do on the defensive side of the ball.
 

Now, part of my usual optimism is that I always say "they know more than me and my untrained eye".
But damn, i do not get it this time. i do not see any single bit of sound reasoning behind any of this.

 

~Bang

[pjfootballer]

According to Keim he let Fangio and Donatell go because he wanted to keep his buddy Morris !

 

To me he has not much credibility concerning the coaching search process.

I would have rather let Scot handling the coaching search.

He lacks experience as a matter of fact, but he might have learned a lot being a part of the 49ers and Seahawks (twice) organizations.

 

I guess we have to live with this, and for the sake of this team I wish Barry will prove me wrong.

 

I divided your post into 3 parts:

 

1) Diana Russini and a couple of others are saying they spoke with someone in the FO and they did not let Fangio or Donatell go because they want to keep Morris. They said the decision was Fangio's and that whoever they hired as DC, that person would get to determine who stays and who goes on the defensive staff, hence why Brian Baker was let go (I hate that he was let go). Morris position is not set in stone and if Barry thinks he should go, he'll go.

 

2) Scot McGloughan has been a player personnel guru his whole career.  He has never picked a coach. I'm not sure why all of the sudden everyone wants him picking coaches.  He was GM for the Niners from 2008-2010 and they already had a coach in Mike Nolan. Nolan was fired (I guess by Scot) and replaced by Mike Singletary as interim coach as he was on the staff already.  All they did was remove the interim tag.  Singletary was fired the same year Scot left the Niners.  So Scot has "ZERO" experience hiring coaches, hence why he said in his press conference that he would "leave that up to Gruden."  If Gruden is ever fired, I hope that the FO gets together to find a coach and it's not all left up to Scot.

 

3) I would guess from just reading in here the last few days that approximately 85% of us don't like the Barry hire, me included, but I'm willing to take a step back and give the guy a chance.  I like that he will change us from a 2 gap read and react style to a 1 gap attacking style which is what the roster is currently geared for.  We lack a big NT that eats space.  You need that type of guy to run the 2 gap.  Dallass ran the 3-4 with 290lb Jay Ratliff at NT. They ran a 1 gap and he was very successful.

 

 

I don't know if I'd go that far. My whole thing in this whole offseason is to stay level headed. I'm not getting too excited about anything and this team will not be the source of my anger or frustration any more. But i think we as fans and as reasonable adults (humans) can just have disagreements and sometimes get emotional about how this team has conducted business, even without knowing the future, the naive Bayesian approach says that this Is likely to fail, just based on a feature vector full of failure.

I do hope that everybody predicting this team to fail eats crow, just because i want the team to win, but i can't day what i expect cause this team has let me down way way too much. As far as fans needing to be optimistic, that just results in being delusional or getting even more disappointed if we do lose this year.

Has anything been tweeted or released about us actually keeping Morris?

 

Agreed.  I would like to see more rational discusstions rather than all the whining and doom and gloom.  This fanbase has been in doom and gloom mode for 20+ years.  Time to snap out of it.  Hiring one guy that everyone doesn't like should put everyone in suck mode. The team has actually conducted themselves like a team should this offseason. 

 

1) They hired a real GM with a great pedigree for finding players and talent

2) Haslett was shown the door

3) Hired an OL coach with a good pedigree for the power running that Gruden wants to install

4) Despite not picking the guy everyone else wanted, they did a thorough search like all teams should.  Sure, they jumped the gun, but no actual official announcement was made that Barry was hired the first time.  When Fangio came available, they put on the brakes, did their due diligence and then made their decision.

 

Optimist or not, everyone eats **** with this franchise.

Some of us are just tired of it.

But by all means, enjoy the buffet.

Try the grass fed veal ****, it's fantastic.

 

I probably wouldn't have stated it the way KB stated it, but the overeactions are getting quite childish around here. Just looking at what Thinkingskins said above is what everyone should strive to do.  I didn't do cartwheels when they hired Scot, when they fired Haz or when they hired Callahan.  I stayed "medium"  and didn't let my emotions get the best of me.  While Barry was not who I thought they should have hired, I didn't slit my "proverbial" wrists like others in here have.  I'm not saying everyone should sing Kumbaya or throw a party, but take a step back, breathe, analyze the situation before making rash statements.  That's all.

[Bang]

What if you analyze the situation and come to the conclusion that they let competent coaches walk to keep a bad one and hire the worst one?

 

~Bang

[pjfootballer]

What if you analyze the situation and come to the conclusion that they let competent coaches walk to keep a bad one and hire the worst one?

 

~Bang

 

I've said before, I'm not happy with the Barry hire.  But, I'm not going to go ballistic over it.  I also hate that they let Baker go.  Not sure what that was about.  But when they hired both Schottenheimer AND Baker, I thought it was odd that we had 2 LBer coaches.  I don't think I've ever seen that before.  So it was odd to me at the time. If I read correctly from the tweet thread, some of the beat reporters are saying that whoever Gruden hired as DC, they would make decisions on the coaches on the defensive side of the ball. So, if we hired Fangio, there is no guarantee Baker, Morris, Schotty or Burnley would still be on the staff.  I wish we could all be a fly on the wall and actually hear what goes on and to the rationale behind these moves.  But we're all guessing out here. Hell, the 2014 season isn't even over with yet and everyone is already predicting a 2-14 season.  Just a lot of overeactions this week.  Let's see what goes on in the next few months with the coaching staff, free agency and the draft.  I think that will give us a better view on the direction. We can either do that or wallow in self pity.  I'm tired of wallowing.

[Thinking Skins]

What if you analyze the situation and come to the conclusion that they let competent coaches walk to keep a bad one and hire the worst one?

 

~Bang

That's a reasonable conclusion, but then what?

I watched my bullets/wizards be a laughing stock for all of my life until Gilbert came. They made bad decision after bad decision. It got to the point where I expected things like Webber failure and the Jordan failure. But that didn't mean that I wasn't still rooting for ol Wes and crew. Even this current coaching staff was criticized by fans because Wittman wasn't a sexy name, and has a losing record as a coach, and until last year hadn't coached a winning season. But Ernie liked him, hired him and stuck with him and we made the second round of the playoffs (still the farthest that any team in this area has gone since the Caps World Cup run in the late 90s), and they have a chance to win it all this year.

Fans can be wrong. We can be right, but we can be wrong. So why make this place into a soap opera drama filled space, with the accompanying theme music and all, every time this team makes a decision. Not every one will be what we want, but just because its not what we want doesn't mean it will suck.

And everything's not 0 or 1. Its like the draft where we didn't get Watt, but got Kerrigan instead. Kerrigan isn't Watt, but he's also not some guy who doesn't belong in the league. I think the same goes here. Looking more at Barry's resume, I can see more of why he'd be an interesting hire. He was LB coach on a top ten defense in 2001, 2002 (top in league), 2003, 2004, 2005, 2012, and 2014. Maybe he's not the best guy on the list (according to your metrics), but its not like he was calling bingo games the past 20 years.

[RichmondRedskin88]

John Keim retweeted

Michael C. Wright @mikecwright · 59m59 minutes ago

Heard Fangio wanted to bring Donatell to Redskins, but they wanted to keep Raheem Morris... hence Chicago.

I think I would rather have Garret Morris at this point. Bam. Mercury. Anyone without Tampa in their resume

I'm speechless. Mainly because I'm so nauseous if I say something I'll throw up.

[pjfootballer]

I'm speechless. Mainly because I'm so nauseous if I say something I'll throw up.

 

How is that even true when we interviewed Donatell for the DC position? That's also been refuted in the Zoony Bin thread by some of our beat reporters.  They said that whoever they hired as DC, would make decisions on current defensive coaches on the staff.  So if Fangio was hired, he would have the choice of keeping or firing Morris and Donatell would be hired.  That tweet is just some dolt in the media that doesn't have a story for the day, so he made something up to get clicks. Journalism is dead in this country.  They no longer report the facts (who, what, when, where and why), but just give us their opinions (blogs) with TMZ style reporting (could be true, maybe not- I'm protecting my "source").

 

I have a degree in Communications with a minor in Journalism and it makes me want to "throw up" with the state of reporting in this day and age.  Walter Cronkite and Glenn Brenner are rolling over in their graves as we speak.

[RichmondRedskin88]

How is that even true when we interviewed Donatell for the DC position? That's also been refuted in the Zoony Bin thread by some of our beat reporters. They said that whoever they hired as DC, would make decisions on current defensive coaches on the staff. So if Fangio was hired, he would have the choice of keeping or firing Morris and Donatell would be hired. That tweet is just some dolt in the media that doesn't have a story for the day, so he made something up to get clicks. Journalism is dead in this country. They no longer report the facts (who, what, when, where and why), but just give us their opinions (blogs) with TMZ style reporting (could be true, maybe not- I'm protecting my "source").

I have a degree in Communications with a minor in Journalism and it makes me want to "throw up" with the state of reporting in this day and age. Walter Cronkite and Glenn Brenner are rolling over in their graves as we speak.

I was a journalism major but I ended up graduating in crjs because I wanted to feel like I was helping people and I saw where journalism was going back then. I'm just saying if this was true this would be absolutely ridic Tampa bias.

[darrelgreenie]

Looking more at Barry's resume, I can see more of why he'd be an interesting hire. He was LB coach on a top ten defense in 2001, 2002 (top in league), 2003, 2004, 2005, 2012, and 2014. Maybe he's not the best guy on the list (according to your metrics), but its not like he was calling bingo games the past 20 years.

I can only speak for myself. Barry might turn out to be great DC who knows? I surely don't and only time will tell. I'm not predicting success or failure. My point is that looking at candidates available even if Fangio didn't work out there are other candidates with better resumes then Barry. That's all I'm saying. Its not a grand prediction that Barry will succeed or not just questioning whether or not he's the most qualified.

[Thinking Skins]

I can only speak for myself. Barry might turn out to be great DC who knows? I surely don't and only time will tell. I'm not predicting success or failure. My point is that looking at candidates available even if Fangio didn't work out there are other candidates with better resumes then Barry. That's all I'm saying. Its not a grand prediction that Barry will succeed or not just questioning whether or not he's the most qualified.

Better is a subjective word. All the candidates have blotches on their resumes and nice parts. Same goes for Barry. People are really acting like we just signed Joe Schmoe off the street to coach our defense. People are either mad because

- he coached the Lions defense that was last in the league in 2008 and 2009, or

- he was a part of the Tampa crew with Jay and Allen.

But I can look past both these things because

- The Millen franchise he was a part of was under Matt Millen and you can look at how the fans in Detroit gave Steve Mariucci a standing ovation at a Pistons game and started the "Fire Millen" chant while he was still there to get an understanding of how bad that organization was when he was there. I've been going through their defensive players and they were just scrubs on that team. So this doesn't bother me.

- The Tampa connection is a good thing in my book because this guy was on number one defenses and the big thing about that defense was 5 players (Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, Barber, and Lynch). And Brooks had the best years of his career under Barry.

People are acting like he did some horrible job in Tampa, like Raheem hired him in Tampa to do him a favor or something, but the guy was a hot commodity in 2008 when he was picked to coach the Lions defense. He didn't just suddenly forget how to coach.

Can he be a good defensive coordinator? I don't know, but holding the years in Detroit as the only metric of judgement against him are like getting mad at a firefighter for not saving a family from a burning building. Sure, it would have looked nice if he did well, but that building was burning well before he got there, and well after he left.

[FrFan]

 

2) Scot McGloughan has been a player personnel guru his whole career.  He has never picked a coach. I'm not sure why all of the sudden everyone wants him picking coaches.  He was GM for the Niners from 2008-2010 and they already had a coach in Mike Nolan. Nolan was fired (I guess by Scot) and replaced by Mike Singletary as interim coach as he was on the staff already.  All they did was remove the interim tag.  Singletary was fired the same year Scot left the Niners.  So Scot has "ZERO" experience hiring coaches, hence why he said in his press conference that he would "leave that up to Gruden."  If Gruden is ever fired, I hope that the FO gets together to find a coach and it's not all left up to Scot.

Nolan was fired by owners John and Jed York, Scot agreed with that. They made their decision after attending the Giants game. 49ers have had five straight losing seasons and were 4-12, 7-9 and 5-11 in three full seasons in his tenure.

Same thing with the Singletary hire it was not only Scot's decision: "It is for this reason that we’ve made the decision to give the head coaching role to Mike Singletary."

I know Scot doesn't have experience, but my point was I'd rather give him this responsability instead of Gruden. Someone has to have an oportunity to explore new grounds at some point. Fangio, Phillips and Schwartz were available, and have a better DC pedigree than Barry. Looks easy to make a choice here even for a rookie GM.

I'm wondering if his decison to step away from the coaching search comes from him or if it was forced

on him by the buddies ? Gruden has already proven with what he said about Haslett when he joined the team (January 2014) that he is not a good talent evaluator and that he relies on his buddies instead of talent.

Gruden and this organization decided to go one more year with Haslett, another year lost. I'm concerned it might be the same with Barry, eventhough ultimately time will tell and that I don't wish him bad.

Good luck, he's going to need some.

[sempre_victrix]

Barry may be a swell guy and all, but his DC resume is pitiful.  Are you telling me that out of all the college DCs looking to move up and NFL DCs looking for work, Barry was the best and logical choice?

 

What happens when this blows up in our face, as it certainly will, do we find some other Tampa retread who Bruce owes?

 

You young guys have the time to wait this team out and hope Snyder gets hit by a bus, but us older guys are kind of hoping for a few playoff runs that we don't have to watch from the assisted living housing......

[Thinking Skins]

Barry may be a swell guy and all, but his DC resume is pitiful.  Are you telling me that out of all the college DCs looking to move up and NFL DCs looking for work, Barry was the best and logical choice?

 

What happens when this blows up in our face, as it certainly will, do we find some other Tampa retread who Bruce owes?

 

You young guys have the time to wait this team out and hope Snyder gets hit by a bus, but us older guys are kind of hoping for a few playoff runs that we don't have to watch from the assisted living housing......

Why is his resume pitiful?

[sempre_victrix]

Why is his resume pitiful?

Detroit defense ranked where when he was DC?  Yeah, I want me some of that.