Heresy: Cerrato might be a decent GM

[GB81]

Snyder should not be the tiebreaker, in my opinion.

My point is this: From where I sit, there are very few NFL owners that are as involved as Snyder with personnel decisions. The ones who are have significantly more football knwoledge than Snyder -- Jery Jones played on a National championship football team--Al Davis was a good AFL head coach.

I have trouble figuring out why people defend Snyder. Do you just like him because he spends a lot of money and own your favorite team? Who roots for an owner? Even the fans of a lot of good teams wouldn't defend their owner the way some folks here do Snyder.

Fact: As Snyder's influence over this team has accumulated over the years, this team's record has gotten steadily worse.

[Even Madder]

Spurrier left. That's unfortuante. Very difficult to blame Snyder or Cerrato for his departure as if they wanted it when all signs point to the thought he would return.

Not true. One on the contributing factors to Spurrier's departure was the clear (and well-reported) rift between Spurrier and Cerrato. Snyder/Cerrato certainly bear some of the blame.

You don't understand the front office arrangement. It's well reported what role Snyder has. It's as the tiebreaker. He's the final decision maker when that is necessary. The front office works with the coaching staff to come to an agreement on personnel decisions. Where they agree, there's no tiebreaker necessary. Where they do not, there is

I understand all too well. You've got it wrong -- Snyder is much more than the tiebreaker. Here's what Vinny had to say.

Carmel Valley, Calif.: The Redskins run their front office differently than other teams since there is no General Manager. I have two questions:

Who has the final say in identifying team needs going into the draft?

How are deviations from this plan agreed upon and who has the final say?

Vinny Cerrato: Dan Snyder.

So Dan has the final say on determining team needs... that doesn't sound like a tiebreaker to me. It sounds like a GM. Face it: Vinny doesn't have the clout to make a 2nd round pick, much less make big strategic decisions for the organization. He's just Snyder's pool boy.

This team hasn't slumped badly since Snyder took over. It slumped badly since Spurrier did. Now he's gone.

Huh? Snyder inherited a 10-6 playoff team. Snyder/Cerrato added such luminaries as Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith, and Jeff George, and the team stumbled to 8-8. Norv was fired, Robiskie took over for a couple games, and then Marty stepped in. He cleaned up some of the mess, but went 8-8 and was fired. In comes Spurrier, and he goes 7-9 and 5-11, and the Skins are left with a shambles of a roster designed for the fun-n-gun.

How in the world can you argue that going 10-6, 8-8, 8-8, 7-9, and 5-11 isn't slumping badly? The one constant in all that is Snyder.

[Coach Williams]

Originally posted by SPare

At least from the player personnel point of view.

To my mind, he's had a number of successes over the past two years:

1. Picking up Daryl Gardner off the scrap heap

2. The Jetskins hirings. Remember, this time last year tending a RFA was effectively enough to keep him from going to another team.

3. The draft hasn't been bad, with a few real contributors coming out of mid-late rounds (Rock, Dockery, Bauman, Royal)

4. Hasn't bungled the first rounders (Samuels, Arrington, Ramsey). How quickly people forget the era when we couldn't get a first rounder to stick, no matter when they were drafted.

5. The cap is in decent shape for the foreseeable future.

You forgot the #1 thing he's done....he got us darrell....end of story

[Art]

EM,

I read every word about the Redskins. I've not seen anything that rises up to a clear and reported rift between Cerrato and Spurrier. Can you please show me what I'm missing as I have missed some time of late with work. Point out the documentation of this rift with quotes from involved parties and from actual reporters.

I have no doubt Spurrier isn't always happy with Cerrato. I know Gibbs and Beathard didn't get along all the time either. If Gibbs lacked the heart and guts and wound up quitting, would we blame Beathard? Or would we blame the quitter?

I know what Cerrato said and I think the context of our front office situation is well reported by multiple sources and well quoted by both Snyder and Cerrato and Spurrier and Mendes before he left. The personnel department and coaching staff share equal input on personnel. Where they agree we're done. Where they don't, Snyder makes the call.

Do we really need to have this discussion? Do you REALLY not know this and simply are taking one quote that actually supports this setup and trying to make it something else. Snyder has the final say on any deviations because those will come in the form of a presentation by his decision makers where they disagree.

Maybe you simply don't believe it. Other than the reporting, certainly, there's no way to prove it to you and you've decided to ignore that, so, what can you do. As Spurrier said at the time of the Wueffel and Watson cuts:

""You're going to ask me about several players, and my answer is just very simply this: When the coaching staff and the personnel department disagree about one or two players, the owner steps in and has the final say," Spurrier said. "And that's the way we do things around here. So it was a team decision to keep the players we have here. It was a team decision. We all argue and discuss things, and then when the final decision is made, we all support it. So that's where we are."

Here's a wonderful segment from an August Washington Post article:

Still, how much will Snyder let Cerrato do his job? Cerrato has been with Snyder for all but the 2001 season. However, according to one Redskins official who requested anonymity, this offseason Cerrato oversaw the most thorough talent evaluation since Snyder's arrival. The owner -- whose wife once jokingly called a "torpedo" for his hyperactive nature -- didn't interfere. "A lot of the guys [targeted] were young guys people hadn't heard of," said Cerrato, 43, "Dan had no problem with that."

Then Cerrato added with a hearty laugh: "He said, 'You guys better know what you're doing.' "

In a tedious process which took several weeks, coaches and scouts graded draft prospects, free agents and players expected to be released. (Coles received the highest grade.) The coaching staff pointed out the club's greatest needs, and rated players were contrasted to the roster for a road map.

"I am not involved in that work," said Snyder. "The big assumption I'm making is that Vinny is a good judge of talent and can grade well."

Again, we seem to be functioning pretty much as you'd expect. Whether you'll recognize this or not is up to you.

Snyder didn't inherit a 10-6 playoff team. He inherited a 6-10 football team that was largely put together for the 1999 season. He put the final touches on contracts for draft and then the team went out and went 10-6. We then went 8-8 aftera 6-2 start due to crippling injuries. We then went 8-8 after a terrible start. We then had two losing seasons under Spurrier. I think we both agree with the history.

But the team's slump and decline began apparently, when Spurrier took over and continued on. Either you know coaching matters. Or you don't. Again, you need to figure out how dumb you want to be in an effort to disagree. Up to you.

Seems pretty clear what he thought the layout of the decision making process was.