Casserly profile, Houston Texans viewpoint

[Atlanta Skins Fan]

I was thinking about how Charlie Casserly almost single-handedly destroyed the proud Gibbs/Beathard/JKC franchise, and came across this article. Enjoy the bad memories....

http://www.houstonprofootball.com/scout/scout29.html

March 25, 2002

Will History Repeat Itself?

by Keith Weiland

HoustonProFootball.com

Tick… Tick… Tick...

That clock has been counting down on the Texans first selection in the 2002 NFL Draft since Mr. Irrelevant was taken with last year's final pick. Not one to dawdle, General Manager Charley Casserly is already negotiating a contract with the agent for Fresno State quarterback David Carr.

In Houston, this is hardly news. Sure, an expansion team needs a quarterback to build around… no biggie. But if Casserly were still in Washington, alarms would be blaring. The thought of selecting another quarterback that high would immediately remind fans of the Heath Shuler fiasco. In fact, they might even shiver at the thought of him running another war room.

So let's take a trip back to Casserly's drafts of the 1990s and find out what went wrong.

Un-tick… Un-tick… Un-tick... (I'm not sure what time going backwards sounds like so bear with me.)

In an effort to promote front office harmony following GM Bobby Beathard's resignation in 1989, new GM Casserly allowed his head coaches to have significant input on personnel decisions. The plan ultimately backfired. Only a few short years removed from Super XXVI, the team spiraled downward.

Washington's 1990-93 draft classes were unspectacular at best. The lowlight came in 1992 when Casserly deferred to Joe Gibbs and traded up, taking WR/KR Desmond Howard with the fourth overall pick in the draft. Howard never caught on, as the success Howard enjoyed later in his career came after his brief tenure as a Redskin. Other first rounders under the early years of Casserly's watch, DT Bobby Wilson (1991) and CB Tom Carter (1993), never achieved their potential.

Following Gibbs' resignation, Casserly yearned for stability by promoting Richie Petitbon. Petitbon was dismissed following the team's 4-12 performance in his first season. Casserly was certain that the disaster was the fault of poor coaching and not because of his personnel decisions. He then persuaded owner Jack Kent Cooke to hire Norv Turner, fresh from his Super Bowl success as offensive coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys.

With Turner on board, the Redskins let out early rumors of their plan to draft a quarterback with the third pick in the 1994 draft. Turner was eager to find someone in the mold of Troy Aikman and couldn't take his eyes off the cannon arm on Shuler. Casserly, who actually favored Fresno State QB Trent Dilfer, let his rookie coach make the call on draft day to take Shuler.

Turner received much of the criticism for the Shuler pick, but Casserly is guilty for giving him the authority to make the pick. Also, by deciding prematurely to go quarterback with the first pick, he passed on evaluating a selection of the best player available. If nothing else, they're both guilty of looking the other way at Shuler's questionable academic performance at Tennessee and low Wonderlic score of sixteen, little more than half of the desired total for top quarterback prospects. It's interesting to note that it was also Casserly's predecessor, Beathard, that traded away all those Charger picks in 1998 to take numbskull QB Ryan Leaf.

Casserly may have also undermined Turner's decision to draft Shuler by taking Gus Frerotte in the seventh round that same year. Shuler was a holdout for the first half of training camp, then Redskin fans booed him when he eventually played. A QB controversy raged for years, dividing the team and its fans. Injuries and ineptness followed Shuler through the day he retired.

In 1995, Casserly selected WR Michael Westbrook fourth overall. Westbrook failed to live up to his potential as the next Jerry Rice (who could?), suffering injury and attitudinal problems. In the drafts of 1996-98, Casserly used his first round picks to shore up the Redskins defensive deficiencies. Twice he traded the pick to acquire overrated defensive tackles, once for Sean Gilbert (1996 - 6th overall) and then for Dan Wilkinson (1998 - 17th overall).

Casserly's best success in the draft came in 1999, his final one as a Redskin. He first traded the 11th pick for QB Brad Johnson, a Pro Bowler that season. He then traded down from the 5th pick to allow the Saints to dump all of their '99 picks, plus a first and third rounder in 2000. He then traded back up to take the man he wanted, CB Champ Bailey. The moves netted the Redskins the second pick overall in '00, LB LaVar Arrington. Though new owner Daniel Snyder wouldn't let him stick around to enjoy it, Casserly had built a division-winning team and set it up for continued success.

Aside from the 1999 draft, the rest of Casserly's first round track record over the years is poor. To be fair, the success rate of first round selections is roughly fifty percent, but Casserly's rate is certainly less than that, especially given the number of high- and mid-round picks at his disposal.

Casserly has, however, made his share of great late round picks. In addition to Frerotte, a seventh rounder, Casserly also drafted RB/KR Brian Mitchell (1990 - 5th round), WR Keenan McCardell (1991 - 12th round), TE Frank Wycheck (1993 - 6th round), and RB Stephen Davis (1996 - 4th round).

This underscores his ability to unearth that diamond-in-the-rough type, the sort of thing Casserly excelled at earlier in his career under Beathard. Casserly scouted and signed future Hog stalwarts Joe Jacoby and Jeff Bostic, virtual unknowns at the time. He put in overtime filling out a scab roster in 1987 that went 3-0 during the strike. Casserly also mastered Plan B free agency in the early nineties, putting the final touches on the Super Bowl squad in 1991. It is a skill that has served Casserly well in filling an expansion roster for the Texans, but now the attention turns back to the draft.

It is unfathomable to think that history would repeat itself for Casserly as a Texan. Carr has all the potential Shuler did eight years ago, but Carr also brings with him the intelligence and intangibles that Shuler could not. Furthermore, Shuler came out of college a year early while Carr has exhausted his collegiate eligibility and matured his game. The 2002 draft should be the year Casserly proves that 1999 was not just a fluke.

[Heavy-Jumbo]

Oh boy, here we go again!

First , I wanna go on record as a fan of CC's. I liked him. Joe liked him. Bobby liked him. The squire liked him. The Dan has even gone on record for admitting he fired the wrong guy!

Your piece by Weiland clearly states that Joe and Norv had a hand in the worst of the skins first round blunders and yet, according to you, it's CC who "single-handedly destroyed" the franchise!

These two observations are not reconcilable.

CC worked very hard for the skins and was an integral part of their success throughout the eighties and nineties. Sure, he wasn't perfect. No GM in the history of the league has been perfect but he knew what the hell he was doing, had integrity, the respect of his peers and an eye for talant. In short, he was a GOOD GM!

Unfortunatly for us, the Dan didn't learn that untill it was too late.

[Atlanta Skins Fan]

Originally posted by FuriousD

according to you, it's CC who "single-handedly destroyed" the franchise!

Here we have a great example of being quoted out of context. I said he "*almost* single-handedly destroyed" the franchise.

As for bad input from Gibbs and other coaches, that's why you have a GM. Coaches aren't professional evaluators of college talent and tend to weigh immediate need over best-available athletes and long-term interests of the team. CC was the man to make the call on the draft, and it's not a very good excuse to say he got bad advice from one or more coaches.

To give a ridiculous analogy, if I'm Joe Gibbs riding next to you, and I suggest that you drive into oncoming traffic, do you do it? You don't. So if CC felt strongly negative about Howard, he should have said so, and if ordered to do something he thought was disastrous, he should have resigned.

A certain amount of tension and disagreement between GM and coaches is good and necessary. A good example came in this spring's draft, when I think it's fair to say that drafting Ramsey #1 was not Spurrier's first choice. Drafting a future franchise QB was in the team's long-term interest, while drafting a speedy WR was in Spurrier's short-term interest. (Ramsey may or may not make it as a future franchise QB, but I'm talking about the philosophy of the pick, not the individual.)

Casserly at least did some great work in the 1999 draft, aided greatly by Ditka's stupidity. But one good draft does not erase nine years of terrible drafts.

Geoff

[Darth Tater]

CC has shown he has the ability to do the job, which the article does point out. He also was the man who did much of the work that built some of the teams in the late 80's and early 90's and his failed choices were primarily due to weak managerial skills while some of his other personnel mistakes were probably more due to a failed coaching staff. Still, he made some managerial mistakes in his tenure as GM for the Redskins. I wonder, then, if Mr. Casserly will learn from those mistakes?

[joe]

The article gets one thing very very wrong. Casserly did not "allow" head coaches Joe Gibbs and Norv Turner to make the first round picks. This was a Redskin tradition established by Jack Kent Cooke and continued by his son John. Casserly took the GM job knowing that this was the case.

[Atlanta Skins Fan]

Originally posted by joe

The article gets one thing very very wrong. Casserly did not "allow" head coaches Joe Gibbs and Norv Turner to make the first round picks. This was a Redskin tradition established by Jack Kent Cooke and continued by his son John. Casserly took the GM job knowing that this was the case.

Hmmm.... So *that's* why Beathard always traded our #1 picks!

Beathard's interior monologue: "Gee, can't play the ace... Screw it, I'm trading it!"

Geoff

[joe]

No, that's not why he traded the picks, but it is why he left.

[Henry]

I can't believe so many of you are actually defending Casserly. He may not be a horrible GM, but he's certainly not anything special. The article doesn't even mention our biggest first round blunder: Andre Johnson. A player we TRADED UP WITH THE COWBOYS to get. A first round Left Tackle who couldn't even make the team as a backup.

Fortunately for CC, he will be most remembered for the Ricky Williams trade. But let's not fool ourselves. he was an average GM at best.

[Darth Tater]

Henry,

Who in this thread did not agree with you?

[joe]

I will give you Johnson, even though as a first round pick I believe it was Turner's and not Casserly's. But as for the rest of the blown picks or blown trades such as for Gilbert or Wilkenson that people talk of, no, I don't agree. The first round picks were made by the coach. The trades, I agreed with at the time that they were made. Even the trade for Brad Johnson, where I thought that we gave up too much. At the time the trade was made I could not really disagree too strenuously with it.

All GM and personnel guys have their failures. For everyone talking about how great a GM Ron Wolf was, remember that he was also the personnel director for the team with the longest losing streak in the NFL, the original Tampa Bay Buccaneers who went about 24 games before their first win.

[Henry]

You know OPM, I guess I just thought I read more pro-Casserly stuff on this thread. Long day. :doh:

This debate pops up from time to time, and there are quite a few folks out there who still think CC was a great GM. I guess I was talking to them.

[Barney B]

Well, I think The Danny was right when he said he fired the wrong guy.

But, I'm guessing that NFL historians will be judging Casserly on the performance of the Texans over the next 5 years. This is Casserly's team, from top to bottom.