What a New Coach Means for the Redskins

Sometimes continuity is overrated

The Washington Redskins will have a new coach for the 2008 season, who we do not yet know. If the team has a secret plan they are keeping it a good secret. So what does a new coach mean for a football team, for this football team? Possibly a lot. Maybe a shitload. Outside chance of complete upheaval. Today The Curly R begins a five part look at the Redskins coordinators and top outside head coaching candidates for the highest profile job in the NFL.

Part One: What A Coach Means for the Redskins
Part Two: Al Saunders
Part Three: Gregg Williams
Part Four: The Rest of the Pack
Part Five: The Case for Russ Grimm

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When he announced his retirement Joe Gibbs spoke at length about wanting to maintain quote continuity unquote with the Redskins. This is a fundamentally hard thing to accomplish when the man leaving the organization was both coach and president of football operations. The same people, if we are to believe that Joe Gibbs was in charge of player selection and such, will not be making decisions so the idea of continuity of more of a goal than an expectation.

Let us assume for a minute that somehow both defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and offensive coordinator Al Saunders are both retained, either one is made head coach and keeps the other or a third candidate is brought on board and retains both of them.

In this scenario there can be some continuity of system, terminology, habits, player expectations of behavior and feedback. This would invalidate all those arguments about how many coordinators a player has had in how many years, how often did we read that about LaVar Arrington, that until Joe Gibbs that he had a different coordinator every year of his career, Ray Rhodes, Kurt Schottenheimer, Marvin Lewis, George Edwards and finally Gregg Williams.

But this kind of continuity also comes with change. The new coach whomever he may be will do things his own way and may well decide to make a point of doing things differently that Joe Gibbs and the old regime. This can upset the delicate balance of things on a football team as players and groups that were rubbed one way now get rubbed the other. New coaches and players are in favor and there are all new interpersonal dynamics. Personnel in conflict or with differing viewpoints no longer have the same referee to arbitrate or authority figure to hide behind.

At the risk of mongering, here is an example: Richie Petitbon, tough nosed defensive coordinator that earned his shot working on Joe Gibbs' staff. Joe's first retirement press conference was also Richie's hiring press conference. Going into 1993 the team had most of the same albeit aging players and most of the same coaches. Quarterbacks coach Rod Dowhower and defensive coordinator Larry Peccatiello were promoted from within to run the offense and defense. The general manager was the same, same owner, yada yada. How did that work out? 4-12, one and done for Richie, so humiliated in a time when coaches were never given one year to succeed that Richie has receded into private life and has never given a football interview that I am aware of.

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Now for a moment let us assume that an all new coach is brought in for the Redskins. There will be blood as the top assistants jump ship for their network and the lesser assistants wait for the gallows. Players and the media will complain about that continuity thing? Yeah we don't have that anymore. This model assumes that Dan Snyder and his sycophants in the executive suite believe that they are the agents of continuity, that after four years they maxed out on the model from Joe Gibbs, that player selection, draft picks, coaching picks, yeah we got all that now.

In this model the team ownership believes continuity is maintained above the coach, that the coaching staff is more like the players than the management, that you pick the best for your system and let the rest take care of itself.

The Redskins have not demonstrated an acute ability to do this if you take out the Joe Gibbs years.

Add to this all the logistics challenges that come with a new coach. All new playbooks, all new terminology, new schedules, new habits, new expectations.

Even though head coaches in the NFL have a shorter shelf life than the old days it can still take a full year to get a team to work together with a full coaching transition. Jon Gruden may have taken his team to the Super Bowl his first year but that is still the exception. Cam Cameron is out after one year but is that because he's awful or because his starting quarterback was lost for the season five games in?

Can you see Bill Cowher coming here for ten million dollars a year and then getting the axe after one season if he goes 4-12? I can't either but I can see Bill deciding 2008 does not need to be a winning year as he puts his staff in place and starts putting his players in place.

What about a wild card candidate? If Dan Snyder were to hire a an assistant like former Redskins assistants Ron Meeks or Tony Sparano I could see them getting fired after four wins and then we start all over and that whole continuity thing is out the window.

If a winning season for the Redskins in 2008 is a priority for you then this is a precarious time for the team, there is a great deal of risk no matter how the team makes this call.


The Curly R's coaching evaluations begin tonight with Al Saunders.



Redskins head coach Richie Petitbon from here.