Nope thumbs down
Joe Gibbs may be riding off into the sunset and into our hearts, thank you Joe and all that but there is an NFL season next year and right now the Washington Redskins are leaderless. The team has begun the process of finding a new coach, this decision has incredible implications for the coming season and beyond. Over the next few days The Curly R will examine candidates from within and without the team, men in the running for maybe the highest profile coaching job in the highest profile pro sports league in the country.
Part One: What A New 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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This is already somewhat moot considering that Redskins offensive coordinator Al Saunders has not been named in team or media discussions as a potential replacement for Joe Gibbs since the first day, I still think Al merits some discussion.
Al Saunders should not be the Redskins next coach.
With regard to Al's tenure with the Redskins his offense has not been spectacular, at least not living up to his pedigree from St. Louis and Kansas City. Within the player community he appears not to have inspired a great deal of loyalty, or if loyalty is not the correct term then I am not reading every day that players are inspired by him and are happy to tell the media they would like to keep him. Contrast this with Gregg Williams and comments from players on offense that are lobbying for the team to keep Gregg as the head coach.
From an outside perspective he has been content to let Joe Gibbs be the mouthpiece for the team and unlike Gregg's position on the sidelines during games Al is perched far away in the booth lending to the image of someone removed from the action, from the players and from his fellow coaches. By contrast Gregg Williams is all assholes and elbows there on the sideline. I know it's not fair but it's not just gameday. There has never been a representation of Al as an all fired up guy, like Norval Turner he is more of a tinkerer and I don't think he does personalities.
Personalities are of course important in a head coaching candidate.
Why else do I think Al will not be coach? He has not been endorsed at any time, nor for that matter has any in house candidate. As Jason La Canfora at the Washington Post wrote a week ago today the lack of a quick endorsement of either Al or Gregg Williams or any of the other head coach caliber assistants, Greg Blache, Joe Bugel, it could mean a bloodletting is upon us.
Al's experience also tends to indicate he would not make a good head coach, not for this team. When he was signed on in January 2006 at a rate of 2 million dollars per year he was leaving Kansas City after Dick Vermeil's third and possibly final retirement. As Dick's offensive coordinator Al ran an offense in Kansas City that was dominant, particularly in the running game. Even as he was leaving Kansas City Al was praised by incoming coach Herm Edwards (op. cit.):
"I knew Al was the kind of guy who every year is going to be in the running to be a head coach," Edwards said. "He's a guy who's primed to be a head coach. He's always going to be a candidate.
Al was in fact a candidate for several teams in the bloodbath of coach firings two years ago, interviewing with the Chiefs, Vikings, Texans Raiders and Lions (op. cit.). It made sense for the Redskins, get a guy off the market and gain an offense. Both Al and Joe Gibbs went back to Don Coryell's Chargers teams in the 70s and 80s though Al and Joe were not actually there at the same time. They met as assistants on the University of Southern California football team in 1970 (op. cit.). Al and Joe were supposed to be of a similar mind on offense even if Al leaned toward wide open attacks and Joe tended toward conservative runs up the middle.
It seemed like a good idea at the time even if I did not agree that the decision to bring Al on somehow validated the idea the Joe Gibbs could not call a good game on offense in the NFL anymore.
When I look back at how things worked out for Al in Kansas City though I wonder how Al was had by Washington so easily when there were so many, ten that offseason, head coach openings given how loudly Dick Vermeil had advocated for Al.
And this does not in any way knock Al for his tenure in San Diego. When Don Coryell stepped down after eight games in 1986 Al got the job. Although He finished under .500 for his two and a half seasons there it is important to remember that during this two plus season stretch three future NFL Hall of Famers retired from the Chargers: Dan Fouts, Kellen Winslow and Charlie Joiner. When it was all said and done the franchise needed to start over and besides it was 1988 when that happened and I am certain Al learned from that experience.
So in the process of leaving the Chiefs Dick Vermeil strenuously endorsed Al Saunders for the head job, again and again. Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson pilfered Herm Edwards from the Jets. Carl and Herm went all the way back to Dick's days with the Eagles. Then head of the Texans search committee Dan Reeves hired Gary Kubiak for that job, Gary having been Dan's backup quarterback in Denver.
And so it went, other teams hired coaches they had better ties to or gambled on first time coaches. Al's last chance was the Raiders and thankfully the Redskins saved him from that job.
In the aftermath of all this some anonymous NFL personnel said Al was not substantive enough or too much of a politician or wanted someone younger (three grafs op. cit.).
Personally I think Al had developed a reputation as a good coordinator and not a real fire in the belly head coach type.
My opinion is further solidified by a few of Al Saunders' in game decisions. If this guy is running the offense and it was all his and at times I have no idea what the offense is trying to accomplish, does that bring into question his football judgment? In the first place, who would call the plays, him? That is not necessarily a strike against him but if he is this supposed football guru then why does it seem to me that all these fourth quarter drives were totally botched?
Joe Gibbs himself seemed to distance himself from Al's offense in the middle of the disastrous 2006 season, repeating the phrase 'Redskins football' in his 20 November 2006 rantfest so many times that some players thought Joe was poking Al Saunders and his 700 page playbook right in the eye.
After that the Redskins were dogged the rest of the season and into the offseason about who was actually calling plays and who was in charge of the offensive gameplan.
And even though the Redskins offense looked better at times this season, particularly in the passing game, there was never a breakout game, a game when I could look at the TV and say, wow it's hitting on all cylinders. And that tells me not necessarily that Al Saunders is not a good playcaller or offensive coordinator, but rather that in two seasons he never figured out how to maximize the Redskins offense with the tools he had.
Given Todd Collins' amazing run to end the season would it have made a difference if in 2006 Mark Brunell had been pulled for Todd, and that Jason would have spent the rest of the season on the bench? If Clinton Portis had not been hurt? If Ladell had not fumbled as much if Jon Jansen and Randy Thomas had not been hurt this season if Brandon Lloyd had not been a bust and on and on it goes, who knows about any of this stuff.
What it looks like to me is that Al Saunders never jelled with this team. He's probably gone with the new head coach. Thanks Al, when it was good it was good.
The Curly R's coach evaluations continue tomorrow with Gregg Williams.
Al Saunders from here.
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