Waiver Wire, 2/7/2008

I still got nothing, I'd call it existential nausea if football mattered so let's tour our Redskins blogbuds, there has been an outstanding quality to the offal during coach watch:

First is Lee Gibbons at The Redskin Report, two years ago he wrote a three part piece on Art Monk for the Hall of Fame and you know I love the multi part series, I did not see it the first time, I am glad he republished it and Lee I'm sorry I did not pimp it last week before the vote when it would have been more er timely. Go read it part one part two part three.


I don't know where Bucktown Skins Fan got this Dan Snyder road map to success but I love it.


Rich Tandler reports via the NFL (Network) that as of 7 pm last night Thursday Jim Fassel has had no contact with the team. Head exploding in three... two... one...


Greg Trippiedi at Hog Heaven just did an outstanding piece on the Redskins salary cap situation, he's also running a crucial series a complete profile on each player with cap numbers, this will be useful in the offseason, here's Rocky McIntosh and LaRon Landry and the rest of the series is here.


David J. Warner at Redskins AOL Sportsblog notes that the Jaguars hiring Gregg Williams to run the defense might help Jacksonville land Bear safety linebacker Lance Briggs, the Redskins made a run at him last season. I wrote a piece on Gregg Williams for Chris at Big Cat Country before he got the job. (thanks to Chris for the catch, duh)


Bram Weinstein at Covering the Redskins got an interview with Dan Snyder on Tuesday at the Art Monk Darrell Green Hall of Fame reception at Redskins Park. Said Dan was open. Wonder if he'd be open to me telling him he's doing it wrong.


David Wagner at Riggo's Rag has some really good ideas about possible future Super Bowl ads, these are really funny and totally possible even the one with peeing.


Looks like Art Monk Hall of Fame Campaign is sort of without a reason to exist.


Something else I noticed but did not note was a couple of excellent Skin Patrol freakouts. On Dan Snyder from a hilar post that sounds like it was written with a tequila hangover, go read it it's bitter, here is the punchline:

With each passing day I'm less convinced that there actually exists any coach out there who is both willing and capable of coming to Washington and coaching up this team, with its peculiar ownership, to levels concomitant to their hopes and aspirations. It occurs to me that since Dan Snyder purchased the team in 1999, we've gone to three postseasons. Two of them were with Gregg Williams, one of them was with Al Saunders. If the strategy for dealing with persons who aid this franchise in achieving widely recognized (by fans, at least) minimum milestones for "success"ful seasons is to fire them, then it is difficult for me to imagine how this team can possibly achieve and maintain "success" regardless of the then, now, or future staff of our beloved Redskins. Bewares are in order for both Jim Zorn and Greg Blache, who would do well not to find themselves in any postseason contests lest they likewise get "afford[ed] closure" that is apparently so benevolent. Call me crazy, but if I were a coach I'd trade in that closure for being treated like a fucking adult any day. More precisely, I'd recommend ownership shove that closure somewhere uncomfortable.

Then the next day, on Dan Snyder via Erik Wemple's inane Washington City Paper piece (site is down as of publish):

Wemple anticipates my next point:

There are probably some nincompoops, too, who feel that the Skins' recent moves to lock up a D coordinator and and O coordinator were stupid moves, considering that, hey, they haven't even hired a head coach yet. Well, here's a preemptive strike against any such moron: Snyder knows that head coaches are cronyists: They'll hire who they know, no matter how good or bad they are. Coaches just want their buddies sitting alongside them in the film room as they all chew tobacco.

And now the icepick in the forehead:

Besides being a nincompoop and a moron, I also disagree strongly with the premise that coaches are merely cronyists. Joe Gibbs, for instance, left play calling duties largely to Gregg Williams and Al Saunders, neither of them Gibbs "cronies" from yesteryear. More importantly, if Dan Snyder wanted to limit the amount of head coaching candidates to merely those people who would accept a job without having veto decisions on coordinating positions (to thus stem the alleged cronyism), he could have done so beforehand. Instead he hires the offensive coordinators so as to even limit input from competent head coaches about who their staff should be made of. (And when I say their staff, I really mean their entire staff.) Snyder can wield total control over coordinator hires over any coach he hires as easily as he can interview and select for those jobs prior to the head coach's arrival. He's the owner, after all.

Therein lies another major criticism to Wemple's article. Dan Snyder is the owner of a football team. He didn't play college football because he dropped out. His prowess was in marketing and business, and few doubt he's plenty capable at both. His experience with football was exclusively as a fan up until that moment he purchased the team in 1999, and little that has happened since attributable directly to him tells us that he's developed into a keen football mind. His decisions have been overwhelmingly disappointing. So, even knowing that Dan Snyder understands some fundamental point about cronyism among NFL staffs that the rest of us, besides Erik Wemple of course, can't figure out, why on earth does this thus qualify him to hire coordinators of football offenses and defenses? In virtue of what, exactly, is he then the guy to turn to?

I love the way the punditry says Williams got sandbagged, mistreated, etc., etc. Wise finds it outrageous that no one from the Redskins called Williams for more than a week after his last interview. Jeez, what a white-collar felony! Wake up-the guy got four bites at the apple. Don't you think there's a chance he said some stupid stuff in those sessions?

To his last question I'd respond: I am sure Gregg Williams said some "stuff" that made him a very unattractive coaching candidate for Daniel Snyder's football team. For instance, I think he might have said something like "If I accept this job, I want control over personnel decisions at least comparable to what Joe Gibbs had." Or he said "If I accept this job, I would like an opportunity to assist in the hiring of my assistant coaches." Or perhaps he said "Dan Snyder, I plan on winning games" to which Dan's head fucking exploded.

For all that bla bla bla, what Erik Wemple really missed was that Head Coaching searches aren't merely about being thorough, they're also about being right. Redskins fans have lost faith that Dan Snyder is capable of being right very often, and many have already decided that he's erred in this process. Had he interviewed 100 people 100 times and ultimately settled on Faye Abbott (who is dead by the way), he'd still be wrong.

Dayum.


This is an open thread