An OBHR case study
Matt Terl over at the ORB (Official Redskins Blog) continues to use his immense powers for good, nabbing interview after interview with Redskins players and coaches and providing critical insight into how the team is run and what the day to day is like inside Redskins Park. It is like nothing Redskins fans have ever had before.
Tuesday Matt published an interview with Redskins safeties coach Steve Jackson, a former NFL player, Steve played defensive back for the Oilers and Titans for his entire career from 1991 to 1999, over the same period former Redskins defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was on staff, and current Redskins cornerbacks and secondary coach Jerry Gray was a teammate of Steve's for one season in 1992. Steve joined the Redskins staff as safeties coach along with Gregg Williams in 2004, and had been safeties coach in Buffalo for three seasons when Gregg was head coach of the Bills. Matt's interview with Steve is very good, you should go read it.
I have some questions for Steve Jackson too.
Back around Thanksgiving 2006, as the Redskins were in the second half of an ultimately bitterly disappointing 5-11 season, ESPN published a magazine piece by Tom Friend entitled Reeling Redskins Awash in Troubles, a 4000 word account of how bad things were inside Redskins Park, Joe Gibbs had become but an observer, money was rarely spent productively, and leadership was by committee.
But the most damning element of the story was the unraveling of the Redskins defense. Tom writes that Gregg had a barely contained disdain for Joe Gibbs' quote high school unquote offense in that first year of 2004 and that the phenomenal success of Washington's defense that season, highlighted by linebacker Antonio Pierce, gave Gregg such a big head and such confidence in his system over his players that he allowed Antonio and cornerback Fred Smoot to depart in free agency.
Things seemed still to be on track performance wise in 2005 as the defense turned in another top ten finish and the Redskins went to the playoffs. Gregg's contract and salary went to his head. The team got rid of linebacker LaVar Arrington, cornerback Walt Harris and safety Ryan Clark. Going into 2006 Gregg was convinced the scheme was the thing.
Also going into 2006 were changes to the defensive coaching staff. DeWayne Walker, hired away from the Giants by Joe Gibbs in 2004 to coach the Redskins secondary and cornerbacks, left to become the defensive coordinator for the University of California - Los Angeles Bruins. According to Tom Friend, Steve Jackson had wanted the secondary position back in 2004, feeling he had earned it with his time in Buffalo, and was disappointed when Gregg selected DeWayne for the job. When DeWayne moved on Steve assumed he would be elevated to coach of the secondary.
Which did not happen. Gregg's former player from Houston, and former defensive coordinator from Buffalo, Jerry Gray, became available after Mike Mularkey was let go in Buffalo, Jerry had been on Gregg's staff and was retained on Mike's staff. Gregg hired Jerry to be secondary and cornerbacks coach, passing Steve over.
Steve's feelings were hurt so Gregg placated Steve by giving him greater autonomy as safeties coach and permitting Steve to convene meetings of the safeties independently of the secondary as a whole, meaning the safeties and cornerbacks were meeting separately, which is out of the ordinary according to Tom Friend and anonymous players quoted in the piece.
To hear Tom write it up Steve grew more petulant during the season, bitter that Jerry had the job Steve was supposed to have, and even when in the face of terrible performance on the field the secondary began meeting together, Steve would huff and skip the meetings.
To add injury to insult, Tom outlines how the safety techniques taught by Steve that year deviated from the traditional Cover-2 that was Gregg Williams' signature, and that it measurably caused safety play to regress in 2006.
I think any Redskins fans who remember that season will agree that by the end the entire secondary was playing bewildered, though you will recall that Shawn Springs missed most of the season, leaving the Redskins with Mike Rumph and Kenny Wright at cornerback, and the Adam Archuleta experiment was a failure, leading to significant playing time by then 35 year old Troy Vincent and journeyman Vernon Fox at safety. As such I always attributed some portion of that unit's poor performance to not having the horses they needed to compete and then losing interest. It is an interesting angle that Tom Friend claims, that some portion of the poor performance was attributed directly to Steve Jackson's flawed coaching.
As the 2006 season wore on Steve began berating players openly, then began withdrawing on the sidelines in practice and on game days. Throughout it all Gregg Williams was not an activist manager, did not handle the situation and did not signal a demand for order, leading to assistants running amok and players wondering what was happening.
Ultimately as we all know Gregg Williams and his staff was retained through the 2007 playoff season, and Steve Jackson and Jerry Gray were retained by Greg Blache prior to Jim Zorn's fisrt season in 2008, they remain in the same positions on the defensive coahing staff.
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I do not drag this up simply to cause a stir, to the contrary safety play improved in 2007 and 2008, this is of course partially attributed to the addition of talented players such as LaRon Landry and Chris Horton, and if there were ever any counterproductive techniques being taught, it looks as though they have been corrected.
I would simply like to know Steve's reaction to this piece and the allegations inside it. Steve is second only to Gregg Williams as the target of attack in the story, and this piece caused quite a stir when it was published, as we now know, the featured anonymous player with the harshest words for the team was Adam Archuleta, a safety and therefore perhaps with the most to say about Steve and Gregg.
Many Redskins fans discounted the story at the time as a case of opportunism on the part of Tom Friend, exploiting a disgruntled player and portraying every aspect of the team in the worst possible light, and yet there it was, published at a time when the Redskins were flailing miserably, I covered that entire season and the defensive play overall was well deserving of the 31st overall ranking, on their way to 5-11.
How did Steve react to this story at the time? Is there any truth to hurt feelings or rivalry between Steve and Jerry Gray, still currently coaching together? Did he ever sulk in meetings, in practice or on the sidelines? Was Steve ever called out or the recipient of feedback as to the quality of his coaching technique in 2006? How has he changed his methods since then? How is his relationship with Gregg Williams? With Jerry Gray? With Greg Blache? With Jim Zorn? With Dan Snyder? When he looks back on that season and this ESPN article, what are his impressions?
Inquiring minds want to know.
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