Posts Tagged ‘Jon Gruden’

Sign Jeff Garcia

October 19, 2009

The Redskins should absolutely sign quarterback Jeff Garcia.  He could step in and after less than two weeks, be better than any of the Redskins’ quarterbacks.  Garcia is a winner and would provide a spark to the offense, and he’s good at avoiding the rush, which would be important with the offensive line the way it is right now.  Critics will say he’s 39 so he’s obviously not the future, but Jason Campbell most likely won’t be here after next season.

Assuming the Redskins draft a quarterback in the first round such as Colt McCoy or Sam Bradford, he probably won’t be able to start right away despite the success of players like Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco.  So Garcia could start next year, at least the first part of the season. There have been a lot of great quarterbacks who have struggled in their first seasons — Peyton Manning, John Elway, Troy Aikman, etc., and others whose time on the bench early on — Carson Palmer, Tom Brady, and Steve McNair — benefitted them. Garcia knows the west coast offense and he used to play for Jon Gruden.  Mike Shanahan and Mike Holmgren each run the west coast offense.

You need to try to win as may games as possible.  You never know what might happen.  What if the Skins ride their defense to a 9-7 record and make the playoffs?  When you try to be bad on purpose to get high draft picks or to play too many young players, you create a losing atmosphere.  Like a couple of years ago when the Miami Heat tried to get a high draft pick.  Where did it get them? They finished a little bit over .500, just like the Wizards will this year after going in the tank last year.  You can’t turn it on and off like that.  The Skins need to go all out now and play every play like it is their last.  When your boss doesn’t support you and doesn’t want you to succeed, it can get ugly as it has with Daniel Snyder and Jim Zorn.  Taking away Zorn’s play-calling duties — that’s just insulting.

So the Skins should sign Garcia.  It also is too bad they put Colt Brennan on injured reserve.  If I were Colt I’d want to go to another team next year that would give me a fair chance to compete for the job.  But the season can still be salvaged and even if it isn’t, I’d rather be 8-8 than 4-12.

Tags:, , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Sign Jeff Garcia

Redskins, Zorn, and Trying Hard

October 19, 2009

So obviously the Skins are going to fire Jim Zorn.  If they can bring in next year’s coach now that would be a good thing because they could get a head start on things.  Even if Zorn was going to be a good coach he doesn’t have the support of Dan Snyder and then you have no chance.  It’s looking a little like Jon Gruden is the likely choice, however, and it’s doubtful he’d leave Monday Night Football in the middle of the season, so it looks like the Skins may have an interim head coach – Defensive Coordinator Greg Blache?

I just hope the organization and team tries their hardest to win during the rest of the year because I hate the philosophy of doing badly on purpose to get a high draft pick for the next season.  The Washington Wizards did it last year and I think they’re going to pay for it this year even though they’re talking big, because you can’t build a winning philosophy by turning if on and off like that.  The word is that Mike Shanahan and Mike Holmgren would want total authority, which they wouldn’t get.  Bill Cowher would probably want more authority too and he’ll probably go to Carolina.

I’d love to see Russ Grimm as the head coach but Snyder wouldn’t do that.  He wants a big name.  Gruden would inject some enthusiasm and he is a very good offensive coach.  The defense is actually very solid and has some good young players.

The Redskins have gone through a lot of coaches but only two in the past six seasons – Joe Gibbs and Jim Zorn.  It doesn’t make sense the way the media and fans always count interim head coaches like Terry Robiskie who coached three games as one of the many coaches the Skins have had.  The Redskins’ moves haven’t been all bad lately too.

Chris Cooley was a great draft pick.  Getting Santana Moss in exchange for Laverneous Coles was a steal.  Carlos Rogers and Laron Landry are good starters in the secondary.  London Fletcher was a great free agent pickup.  Orakpo was a good draft pick.

Obviously they’ve made some bad moves too – WRs Malcolm Kelly and Devin Thomas have been busts, while TE Fred Davis is very slowly coming on.  You look at some of the later round picks of the team the last 5 years and many of them didn’t make the team.  They overpaid for DeAngelo Hall.  And the failure to upgrade the depth of the offensive line and running back positions have proven to be costly.

If everyone gets on the same page and works hard, the Skins can still finish at a semi-respectable 7-9 or so.  Not great but I believe in trying your best and not throwing in the towel.  They should play Jason Campbell, though, because he’s better than Todd Collins, period.

Tags:, , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Redskins, Zorn, and Trying Hard