Just when the decision making of Mike Shanahan cannot seem to get worse, he proves everyone wrong.
Last year, Shanahan looked at his roster, and thought to himself that he did not have a quarterback. As such, he went out and traded for Donovan McNabb, giving the Philadelphia Eagles a second round draft pick in 2010, and another draft choice in 2011. Well, the thought that McNabb was better than Rex Grossman or the immortal John Beck lasted for 13 weeks, before he was benched. On July 27, Shanahan traded him to Minnesota for a sixth round draft choice in 2012 and a conditional sixth round pick in 2013. Hell of a return on a second and a fourth.
Next, we come to Albert Haynesworth. Haynesworth, when motivated, is a stud defensive lineman. Yet, early on in his tenure with the Redskins (pretty much in the first hour), Shanahan went out of his way to alienate his best defensive lineman. Yes, Haynesworth ended up quitting on the Redskins (who can forget him laying down in the middle of the field during play?) but he never felt respected by the current regime. In the end, Haynesworth got his wish, and was traded to the New England Patriots for a fifth round pick in 2013. Seems that $100Million doesn’t get what it used to anymore.
Now, to further compound the idiocy that is the roster construction of the Washington Redskins, they did nothing to address their quarterback situation. Unless Shanahan sees something in John Beck that no one else does, or if Beck has compromising pictures of Shanahan and farm animals, there is no way that he should be starting for a CFL team, let alone in the NFL. They also neglected the offensive line until the seventh round, way too late for them to have a significant upgrade at any point in the near future.
While there were several picks that were steals in Leonard Hankerson and Roy Helu, they made moves in free agency that limited the logic of these selections. They signed Brandon Stokley and Donte Stallworth, and traded for Jabar Gaffney – moves that would have been exciting three years ago. At quarterback, they brought in another less than exciting option in Kellen Clemens. Yeah, these are moves that will lead the Redskins back to the promised land.
This year may be the final nail in the ‘Shanahan Is A Genius’ coffin. This team is now unquestionably molded in his image. Now we all get the joy of watching it blow apart.
I know a lot of people were excited when they found out that Shanahan was going to coach the Redskins but I wasn't one of them. I paid pretty good attention to his time in Denver after John Elway retired and it wasn't pretty to say the least. If anyone can be a 2 time Super Bowl winning coach and still be highly overrated, it's Shanahan. And I think his brief time in Washington has proven that.
ReplyDeleteHe should have swallowed his pride and ego and traded Haynesworth as soon as fat Albert made it clear that he didn't want to play in a 3-4 defense. Maybe you get a 2nd round pick, probably a 3rd and you don't have to ever deal with that headache and distraction. Instead Mike thought he could force Albert to fall in line and we all know how that turned out. When a guy like Albert has already been paid $30m, what incentive does he have to fall in line? None. Mike should have known that and done what was best for the team instead of allowing his ego to get in the way.
As far as McNabb goes, I was one of the people that thought it was worth the risk to trade for him. It was pretty clear that Washington wouldn't be able to move up to get Sam Bradford and I didn't feel like any of the other QB's in that draft were worth taking so why not see if McNabb has anything left?
I don't know if McNabb was lazy, out of shape, couldn't learn the playbook or if it was just all those years of injuries just taking their toll on Donovan. Either way, it was wrong of Shanahan to publicly embarrass McNabb the way that he did. All it's done is make Mike look bad and have people finally start to question if he really knows how to coach without Elway. The best thing would have been to just keep quiet during the season and then after the season is over just acknowledge that the trade didn't work out and maybe he could have gotten more for McNabb than just a couple of 6th round picks.
As far as this year goes. I'm with you. I have 0 confidence in John Beck and unless they tank so bad that they have a chance at Andrew Luck then this season will be a complete waste. Year 2 of the Shanahan era in Washington may be even worse than the 1st year.