ASHBURN, VA – It’s December in the most powerful city in the world and the city’s most treasured entity looks anything but powerful. As this month rolls around every year, this team’s future hangs in the balance. There is a sense that a tragic play is acting itself out and when winter approaches, the plot and characters finally reveal themselves to the audience.
Unfortunately, the genre of this play has been sheer horror. Only in our nation’s capital can one witness a political power play on the gridiron.
Just two-and-a-half short seasons ago Washington was hosting the Seattle Seahawks in an NFC Wildcard Playoff game. Fans felt that the team was one with a tremendously bright future. Although the Redskins would go on and lose that game, they had had a great run leading up to it, reeling off seven straight wins. Their rookie quarterback Robert Griffin, III had set the NFL abuzz by becoming the Rookie of the Year as well as having the top jersey sales in the history of the league. Their future Hall of Fame coach (Mike Shanahan) seemed to have recaptured the magic that led him to win two Super Bowls while he was coach of the Denver Broncos. Collective squads of no-name players united and became a team, giving the region a joyful ride seldom witnessed by anyone under 25.
Fast forward to today and all of that seems like a distant memory. How could things have gotten so bad so fast? This is a football team that should be competing at the highest levels. Today however, it is in turmoil. This is apparently a rite of passage here in D.C.
First-year head coach Jay Gruden was brought in to repair a mentally and physically fragile young quarterback who was coming off a public spat with his former coach. Gruden, who worked wonders with quarterback Andy Dalton for the Bengals in Cincinnati immediately preceding his employment here, was handpicked by Redskins’ General Manager Bruce Allen to lead the resurgence of Griffin. For whatever reasons, that has not worked out and it now appears that he has finished the task Shanahan set out to do. That is, he has broken Griffin publicly and now has a fractured relationship with him.
The Redskins as an organization set Griffin up for failure in their everyday handling of him from the beginning. He was made to be larger than life, continuously marketed. Griffin, being the charismatic young man that he is, never shied away from a camera. The team, instead of offering professional advice on how to handle the celebrity status, ran all the way to the bank.
In the midst of this, Griffin’s teammates understood who he was and, more importantly, what he wanted to be. For instance, the quarterback would have liked to be allowed to go places without the team having to always know his whereabouts. In other words, he would have liked to be treated like a normal football player. But it was not in the cards that season.
Now we see that same organization creating the sequel on “How to Publicly and Personally Humiliate Robert Griffin, III.”
This is not a defense of some of the things that Griffin has done but to give some insight into them and him. Has he spoken too often? Yes. Has he capitalized on fame without having achieved enough? Yes. But, he also is a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback who will always have that honor regardless of whether he ever throws another pass or runs for another touchdown in the NFL. His fame was pre-Redskins and fans need to really understand that.
As far as his play on the field is concerned, it still is a body of work in the making.
So many times have unfair analogies been hoisted upon Griffin. ‘ [Andrew] Luck has been to the playoffs’ and ‘[Russell] Wilson has a Super Bowl already’ are quotes frequently seen or heard from fans. Again, it should be noted that those two great, young quarterbacks have several things going in their favor that has nurtured their success. One is that their organizations are light years more stable and accomplished in their approaches to football than the Redskins. Second, their head coaches are on the same page with them and that would make any young quarterback trust the process of their growth.
Gruden and Griffin’s relationship as head coach and quarterback should be lock-solid because they both were set up for failure by the organization. Griffin has never played behind an offensive line worth two nickels when it came to pass blocking. How can he be written off after five games in this offense when he has no pocket from which to be a pocket passer? Recall what Colt McCoy went through yesterday… he was sacked six times and knocked out of the game with a neck sprain. It doesn’t matter who the signal caller is for this team. They’re going to get beat up trying to go through their progressions and then make throws. It’s no wonder that a pass never seems to go beyond 10 yards.
Gruden should have fallen on his sword for Griffin because he too was never given the proper resources to win in his head coaching debut. His staff was handpicked by the organization because of their histories of working together. Seriously? When most coaches are hired, they are allowed to fill out their staff with ‘their’ guys. This was not done for Gruden and now he is witnessing why this place has been a train wreck for so long. He and Griffin should have had an inseparable bond that would see this thing through since they’re dealing with the same cards.
Defensive coordinator Jim Haslett, who many within the organization said was hand-strung because he could not call the defense the way he wanted to under Shanahan, has now shown that this could not be the case… his unit has not improved and he is now besieged with questions regarding his play calling.
Even former players such as Redskins’ great London Fletcher have gotten into the fray. Yesterday Fletcher called out Haslett and said that he has ruined the careers of players and that he doesn’t have a clue about how to run a defense.
Regardless of the aforementioned issues, Redskins’ owner Dan Snyder owes it to the fans to put an end to this nonsense. Lucky to have a proud and traditional fanbase, the organization has failed miserably over the years to produce a winner on and off the gridiron. Are jersey sales and marketing ploys more important than producing a winning team to take the field? One would think that, as a businessman Snyder would understand that he could make much more money if he produced a winner. Fans would line up at all of his ill-fated Redskins stores to buy the merchandise because they would want to be part of a winner.
Is this even a professional outfit?
Most true fans know that the real answer to that question is ‘No’ and it pains them. But the time for change is now. It is time to act like a football organization.
This situation sits squarely at the feet of the owner because everything starts at the top. To be successful, an owner doesn’t just sell or produce money but also puts quality people around him. This aspect of Snyder’s decision-making must be questioned. He seems to truly want to win for this fan base but has never demonstrated that he can hire the right guys to get this done. When former Redskins’ (and Hall of Fame) head coach Joe Gibbs came out of retirement to coach the team for a second stint, he brought a sense of class and dignity back to the fans and players. He even laid a path down for how the team could succeed going forward when he surprisingly decided to hang it up for good.
There was no irony in the fact that the gentlemen across the field yesterday calling the defense for the Rams (who was also Gibbs’ top coordinator) should probably be the Redskins’ head coach right now. Or he should at least have been given that opportunity at the time Gibbs retired. Continuity is a must to be successful and Gregg Williams’ defense was an integral part of Gibbs’ leading the team to the playoffs in two out of four years he was here the second time. Williams’ defense was a Top 5 and Top 10-rated defense every year that he was here as well.
For Snyder and the Redskins, the first task is to get a football general manager. Not a re-tread but a young, hungry, up-and-comer. Keep Allen as team President and let him continue to work with the alumni players… he has done an excellent job with that. A hard look must be taken at the scouting department who have whiffed on some of the free agent signings and draft pick evaluation. The second and third rounds of Washington’s drafts have either been a serious reach on talent or an over-evaluation of it.
While they are at it, they need to take a look at the strength and conditioning departments… there have been way too many lower-extremity injuries coming off of the grounds here at Redskins Park.
Finally, give the players every perk they need to be successful. Whether it is a full-time psychologist like the Seattle Seahawks employ for Russell Wilson, or full-time masseuse which a lot of teams have around to help these guys’ bodies get through the week, the team needs to do what it needs to do.
Dan Snyder if you love the Redskins as much as most fans and those of us in the media thinks you do, then do the right things and do them now. If you do not, more fans are going to start driving up I-95 to see a team that has won and won consistently… all the while doing it the right way.
The Redskins should not have to take a backseat to any other pro outlet if all things were equal. There is plenty of money available and a great fan base that bleeds burgundy and gold. And there is a tradition that was used to winning.
Now, the players that want to win need to be shown how to do so and rewarded for putting the team first on the field and in the community. Everyone else in the building that’s not on that page should be shown the closest door.