Hard to judge Shanahan on his first 2 years.

[Prowl33]

I have seen a lot of people very critical of Shanahan, calling his first 2 seasons complete flops.

Season 1 he got hired in late, and was stuck with a team that was not his, he tried to do what he could right away by signing Donovan, which was a risk, but what else was he going to do in that situation.

His 2nd year... lockout anyone? So after finally have the team for a full season, he got crushed by the lockout, not allowed to do anything at all football related with any players, and even after a good draft, got thrust into a season with 11 new players that started during pre-season essentially, and had no time to react to anything Free Agent wise.

THIS year, he is having all off-season to plan, being able to make big moves like getting RG3, properly evaluating and signing Free Agents starting this Tuesday, he will have mini camps, workouts, ota's, and a slew of oportunities to work with his now 2 year tenured team. The players themselves get to actually study playbooks ahead of time, and use the team facilities and work with the coaching/training staff whenever they please.

To me, this is Shanahans first REAL year as the Redskins head coach, this is now his team, his way, and ignoring the past 2 years, NOW I think anything below an even record could be considered as him doing a poor job.

Now, let the Shanahan Era finally begin.

HTTR

[Red_One43]

^ It's tough to ignore the painful 6 -10 and 5-11 seasons, but I love the positive spin. I am always on board. I like what I see in the ShanAllen 5 year plan - yes, years 1 an 2 were not good, but a foundation is being built.

[Irn-Bru]

I don't think Shanahan needs any excuses like being hired "late" in his first year or having to deal with the lockout in his second year. (The rest of the NFL dealt with the lockout, too . . .)

The reality is that Shanahan inherited a complete mess. It is nearly impossible to overstate how badly the Snyder/Vinny leadership era screwed up this franchise, from the talent on the roster to the atmosphere of the locker room.

Shanahan and Allen have done a very good job trimming the fat, adding depth, and bringing in talent. It took some time, but they have laid a foundation.

I think it has taken this long in part because of 1-2 errors Shanny/Allen have made in personnel moves. For me, McNabb was their biggest mistake.

But at the same time, no one could expect them to be perfect. And the good that they've done — especially in drafting/acquiring players — greatly outweighs the bad.

So I don't feel any need to point out how "the scheme takes a while to adapt" or "the lockout kept the players from practicing together" or "he was hired too late to make a full talent evaluation of the draft." Not only have I heard excuses like that for years and years as a Redskins fan, but I just don't think they are necessary to conclude that Shanny is doing a good job. We will be competitive this year, and when we are, us Redskins fans will know that those two losing seasons were the price to pay to have a consistently competitive team going forward.

[KazooSkinsFan]

I have seen a lot of people very critical of Shanahan, calling his first 2 seasons complete flops

And you've seen a lot of people who say how ridiculous they are.

[CanesSkins26]

I have seen a lot of people very critical of Shanahan, calling his first 2 seasons complete flops.

Season 1 he got hired in late, and was stuck with a team that was not his, he tried to do what he could right away by signing Donovan, which was a risk, but what else was he going to do in that situation.

His 2nd year... lockout anyone? So after finally have the team for a full season, he got crushed by the lockout, not allowed to do anything at all football related with any players, and even after a good draft, got thrust into a season with 11 new players that started during pre-season essentially, and had no time to react to anything Free Agent wise.

THIS year, he is having all off-season to plan, being able to make big moves like getting RG3, properly evaluating and signing Free Agents starting this Tuesday, he will have mini camps, workouts, ota's, and a slew of oportunities to work with his now 2 year tenured team. The players themselves get to actually study playbooks ahead of time, and use the team facilities and work with the coaching/training staff whenever they please.

To me, this is Shanahans first REAL year as the Redskins head coach, this is now his team, his way, and ignoring the past 2 years, NOW I think anything below an even record could be considered as him doing a poor job.

Now, let the Shanahan Era finally begin.

HTTR

Shanahan isn't a great coach. His post-Elway record at Denver show that pretty clearly. It's funny that fans here expect him to make-up for the poor personnel moves of Cerrato, when Shanahan's poor personnel moves are what got him fired in Denver. He has the ability to bring some structure and organization to this team, but I don't think that he's up to the task of turning the Cerrato mess into a championship team. I think he'll get us to being a .500 team, but that's about all I expect of him.

[jmooney]

The record may not indicate sucess. I think you can see the impact to this point.

Up until a few days ago, we were going into the F/A-draft period with a full compliment of draft picks AND $47 mil. under cap. I'd say thats a huge step in the right direction.

Now we've traded for the #2 overall pick in order to get our QB. The fact that we got so much production out of last years class, particularly the lower rounds and, RESPONSIBLE use of the F/A market, has made giving up all those 1st rounders to St'Louis alot less painful.

Had you told me 3 years ago that this franchise would be in this shape today. I would have been fine with it.

The future, however, is attached to this #2 overall pick.

[skinsfan#33]

Shanahan isn't a great coach. His post-Elway record at Denver show that pretty clearly.

You mean his 91 wins to 69 losses. Or his three winning seasons for every losing season and owe by the way he did that with Jake Plumber and Brian Griese.

By the way the Skins lost 15 more games and of course won 15 fewer games during that ten year span. The Skins had half as many winning seasons and one more losing season than Shanny.

What was Bill Walse's record w/o Montana or Bill Bellicheats record w/o Brady or Jimmy Johnson's w/o Aikman? I bet MS' record (post Elway) in Denver stacks up pretty well against those other coaches w/o their HoF QBs!

[SkinsJock]

Mike Shanahan (with Bruce Allen) is well on his way to builiding a franchise that will be a respected franchise again

His coaching will be responsible for this franchise consistently being in the playoffs

We (well most of us) are going to enjoy watching this franchise again


Mike Shanahan is a good judge of the players and system needed to ensure success on the field each Sunday

Mike Shanahan is an even better Head Coach

we are VERY fortunate - there are not many that could have done as well in such a short time

[The Hogster]

Fans kill me with this. It's mainly the Redskins fan base with these unreal expectations.

Very few coaches have good records, or consistently make the playoffs without franchise QBs.

We saw Joe Gibbs do this, so we expect it of every coach. What did we really expect from this team with Beck, Rex Grossman and McDone at the helm?

He's got his man now, so we will see what we've got over the next few years.

[skinsfan#33]

Fans kill me with this. It's mainly the Redskins fan base with these unreal expectations.

Very few coaches have good records, or consistently make the playoffs without franchise QBs.

We saw Joe Gibbs do this, so we expect it of every coach. What did we really expect from this team with Beck, Rex Grossman and McDone at the helm?

He's got his man now, so we will see what we've got over the next few years.

What he said!

[chiefhog44]

Shanahan isn't a great coach. His post-Elway record at Denver show that pretty clearly.

You mean his 91 wins to 69 losses. Or his three winning seasons for every losing season and owe by the way he did that with Jake Plumber and Brian Griese.

By the way the Skins lost 15 more games and of course won 15 fewer games during that ten year span. The Skins had half as many winning seasons and one more losing season than Shanny.

What was Bill Walse's record w/o Montana or Bill Bellicheats record w/o Brady or Jimmy Johnson's w/o Aikman? I bet MS' record (post Elway) in Denver stacks up pretty well against those other coaches w/o their HoF QBs!

I know right. What have the Bronco's done without Shanny? Gibbs was the only coach to win with multiple QB's, so the question could be asked of every coach with a hall of fame QB...

[Countertrey]

Not hard. He has completely rebuilt the foundation in only 2 years. He has shaved years off of team age. He as added speed and quickness, motivation and investment. Will start to pay off soon. And, I won't have to scream "Just run the damned ball" for much longer...

[The Hogster]

Shanahan's tenure here is much like the Presidency. When you inherit an abject disaster, things usually get a little worse before they get better. And, you don't start to see the turnaround until year's 3 and 4. Hopefully that's enough to get a second term.

This administration had to save the Redskins from financial crisis. They also had to get the roster healthy. And, they needed to invest in young people. Through all of that, this administration also had to deal with welfare reform and keep some people who were not working from draining our resources (Portis, Malcolm Kelly, Haynesworth). Over the first 2 years, this administration raised a lot of money to use for this campaign. Now, we're on the verge of making history.

Yes We Can

[Redskin in Canada]

Well, since we will acquire our franchise QB in this Draft, people will have ALL THE EXCUSES in the world to place credit for the victories on Elway/RGIII and not give enough credit to Shanahan.

Incredible.

This was and is a FIVE YEAR plan. Just remember that.

[emoses14]

Shanahan's tenure here is much like the Presidency. When you inherit an abject disaster, things usually get a little worse before they get better. And, you don't start to see the turnaround until year's 3 and 4. Hopefully that's enough to get a second term.

This administration had to save the Redskins from financial crisis. They also had to get the roster healthy. And, they needed to invest in young people. Through all of that, this administration also had to deal with welfare reform and keep some people who were not working from draining our resources (Portis, Malcolm Kelly, Haynesworth). Over the first 2 years, this administration raised a lot of money to use for this campaign. Now, we're on the verge of making history.

Yes We Can

[riggofan]

I've said many times I'm a big Shanahan supporter. If nothing else, he and Allen have come in here and turned the Redskins back into a professional organization. Give them and Snyder some credit for that.

No coach is free from mistakes though. I'm sure Pats fans can point to mistakes Belichik has made over the years. I see two big mistakes Shanahan has made so far:

1) He didn't approach year one as a rebuilding year. He's admitted that in interviews. I'm sure there are some reasons/excuses for this, but that first year should have been all about the dirty work.

2) McNabb.

I personally think with McNabb that he saw a chance to bring in a decent QB at the end of his career to fill a glaring need. I don't know if he was just unlucky in this or didn't do his homework, but that was obviously a huge failure.

Some people will try to say that Becks/Wrecks last year was a huge mistake. I personally don't see that there were any stellar alternatives at the time. I think the coach did his best with a subpar QB situation last year. (I'll accept the arguement though that benching Rex was a mistake, just not a major one.)

[CanesSkins26]

Shanahan isn't a great coach. His post-Elway record at Denver show that pretty clearly.

You mean his 91 wins to 69 losses. Or his three winning seasons for every losing season and owe by the way he did that with Jake Plumber and Brian Griese.

By the way the Skins lost 15 more games and of course won 15 fewer games during that ten year span. The Skins had half as many winning seasons and one more losing season than Shanny.

What was Bill Walse's record w/o Montana or Bill Bellicheats record w/o Brady or Jimmy Johnson's w/o Aikman? I bet MS' record (post Elway) in Denver stacks up pretty well against those other coaches w/o their HoF QBs!

Elway retired in 1998. Since then, Shanahan has a record of 102-90, and 1-4 in the playoffs.

In this last 12 years he has won a division ONCE and has only won ONE playoff game. The last time that he had a record better than .500 was in 2006.

[skinsfan#33]

Shanahan isn't a great coach. His post-Elway record at Denver show that pretty clearly.

You mean his 91 wins to 69 losses. Or his three winning seasons for every losing season and owe by the way he did that with Jake Plumber and Brian Griese.

By the way the Skins lost 15 more games and of course won 15 fewer games during that ten year span. The Skins had half as many winning seasons and one more losing season than Shanny.

What was Bill Walse's record w/o Montana or Bill Bellicheats record w/o Brady or Jimmy Johnson's w/o Aikman? I bet MS' record (post Elway) in Denver stacks up pretty well against those other coaches w/o their HoF QBs!

Elway retired in 1998. Since then, Shanahan has a record of 102-90, and 1-4 in the playoffs.

In this last 12 years he has won a division ONCE and has only won ONE playoff game. The last time that he had a record better than .500 was in 2006.

Go back and read YOUR post. You said post Elway at Denver, so that is what I commented on! During that stretch he was 11 wins over 500 and AVERAGED OVER 9 wins per season! He did that with Jake the Mistake and Brian "he wasn't as good as his Daddy" Griese at QB! Sure you can paint the picture in a negative light, but Skins' fans would have been much happier with it than ours!

You didn't address the fact that most "great" coaches have a worse record than MS w/o their HoF QB.

So spin all you want, it doesn't change what MS is!

[Deadskins]

You mean his 91 wins to 69 losses. Or his three winning seasons for every losing season and owe by the way he did that with Jake Plumber and Brian Griese.

By the way the Skins lost 15 more games and of course won 15 fewer games during that ten year span. The Skins had half as many winning seasons and one more losing season than Shanny.

What was Bill Walse's record w/o Montana or Bill Bellicheats record w/o Brady or Jimmy Johnson's w/o Aikman? I bet MS' record (post Elway) in Denver stacks up pretty well against those other coaches w/o their HoF QBs!

Elway retired in 1998. Since then, Shanahan has a record of 102-90, and 1-4 in the playoffs.

In this last 12 years he has won a division ONCE and has only won ONE playoff game. The last time that he had a record better than .500 was in 2006.

Go back and read YOUR post. You said post Elway at Denver, so that is what I commented on! During that stretch he was 11 wins over 500 and AVERAGED OVER 9 wins per season! He did that with Jake the Mistake and Brian "he want as good as his Daddy" Griese at QB! Sure you can paint the picture in a negative light, but Skins' fans would have been much happier with it than ours!

You didn't address the fact that most "great" coaches have a worse record than MS w/o their HoF QB.

So spin all you want, it doesn't change what MS is!

Also, HCs tend to do better with their second club than they did with their first.

[Chris Luva Luva]

I find it hard to truly judge Mikes progress because of how dates the entire organization was.

He's had to retool the scouting dept, the training dept, build a practice bubble...

The starters on offensive line his first year are where now?! Some aren't even backups. That's how depleted the roster way. He wasn't handed the keys to a Lambo like Jim Harbaugh... Snyder handed this man a bicycle without a seat to run in an Indy-car race.


Snyder would be a fool to cut this thing short given those circumstances. Somebody has to tell him that this isn't a normal HC change when he hired Mike.

[langleyparkjoe]

I find it hard to truly judge Mikes progress because of how dates the entire organization was.

He's had to retool the scouting dept, the training dept, build a practice bubble...

The starters on offensive line his first year are where now?! Some aren't even backups. That's how depleted the roster way. He wasn't handed the keys to a Lambo like Jim Harbaugh... Snyder handed this man a bicycle without a seat to run in an Indy-car race.


Snyder would be a fool to cut this thing short given those circumstances. Somebody has to tell him that this isn't a normal HC change when he hired Mike.

[the poster]

sure you can evaluate it. 11-21 and wasted a second round draft pick on Donovan mcnabb and changed a decent defense which is worse now than what it was. f-. start accepting reality.

[cowboykillerzRGiii]

He weeded out the bums that didn't want to be here our d is better now w its holes ranking isn't everything.. two rookie rbs to replace a worn out Portis plus brought in hightower but doubt he comes back unfortunately.. he's totally reworked the o.line and yes its better for it.. took a gamble year one at qb saw the error and waited for a quality qb to be available and went after him. W out one FULL offseason till now he's been above expectations. Every player he's added is better then who they replaced. Our d line is stacked homie w the addition of your boy Bowen..
Cowgirl fans really are clueless... Just wait.
Although yall squeeked out two whack wins vs us the gstrings handled you almost as bad as we handled them. Next year we will be scoring instead of missing fgs or throwing Ints , Count on it troll

Fixed typos that was bad even for the cbkRED

[the poster]

He weeded out the bums that didn't want to be here our d is better now w its holes ranking isn't everything.. to stud rookie rbs to replace a worn out Portia plus Hightower but doubt he comes back unfortunately.. he's totally reworked the o.line and yes its better for it.. took a gamble year one at qb saw the error and waited for a quality qb to be available and went after him. W out one FULL offseason till now he's been above expectations. Every player he's added is better then who they replaced. Our d line is stacked homie w the addition of your boy Bowen..
Cowgirl fans frilly are clueless... Just wait.
Although tall squeeked out two whack wins vs us the gstrings handled you almost as bad as we handled them. Next year we will be scoring instead of missing fgs or throwing ings. Count on it troll

11-21. 2 years. 2 last places. the end.

[Chris Luva Luva]

He weeded out the bums that didn't want to be here our d is better now w its holes ranking isn't everything.. to stud rookie rbs to replace a worn out Portia plus Hightower but doubt he comes back unfortunately.. he's totally reworked the o.line and yes its better for it.. took a gamble year one at qb saw the error and waited for a quality qb to be available and went after him. W out one FULL offseason till now he's been above expectations. Every player he's added is better then who they replaced. Our d line is stacked homie w the addition of your boy Bowen..
Cowgirl fans frilly are clueless... Just wait.
Although tall squeeked out two whack wins vs us the gstrings handled you almost as bad as we handled them. Next year we will be scoring instead of missing fgs or throwing ings. Count on it troll

11-21. 2 years. 2 last places. the end.

Well, it's obvious you aren't here for constructive discussion.