This quote says it all...

[Chris Luva Luva]

"Just look," he said, pointing to the labels. "We've cut 150 players since I got here and only one of them is starting for another team -- Carlos Rogers in San Francisco. We've got a whole new team."

- This is why you don't release a coach after 2 years...

- This is why you don't compare him to other coaches and what they're doing. Show me another coach in this league that's had to overcome what Mike has. Show me another coaches that's had to cut 150 players in the time frame he has had to.

- Thank you Dan for sticking to your guns and getting a football mind in here.


http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/47634/shanahans-stunning-redskins-turnaround

[riggofan]

Nice!

[welch]

Yes!

And Bruce Allen, too.

[RayNAustin]

I've been highly critical of both Shanahans, more so about Kyle, but I have to admit that I've seen some real changes since the buy week, and to me it looks like Kyle has taken a big step forward in his approach and strategy, and not just burning the tires off that new Ferrari model RG3. example: idiotic crap like sending him out as a receiver to get hammered by a safety ... or QB draws into the middle of the field going in head first .... triple option ... stuff like that

Yesterday was the game that I think proved a turning point for Kyle as an OC .... 18 passes ... 9 completions and 100 yards? After the first game on Thanks Giving, the Cowboys had to be expecting to see more down field stuff, but the Redskins did exactly what they needed to do to win .... let Morris pound it, and keep pounding it, and keep the defense fresh, and limit the number of plays for Romo to beat you.. Too often in the past I think Kyle has had a tendency to get away from the running game, and too pass happy, especially when teams came in focusing on stopping the run, as the Cowboys did in the first two possessions last night. But he stuck with it, until they got it going, and stayed with it the entire game. ... that's much different than the Kyle I've been criticizing unmercifully. It was the perfect game plan for a Dallas D missing their best run stopper in the middle .... and Kyle took the right approach ... run it, and keep running until they are able to stop it. They never did stop it, and we kept pounding them.

And I've seen this improvement in strategy for a few weeks now .... whereas earlier in the year, it was let Robert do this, let Robert do that ... which is very exciting, but not very healthy for Robert. The selective runs called for RG3 really limited the hits he took, while they used Morris to exploit the weakness of the Dallas D-line ... and they had D. Ware as discombobulated on those read options as the defense had Romo. It was a totally different offensive look than the first game on Thanks Giving, and I have to believe that the Cowboys were not expecting that many rushing plays, and so few passes.

It was impressive to see how the offense literally took an already banged up D. Ware, and just had him frozen with confusion, while hitting them inside, then outside, then inside again. Morris ran like A. Peterson out there.

That was a very well prepared team, on both sides of the ball, and credit has to go to Kyle and Haz for outstanding game plans.

That was also the best defensive effort all year .... just a solid game on both sides ... if a little shaky on special teams.

[Fios]

"Just look," he said, pointing to the labels. "We've cut 150 players since I got here and only one of them is starting for another team -- Carlos Rogers in San Francisco. We've got a whole new team."

- This is why you don't release a coach after 2 years...

- This is why you don't compare him to other coaches and what they're doing. Show me another coach in this league that's had to overcome what Mike has. Show me another coaches that's had to cut 150 players in the time frame he has had to.

- Thank you Dan for sticking to your guns and getting a football mind in here.


http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/47634/shanahans-stunning-redskins-turnaround

Amen.
The fire Shannahan crew was blinded by the kind of 'it didn't work perfectly right away, blow it up and start over' mentality that has hurt this team for the better part of a decade. It never made sense and I am exceedingly happy Snyder ignored those moronic calls.

[capitaldefense]

Remember when people said we got raped when we traded 2 addition first rounders to get up and draft RG3? Smartest personel move last offseason, hands down, tweet that!

REMEMBER WE ARE DOWN 36 MILLION IN CAP SPACE, SUCK ON THAT MARA!

The bonehead move of signing McNabb kept us in the basement, bad move by Shanny. Getting rid of McNabb once he realized he had nothing left, even though he took a huge hit credibility wise, brilliant. Outing fat Albert as a paycheck player, very good! Swapping 1's in 2012 and adding in 2 additional 1's to get RG3, franchise saved! Getting Alfred Morris in the 6th round, WOW. Signing Forbath after 2+ years of kicker shuffle, once again admitting a mistake from earlier in the year, excellent. When the Rams use our pick the next 2 years in the first round, LATE FIRST ROUNDERS, I will smile and say RG3!

In one offseason, Shanny added your 3 primary scorers on offense. In the past he drafted a pro bowl LT, signed a stud RG in Chester and added a few off the street guys to make a very good offensive line. Signed Garcon and Morgan, if we can sign Davis long term and he can stay healthy. Add in some excellent pieces Young at FB, blocking TE Paulsen, WR Robinson.

Now our defense needs some work still, even though they have played much better late. Some very good pieces Coefield and Jenkins on the DL. Fletcher doesn't have much left? WOW at the level he still plays at! Kerrigan and Orakpo = studs. Need a bunch of secondary help, Wilson and Hall are solid at corner, almost no safeties unless Merriweather can recover fully. DB's Gomes and Crawford could develop into solid guys.

Very exciting future for the Skins, and once we get our 36 million in cap room back, look the **** out NFC east!

[Deadskins]

"Just look," he said, pointing to the labels. "We've cut 150 players since I got here and only one of them is starting for another team -- Carlos Rogers in San Francisco. We've got a whole new team."

- This is why you don't release a coach after 2 years...

- This is why you don't compare him to other coaches and what they're doing. Show me another coach in this league that's had to overcome what Mike has. Show me another coaches that's had to cut 150 players in the time frame he has had to.

- Thank you Dan for sticking to your guns and getting a football mind in here.


http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/47634/shanahans-stunning-redskins-turnaround

Amen.
The fire Shannahan crew was blinded by the kind of 'it didn't work perfectly right away, blow it up and start over' mentality that has hurt this team for the better part of a decade. It never made sense and I am exceedingly happy Snyder ignored those moronic calls.

Who said that? I turned around and there was only a cup sitting there.

[riggofan]

I've been highly critical of both Shanahans, more so about Kyle, but I have to admit that I've seen some real changes since the buy week, and to me it looks like Kyle has taken a big step forward in his approach and strategy, and not just burning the tires off that new Ferrari model RG3. example: idiotic crap like sending him out as a receiver to get hammered by a safety ... or QB draws into the middle of the field going in head first .... triple option ... stuff like that

Respectfully, even before the bye, the number of plays like the one you are talking about were few and far between. And in that particular case, both Shanahans IMMEDIATELY came out and said, "Yeah that was stupid, we're not going to do that again."

The truth is that Kyle has done a great job since before the draft. Even before we drafted RGIII, he was down in Texas getting that kid ready to play. He tailored an offense to RGIII that has allowed him to be immediately successful.

The big difference since the BYE is not that Kyle suddenly became a new genius OC, its that things finally started coming together for this team and they've been winning.

Lastly, I was going to add that I've been frustrated the past two years with the impatience shown with both Shanahans by fans. We've discussed this a lot here, but many of us believed that this team was rotten to the core and it was going to take a painful rebuild to straighten it out. Even so, I can't really blame fans for being impatient. Its been a LONG time since we've had a properly managed football team. You can hardly blame fans for wondering if Shanahan was just the new Steve Spurrier, Albert Haynesworth, etc;

[Deadskins]

The big difference since the BYE is not that Kyle suddenly became a new genius OC, its that things finally started coming together for this team and they've been winning.

And the reason for that, and why I picked them to win out (including a SB victory over the Broncos), was the player's only meeting that RGIII called during the bye. He told them that they could count on him to carry the team, but he needed them to do their part as well. After that meeting, the team immediately voted him Captain. That is why RGIII should be in the MVP conversation. No one else in the league is more singlehandedly responsible for his team's success this year. Morris has been great, too, but much of his success has also been because of RGIII.

[Countertrey]

"Just look," he said, pointing to the labels. "We've cut 150 players since I got here and only one of them is starting for another team -- Carlos Rogers in San Francisco. We've got a whole new team."

- This is why you don't release a coach after 2 years...

- This is why you don't compare him to other coaches and what they're doing. Show me another coach in this league that's had to overcome what Mike has. Show me another coaches that's had to cut 150 players in the time frame he has had to.

- Thank you Dan for sticking to your guns and getting a football mind in here.


http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/47634/shanahans-stunning-redskins-turnaround

Amen.
The fire Shannahan crew was blinded by the kind of 'it didn't work perfectly right away, blow it up and start over' mentality that has hurt this team for the better part of a decade. It never made sense and I am exceedingly happy Snyder ignored those moronic calls.

Welcome to the site. Please make sure you visit the Site News and Welcome Wagon forum.

What an unusual name...

[Fios]

"Just look," he said, pointing to the labels. "We've cut 150 players since I got here and only one of them is starting for another team -- Carlos Rogers in San Francisco. We've got a whole new team."

- This is why you don't release a coach after 2 years...

- This is why you don't compare him to other coaches and what they're doing. Show me another coach in this league that's had to overcome what Mike has. Show me another coaches that's had to cut 150 players in the time frame he has had to.

- Thank you Dan for sticking to your guns and getting a football mind in here.


http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/47634/shanahans-stunning-redskins-turnaround

Amen.
The fire Shannahan crew was blinded by the kind of 'it didn't work perfectly right away, blow it up and start over' mentality that has hurt this team for the better part of a decade. It never made sense and I am exceedingly happy Snyder ignored those moronic calls.

Welcome to the site. Please make sure you visit the Site News and Welcome Wagon forum.

What an unusual name...

Y'all hand out avatars and staff titles around here to just any newbie huh? !

[Countertrey]

Pretty much... everybody slacks off after a Dallas sweep around here.

[riggofan]

The big difference since the BYE is not that Kyle suddenly became a new genius OC, its that things finally started coming together for this team and they've been winning.

And the reason for that, and why I picked them to win out (including a SB victory over the Broncos), was the player's only meeting that RGIII called during the bye.

yeah, I agree. That meeting and the fact that we got to play that terrible Philly team coming out of the BYE. It was a chance for the team to say, "We can still do this." and then go out and prove it. Huge credit to RGIII for not letting his team quit.

[RayNAustin]

I've been highly critical of both Shanahans, more so about Kyle, but I have to admit that I've seen some real changes since the buy week, and to me it looks like Kyle has taken a big step forward in his approach and strategy, and not just burning the tires off that new Ferrari model RG3. example: idiotic crap like sending him out as a receiver to get hammered by a safety ... or QB draws into the middle of the field going in head first .... triple option ... stuff like that

Respectfully, even before the bye, the number of plays like the one you are talking about were few and far between. And in that particular case, both Shanahans IMMEDIATELY came out and said, "Yeah that was stupid, we're not going to do that again."

The truth is that Kyle has done a great job since before the draft. Even before we drafted RGIII, he was down in Texas getting that kid ready to play. He tailored an offense to RGIII that has allowed him to be immediately successful.

The big difference since the BYE is not that Kyle suddenly became a new genius OC, its that things finally started coming together for this team and they've been winning.

Lastly, I was going to add that I've been frustrated the past two years with the impatience shown with both Shanahans by fans. We've discussed this a lot here, but many of us believed that this team was rotten to the core and it was going to take a painful rebuild to straighten it out. Even so, I can't really blame fans for being impatient. Its been a LONG time since we've had a properly managed football team. You can hardly blame fans for wondering if Shanahan was just the new Steve Spurrier, Albert Haynesworth, etc;

Yes, he only used him as a receiver once, and Mike admitted that it was stupid. The reality is, stupid is still stupid, and there were other actions that were not the smartest things I've seen done, but that one stood out because of the others that were initially resulting in RG3 getting clobbered unnecessarily. You don't run a brand new Ferrari in a demolition derby ... not even once.

I was never so much questioning either Shanahan's football knowledge per se, because I think both of them have impressive knowledge. I was critical of their questionable judgement in dealing with certain personnel issues ... namely at the QB position, which was an unmitigated disaster prior to RG3 ... and that was a very legitimate criticism.

This past off season personnel moves really stand out now ... not just at QB, because it did not take genius to choose RG3 ... but Morris and Cousins are clearly terrific picks, and credit is given when credit is due. Overall, the offensive transformation is more than just impressive .. it's miraculous. Garcon was a nice move too.

But it's not all a bowl of cherries .... letting Landry go was much more costly than they anticipated, as he made the Pro Bowl this year ... and for a team like the Redskins hurting badly in the secondary, that one stings pretty bad.

Gotta like where this team is right now ... and though the Shanahan's must be given credit for that ... that doesn't erase the past errors and the legitimate criticism they deserved for that too. Credit is a two-way street my friend .... you gotta own the good and the bad.

I think Kyle is still in a growing and learning stage ... he is a pretty young coordinator, in just his 5th year, after all. And up until the arrival of RG3, it looked like Kyle was stuck in the mud., and he was. Truthfully, I think RG3 has a thing or two to teach Kyle, and it's more a collaboration taking place between the two ... and in my opinion, RG3 is elevating Kyle's game just as he has elevated the games of other players.

Whatever the case may be ... it's working pretty darned good now, and you don't fix what ain't broke.

[DarthMonk]

"Just look," he said, pointing to the labels. "We've cut 150 players since I got here and only one of them is starting for another team -- Carlos Rogers in San Francisco. We've got a whole new team."

- This is why you don't release a coach after 2 years...

- This is why you don't compare him to other coaches and what they're doing. Show me another coach in this league that's had to overcome what Mike has. Show me another coaches that's had to cut 150 players in the time frame he has had to.

- Thank you Dan for sticking to your guns and getting a football mind in here.


http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/47634/shanahans-stunning-redskins-turnaround

Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 2:34 pm Post subject: BLOW IT UP!!

Marty came here. Payroll was a then-record 100 MILLION dollars. Marty kept 22 guys. He replaced 31. 13 of the new guys were ROOKIES. He FIRED VINNY. He reduced payroll to 53 MILLION by letting go of almost all the high priced talent (can you say Deion?).

We went 0-5 and then 8-3 the rest of the way with TONY BANKS at QB.

We need to do this again. Let go of (release, trade, whatever makes sense) virtually every high priced guy. Accumulate compensatory picks. Pick LINEMEN. Find a runner. They are everywhere. If the hole is there Rock or Betts or some other guy (did we cut a guy named Mason?) we never heard of who costs less than 1 million can run through it and if it's not there he can slam it up in there for a yard or two. We should NEVER spend big bucks or 1st round picks on a runner.

Many teams have shown us we could be better than we are now in TWO years while getting YOUNGER and CHEAPER.

DarthMonk

Thank you, Mr. Shanahan.

[Deadskins]

letting Landry go was much more costly than they anticipated, as he made the Pro Bowl this year ... and for a team like the Redskins hurting badly in the secondary, that one stings pretty bad.

That was as much Landry's decision as it was Shanahan's. I'm guessing Laron wishes he still was on the team, now, too.

[riggofan]

This past off season personnel moves really stand out now ... not just at QB, because it did not take genius to choose RG3 ... but Morris and Cousins are clearly terrific picks, and credit is given when credit is due. Overall, the offensive transformation is more than just impressive .. it's miraculous. Garcon was a nice move too.

No doubt, man. I bet even Shanahan would admit he couldn't have predicted how good Morris would end up being. I think I heard him say something recently along the lines of "I wasn't THAT smart. I waited until the sixth round to draft him!" haha.

Definitely have to give him credit on Cousins though, especially because he took SO much crap for that from all of the know-it-all's out there.

I know people label him stubborn, etc; But I like that the Coach has his plan and his beliefs, and the courage of his convictions. Its paying off for us.

[welch]

It's not whether you make mistakes...no one is perfecton the first try. It's whether and how you fix the mistakes.

Shanahan swallowed the mistakes, cut the dead wood, and moved on.

That is good coaching.

[markshark84]

letting Landry go was much more costly than they anticipated, as he made the Pro Bowl this year ... and for a team like the Redskins hurting badly in the secondary, that one stings pretty bad.

That was as much Landry's decision as it was Shanahan's. I'm guessing Laron wishes he still was on the team, now, too.

To an extent I agree here, but all in all the skins could have had LL back if they wanted. It was my understanding it was a $$$ thing.

Last year, I was 100% for getting him back, but after hearing him talk about the Jets and their situation, I believe there was something to the whole "lockeroom" problems people eluded to regarding LL.

He's absolutely a good player, but I wonder what affect he would have had on the skins lockeroom vibe -- especially when we were 3-6...

[44diesel]

He's absolutely a good player, but I wonder what affect he would have had on the skins lockeroom vibe -- especially when we were 3-6...

Indeed, this is the biggest change the Shannaclan has imposed on this team.

Listening to the players talk about what changed during the bye week, it was their team mentality. They stuck together, believed in each other and came out trusting that if they played as a team, no one could beat them.

For too long, we were simply trying to fill the team with "talent." I'd rather have a team of non household names that play together rather than for their stats.

We learned that lesson the hard way, Philly is now finding out all about it.

[riggofan]

letting Landry go was much more costly than they anticipated, as he made the Pro Bowl this year ... and for a team like the Redskins hurting badly in the secondary, that one stings pretty bad.

That was as much Landry's decision as it was Shanahan's. I'm guessing Laron wishes he still was on the team, now, too.

To an extent I agree here, but all in all the skins could have had LL back if they wanted. It was my understanding it was a $$$ thing.

You mean they didn't want to pony up the $$$ for a guy they weren't sure would be healthy enough to play?

I'm happy for LL that he was able to come back this season, but he was by no means a sure thing.

[Deadskins]

He's absolutely a good player, but I wonder what affect he would have had on the skins lockeroom vibe -- especially when we were 3-6...

Indeed, this is the biggest change the Shannaclan has imposed on this team.

It wasn't Shanny. It was all RGIII.

[Deadskins]

letting Landry go was much more costly than they anticipated, as he made the Pro Bowl this year ... and for a team like the Redskins hurting badly in the secondary, that one stings pretty bad.

That was as much Landry's decision as it was Shanahan's. I'm guessing Laron wishes he still was on the team, now, too.

To an extent I agree here, but all in all the skins could have had LL back if they wanted. It was my understanding it was a $$$ thing.

You mean they didn't want to pony up the $$$ for a guy they weren't sure would be healthy enough to play?

I'm happy for LL that he was able to come back this season, but he was by no means a sure thing.

Exactly! He wouldn't get the surgery team doctors were recommending, so the $$$ didn't match the risk. Yes, we could have had him back, but it was his decision not to get the surgery, so he pretty much made the choice for us.

[Irn-Bru]

Not to mention the attitude problems and locker room cancer issues that were pretty easily traceable to LL. Even with our poor secondary play this year I have no regrets with respect to Landry. Happy he gave us a season and a half of good play, but glad to see him gone, too.

[44diesel]

He's absolutely a good player, but I wonder what affect he would have had on the skins lockeroom vibe -- especially when we were 3-6...

Indeed, this is the biggest change the Shannaclan has imposed on this team.

It wasn't Shanny. It was all RGIII.

You are correct DS, it was absolutely RGIII that talked to the team and led the revolution (and was named Captain). All I was trying to point out that this FO has weeded out the Hanesworths, Landrys and (even though it was on them) the McNabbs that were killing the locker room.

They built a team based on character and that character has brought about the change.

This team doesn't seem to ever get down on each other or look for blame. Our sideline doesn't implode when the team is behind. They lead by example, stay humble and poised, and step up when someone goes down. (i.e. Rob Jackson, Kirk Cousins or the noticeable difference in the secondary after Merriweather got on the field)