The-Hogs.net - Washington Football Discussion, Redskins to Commanders Era

Mr. Snyder said his aggressive philosophy hasn't changed even though the usually spendthrift Redskins are one of just two teams not to add a player this offseason and have brought in only one free agent in for a visit.

Mr. Snyder also said that Zorn, while not on the extensive original list of candidates to replace retired coach Joe Gibbs, was such a hit during the interview for offensive coordinator that he became a candidate for the top spot almost immediately.

"We were really impressed with Jim Zorn from the moment we met him," Mr. Snyder said. "We were late because we were the only team looking for a coach that had been in the playoffs. We were under pressure to make sure we had an offensive coordinator. We met Jim. Joe called me that night. I said, 'That guy would make a terrific head coach.' He was like, 'Really? That's interesting. That's neat. I hear he's a good guy.' We continued the process and circled back. We were talking to coordinators [about replacing Gibbs] and we said, 'We really ought to look at Zorn.' We kept coming back to that. The last interview we did was with [New York Giants defensive coordinator] Steve Spagnuolo, and afterwards we said, 'We've really got to talk to Zorn.' "

Within days, Zorn was the new coach.

"What I really like about Jim is that he's similar to Joe in that he's a steady guy," Mr. Snyder said. "Joe is ... a steady man through the good times of winning and the bad times of losing. Jim feels very similar to me. There's no panic. He's just steady."

Gregg Williams, the assistant head coach/defense the past four years and the favorite of the players to replace Gibbs, wasn't.

"Absolutely. It would've been easy to say, 'Gregg, you're the head coach of the Redskins,' " Mr. Snyder said. "But I promised everyone that I would do a thorough, professional job and hopefully make the right choice for the Redskins. I wanted to see what [Gregg] had learned from Joe. That was the most important thing. At the end of the day, [Gregg] wasn't right for us."

The Redskins fired Williams in January.

Mr. Snyder is sure, however, that Jason Campbell, whom the Redskins traded up to draft in the first round in 2005, is the right quarterback.

"Jason has performed good. We need to him to perform great," Mr. Snyder said. "He's professional, intelligent, eager to learn. He's got all the attributes of leadership. He's the type of guy that you're thrilled to have. We feel good with Jason as our quarterback. There are a lot of teams that would like to have Jason Campbell."

Mr. Snyder dismissed rumors that his other businesses are causing him to spend less on the Redskins. He said that Six Flags is struggling but that his Johnny Rockets restaurant chain and his Hollywood venture are doing well.

"That's silly," he said. "We're spending as we always have. We're in the midst of developing an indoor [practice] facility at Redskin Park. It will cost a lot of money. It will be ready for next season. We're the same Redskins. Nothing we're doing or not doing has anything to do [with the franchise's financial health]. All of our [suites and club seats] renewed last year. Our waiting list is over 200,000."

www.washingtontimes.com

It's interesting he chose to address Gregg Williams, and answered the question so directly.

Nice read, thanks GSPODS.

Snyder wrote:"Jason has performed good. We need to him to perform great," Mr. Snyder said.

We need you to keep some continuity so that he can perform great.

Chris Luva Luva wrote:

Snyder wrote:"Jason has performed good. We need to him to perform great," Mr. Snyder said.

We need you to keep some continuity so that he can perform great.

Yeah, I agree. I think we'll have that now with Zorn in place. I also believe JC's skills will improve greatly under the tutelage of Zorn. Last night I watched a show on NFLN about the 10 best QB and receiver combos in the history of the NFL. Zorn and Largent were #10 on that list. Not bad. He was a good QB and I think a better QB coach. JC should benefit and improve on his already high skill level from Zorn. I've been watching some video highlites of Campbell from last year and I think we easily forget he's already a pretty damn good QB.

PulpExposure wrote:It's interesting he chose to address Gregg Williams, and answered the question so directly.

I agree with that too. I still believe Williams was the leading candidate with his 4 lengthy interviews. During that process, I'll bet Snyder felt GW hadn't learned anything from Gibbs and genuinely thought GW's arrogance and failure to acquire any of Gibbs' traits convinced Snyder to look in another direction.

After all was said and done, I'm happy with the selection of Zorn and I do feel both Snyder and Vinny are maturing and leading this team in a positive direction.

Chris Luva Luva wrote:

Snyder wrote:"Jason has performed good. We need to him to perform great," Mr. Snyder said.

We need you to keep some continuity so that he can perform great.

We need an offensive coordinator to take the shackles off of Campbell and let him do what he does best; scramble around and make plays. I am not saying that Campbell running around all the time is a good thing. I am saying that giving Campbell a chance to improvise is good for making plays. I believe that the structure of the new offense is one that will allow him to find the open receiver, because it is not as heavily predicated on timing like Saunder's offense was. Add to that the skill of Zorn being able to extract the best out of his quarterbacks is a winning combination.

Personally, I didn't shed a lot of tears about losing GW, or AS. These guys seemed to be the wrong kind of continuity.

I don't know so much about AS, but Gregg was definately of the mind that his system worked no matter what players he had in there. It's that kind of stubborness that I think got us into so much trouble last year. Corners playing 12 yards of their recievers. Safties playing 30 yards deep. I know we were the 9th ranked defense overall, but I'll be damned if I can tell you how we managed that. We let teams march into the redzone. They may not have always come away with a touchdown, but they certainly gained yards. We rarely stopped many offensive pushes to a 3-and-out.

I believed from the start that we needed more flexable play-calling. Play calling that suited the strengths of the players on the field. I'm sorry, but as much as I like Mike Sellers, he isn't John Riggins, and our O-line wasn't the Hogs. You can't keep calling 50-gut after they've stopped you twice, or even three times. You can't lobby to get Adam Archuletta (known for his pass-rushing not necessarily his coverage abilities) and expect him to lay back in pass coverage, and then blame him for not being a good cover safety.

To my knowledge the only new guy on defense is the guy who took over for Blache. Al Saunders may have a great system, and we may have been able to see some of that greatness in the last few games of his second year, but we also had a QB that had had 8 years to learn it. Did we really want to wait 8 years for Campbell to be as good as Collins? We had to replace the HC. It had been widely speculated that Williams would've fired Saunders anyway (he wanted Zorn). So the only person that really got replaced (or shafted as some would say) was the RB coach.

We brought back most of our FA's, we are looking to stregthen through the draft. I don't know what more we could ask for in the ways of "continuity".

I just jope that Zorn turns out to be a good play caller. I am convinced that besides having a good QB, it is necesary to have a good playcaller. I liked Sanders play calling, but I think he never used Campbells strenght to his fullest. I liked Zorn's approach.

PeetyPa wrote:I just jope that Zorn turns out to be a good play caller. I am convinced that besides having a good QB, it is necesary to have a good playcaller. I liked Sanders play calling, but I think he never used Campbells strenght to his fullest. I liked Zorn's approach.

Me too. So far, I like his approach, but we'll have to wait and see about how we execute. I guess the thing I'm most impressed about is that he doesn't have the arrogance of someone who believes in the system over their players. Smith was also instrumental in Tennesee's success with VY the year before when they stripped down the playbook to use plays VY was comfortable with. Don't know what happened last year to the Titans, but I suspect they probably put the playbook back in place after Young had had a year to learn it. Of course, it could've also just been the Madden Curse.

Bob 0119 wrote:

PeetyPa wrote:I just jope that Zorn turns out to be a good play caller. I am convinced that besides having a good QB, it is necesary to have a good playcaller. I liked Sanders play calling, but I think he never used Campbells strenght to his fullest. I liked Zorn's approach.

Me too. So far, I like his approach, but we'll have to wait and see about how we execute. I guess the thing I'm most impressed about is that he doesn't have the arrogance of someone who believes in the system over their players. Smith was also instrumental in Tennesee's success with VY the year before when they stripped down the playbook to use plays VY was comfortable with. Don't know what happened last year to the Titans, but I suspect they probably put the playbook back in place after Young had had a year to learn it. Of course, it could've also just been the Madden Curse.

Or maybe, just maybe, Vince Young isn't a very good NFL QB.

I loved the candor of Snyder.....Very good read. Thanks!