Why didn't Shanahan do well in Washington?

[Reverend Conehead]

Shanahan was 24 and 40 in Washington. Ouch. I'm honestly surprised. I lived in Denver when Shanahan was coach there. He was a huge improvement over Dan Reeves and certainly Wade Phillips. He designed a system that was tailor made for the talent that he had. Reeves had rigidly designed a system and tried to force players into it whether it was what they did well or not. Shanahan took the best advantage of Elway's talent and did a better job building quality help around him. I fully expected Shanahan to work well with RG3 and to build him into a powerhouse QB. I'm really surprised that that went so poorly, even to the point of creating a rift between the two.

Why the big difference between his Denver days and his Washington ones? Is it because Shanny got a sucky owner in DC, a meddling jerk of one? Or has he lost his touch? Shanahan is who I wanted to replace Wade Phillips. I was upset he went to DC instead. Now I'm not so sure.

Some people say that a coach never does as well on a subsequent stint in the NFL, but that's clearly not true as has been proven by Don Shula and Bill Belichick. Shula did better with the Dolphins than he had with the Colts, and Belichick did massively better with the Patriots than he did with the Browns.

Some people also say that Shanahan never had any success without Elway, but that's also a myth. He didn't win the Super Bowl with anyone else, but he did build some playoff teams with Jake Plummer, who obviously wasn't anywhere near as good. I'm not sure what went wrong in Washington. My first gut instinct would normally be to blame obnoxious and meddling owner, Dan Snyder, but Snyder did actually give Shanahan control of personnel decisions.

Why worry about this junk regarding other teams? This is the guy I had previously wanted in Dallas and was upset that we didn't get. Now I'm not so sure. I am sure I want Garrett gone, but I'm not sure who I would want in his stead. I wish Jerry were worried about declining revenues so that he could feel compelled to hire another Parcells type. I'm just not sure who. About 5 years ago I would have been screaming for Shanahan, but, as I've indicated, I'm not sure just where it went wrong with him in Washington.

 

[Jerryrage]

Salary Cap problems, pretty simple.

 

[neosapien23]

That Robert Griffin trade left them little to work with. While I think Griffin will rebound, he was not worth all those picks.

 

[conner01]

they mortgaged their future for a qb who was injured and not fully recovered this year. they have a bleak future
you can't win without decent qb play

 

[Denim Chicken]

Washington's locker room has tanning beds. He lost all focus...

 

[CowboyStar88]

And an overrated me first QB in Rg3-13

 

[dragon_mikal]

Robert Griffin has a long way to go before he's a quality NFL quarterback. He seems to have trouble reading NFL defenses and appear to panic under pressure. Personally, I think he bought into his own hype.

It truly is funny how having a HoF QB can make a coach come across as a genius. Wonder who'd be coaching the Patriots right now if Bledsoe never went down...

 

[dcdallaschick]

While I'm sure salary cap had impact (same as Dallas) on overall depth, I'd say it's more about some of the same reasons it didn't work out in the later Denver years. Raging ego, horrific people skills (they say Elway, Plummer, and all those Denver QBs hate Shanny), and not surrounding himself with the right assistants/staff to get the job done in areas he wasn't in direct control of day-to-day. Hiring his kid was a mistake, too. No way to correct that once it wasn't going well with RG3.

 

[tm1119]

Because he didn't have Elway and TD? Not saying he's a horrible coach, bu check his record without those 2. He's not too much above a .500 coach without them

 

[MikeT22]

Because he didn't have Elway and TD? Not saying he's a horrible coach, bu check his record without those 2. He's not too much above a .500 coach without them

Agreed. Like you said, he's a mediocre head coach who was in a great situation in Denver with Elway. Kind of like a Norv Turner, good OC, so-so HC.

In Washington, throw in the meddling of Snyder and the rift Snyder helped created between RGIII and Shanny and the rest is history. Their best players have also been aging and on the decline like Moss and Fletcher. Best thing Shanny did was find Albert Morris in late in the draft last year. He seems to have a knack for finding RB's late, like Terrell Davis in Denver.

 

[joseephuss]

He wasn't a huge improvement over Dan Reeves. He certainly had more success because of the Superbowl wins, but I don't think the gap was that big between Reeves and Shanahan.

 

[tyke1doe]

Because he didn't have Elway and TD? Not saying he's a horrible coach, bu check his record without those 2. He's not too much above a .500 coach without them

I think fans underestimate how hard it is to win in this league. You have those rare coaches (Parcells, Gibbs) who can take teams with average quarterbacks and build a Super Bowl winner. Then you have very good coaches who become great primarily because of their quarterbacks. Let me see, that would include Shanahan, Nolls, Belichick Holmgren, Landry, Shula, etc.

If you look at the majority of the Super Bowl winning coaches, they had great quarterbacks. If you don't have a great quarterback, it's more than likely you're not going to take that next step unless you're a genius with your other units.

 

[tyke1doe]

He wasn't a huge improvement over Dan Reeves. He certainly had more success because of the Superbowl wins, but I don't think the gap was that big between Reeves and Shanahan.

Reeves was a better coach. He took three undermanned Broncos teams to the Super Bowl and then took a Falcons team led by Chris Chandler (for goodness' sake) to the big game.

 

[gmoney112]

Easy. They mortgaged their immediate future for RG3.

 

[Risen Star]

That Robert Griffin trade left them little to work with. While I think Griffin will rebound, he was not worth all those picks.

Yep. They got a fraud QB and no picks to build a supporting cast. Mix in a whole lot of meddling from Napoleon and you get what you got.

 

[Rockport]

The owner. Like that's not obvious?

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Agreed. Like you said, he's a mediocre head coach who was in a great situation in Denver with Elway. Kind of like a Norv Turner, good OC, so-so HC.

In Washington, throw in the meddling of Snyder and the rift Snyder helped created between RGIII and Shanny and the rest is history. Their best players have also been aging and on the decline like Moss and Fletcher. Best thing Shanny did was find Albert Morris in late in the draft last year. He seems to have a knack for finding RB's late, like Terrell Davis in Denver.

The thing is having a great player like Elway doesn't guarantee success. Neither Reeves nor Phillips succeeded with him, at least not at a championship level. Reeves put together good teams with good playoff runs, but never won a championship. Shanahan molded the team to fit Elway's strengths and had a great eye for running back talent, getting Elway help in the form of Terrell Davis (and to a lesser extent Howard Griffith and Olandis Gary). Reeves wasn't without running back talent. He did find a quality one in Bobby Humphrey who ran well, but turned out to be a head case later. Some people act like Shanahan's accomplishments in Denver are nothing because they would have been a given with any coach that had that talent. That's simply not true. He used the talent he had well. That's something. It's definitely not nothing.

Whether or not he could duplicate that -- it's not looking good so far.

I completely disagree with those who say Reeves was a better coach. Reeves was a good coach, but was way too inflexible. He crammed people into his system rather than adapting his system to the talent that he had, and he didn't have as good an eye for talent as Shanahan did.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Owner takes a step back.....hires Shanahan and let's him run his organization and all he has to show for it aside from being the worst in his division is RGIII, Alfred Morris and a overpaid Pierre Garcon. That's why people who want Jerry to step back should also want him to hire someone capable of doing the job. Just stepping back isn't enough.

 

[Zimmy Lives]

they mortgaged their future for a qb who was injured and not fully recovered this year. they have a bleak future
you can't win without decent qb play

This, and what neosapien23 said.

 

[MikeT22]

Owner takes a step back.....hires Shanahan and let's him run his organization and all he has to show for it aside from being the worst in his division is RGIII, Alfred Morris and a overpaid Pierre Garcon. That's why people who want Jerry to step back should also want him to hire someone capable of doing the job. Just stepping back isn't enough.

I've always agreed stepping back isn't enough. I'm all for hiring the best GM and HC we can find. At this point I'd even settle for hiring the best HC he can. But Jerry won't even do that. Jerry wants underwhelming coordinator to have the HC title while Jerry hires the other coordinator and pulls the strings.