The Detroit Lions have sought and received permission to interview Redskins secondary coach Jerry Gray for their head coaching position. Gray, an African-American, has been the secondary coach for 3 seasons and spent 5 seasons before that as defensive coordinator in Buffalo. He’s very qualified, experienced, and, at 46, easily young and vigorous enough for what promises to be a tough rebuilding process in Detroit. He’d be a smart hire, but I’d hate to lose him in Washington.
Statistically, it wasn’t a great season for anyone in Washington, apart from the defense. The offense, as you can imagine, doesn’t look good when you crunch the numbers.
The Redskins, Bengals and Lions were the only NFL teams unable to score 30 points in a game this season.
The Skins finished fourth on defense – eighth against the run and seventh against the pass. They were sixth in points per game and seventh in third-down efficiency. They finished 27th in sacks per pass play (Redskins linebackers combined for 2½ sacks as a unit – yikes), 18th in interceptions per pass play
They placed 22nd in points differential, allowing 296 points and scoring just 265 (16.5 points per game). That’s the difference in the season right there.
Clinton Portis finished 4th in rushing yards, Santana Moss finished 14th in receiving yards and Jason Campbell finished 19th with an 84.3 passer rating. He did have the lowest interception ratio in the league.
Post columnist Tom Boswell writes that the shred of good news the Redskins can take from this season is that Jason Campbell improved.
Overall, though, even Redskins players and Head Coach Jim Zorn seem to acknowledge that this season was a disappointment.
It wasn’t merely about depressing losses to the Rams and Bengals, the coach said. “Even the tough games — the Steelers, the Ravens – I just feel like we’re so close,” Zorn said. ” Just a handful, but those handfuls all meant something.
“So when I say, ‘What if?’ I say, ‘Oh yeah,’ because the question gets answered very easily: We did fail.”
John Feinstein cuts through the BS and gets to the most important point:
The problem with the Washington Redskins is really pretty simple: the wrong questions are being asked each and every year. The other problem is this: you can’t fire the owner.
Jason LaCanfora notes the curious decision not to play the rookies and other kids in the season finale, a game that otherwise meant nothing. I agree. Why not play Chad Rinehart and Malcolm Kelly [assuming he was healthy, which is always a leap of faith], Devin Thomas, Fred Davis and all the rest? Sure, Thomas and Davis saw the field, but why not make them important parts of the offense, even if for only one game? What do you have to lose? A playoff spot? That was gone before kickoff.
So, considering all these problems, big changes are in store for this offseason, right? Jason Campbell sure seems to think so.
“I’m sure this offseason there will be dramatic changes,” he said. “Some may be shocking. We all have to be prepared for that.”
However, Zorn said that won’t necessarily be the case.
“We won’t wholesale make changes,” he said.
Nor will he simply ditch guys because they’re getting older. Washington has 17 players on its roster who have played at least nine seasons.
“I don’t want to just look at the age and say, ‘He’s 30-something, so he can’t play,’” Zorn said. “I don’t want to lose that [communication and experience]. … That would be two steps back. I don’t know if I’m willing to do that yet.”
Hmmm. It seems to me wholesale changes are needed. This team needs to rebuild. I can understand Zorn’s reluctance to do so. Rebuilding means the personnel moves of the last few years failed, an indictment of management. Dan Snyder doesn’t take responsibility for failures so he’s unlikely to regard suggestions to rebuild kindly. And rebuilding can cost coaches their jobs, particularly when the front office thinks it has done a bang-up job. So Zorn’s reluctance to rebuild, while it will be costly for the team, is understandable.
Zorn has announced Campbell will be the starting QB going into training camp next season and he wants all his assistant coaches to return. It’s nice that he wants that, but it isn’t like he had a choice. Dan Snyder picks the assistant coaches, not the head coach. So what Zorn wants in his assistant coaches doesn’t really matter.
Something that won’t be changing is Jim Zorn. He plans to continue to call plays while serving as Head Coach and QB coach. Just out of curiosity: What does Sherman Smith do all week? Zorn remains confident that the way he does things will work in 2009 even if it didn’t work in 2008. I think he’s kidding himself. This team needs a massive infusion of talent and youth. Rebuilding is in order. Looks like it won’t happen, though. The management of this team is in a perpetual delusional fog.
CB Carlos Rogers finishes the season unsure about his role on the team and uncertain if he’ll be in Washington next season. Rogers says he won’t be a backup, but that’s pretty much how he finished the season, as DeAngelo Hall and Shawn Springs were elevated above him. Rogers will be a free agent after next season and if the Redskins want to recoup some of the draft choices they lost with their ill-advised trades [they have no 2nd, 4th or 7th round picks in the 2009 draft], dangling Rogers as trade bait would be one way to go.
Don’t expect to see SLB Marcus Washington in a Redskins uniform next season.
At least Randy Thomas gets it:
“That’s the beast of the business,” Thomas said. “After a season like this, somebody’s got to pay.”
Amen, brother.
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