Vinny Cerrato's Reputation

[gmac79d]

With the latest off-season dramatics swirling around the Redskins, column after column and post after post is filled with both scathing and dismissive remarks regarding Vinny Cerrato's abilities and role in the organization. Many predict, including many of JLC's "league sources" ;) , that the 'Skins will never be successful until a "football" man leads the organization. Given that Vinny has been officially elevated to head football decision-maker, these comments are directed toward him.

Questions: What specific reasons has resulted in a man who has spent his entire adult life (1 year out of college) as a football coach, scout, and player personel director for 2 teams, be considered not a "football guy"? If the "non-football" comments are dismissed as a cheap shots to his scouting abilities, what specific reasons are his player evaluation and acquisition abilities considered subpar?

[cphil006]

One reason:

He gave Spurrier Trung Canidate as his starting tailback....

enough said...

[cphil006]

We never have depth, one of the reasons is that we overpay for players, (ie Archuleta, Brandon Lloyd, ARE). We were decimated by injuires on the o-line, but had no young talent (except Heyer, jury is still out on him).

We trade draft picks away so we can't develop any cheap talent and instead pay huge contracts to back-up QBs (Jeff George and Mark Brunell)

Schottenheimer fired Vinny and created cap space for us and set us up for the future in which I think we would have been successful...

Vinny has been here the whole time minus the Schottenheimer era.

[Voice_of_Reason]

One reason:

He gave Spurrier Trung Canidate as his starting tailback....

enough said...

Come on man, why are you hating on Trung? I mean, might be in the top 10 list of Redskin... names. :)

[TheLongshot]

One reason:

He gave Spurrier Trung Canidate as his starting tailback....

enough said...

Yes, and that's exactly the type of player Spurrier wanted. Blame Spurrier for that.

Jason

[1972FAN]

I guess Vinny has alot to prove?

[Thinking Skins]

I think that these next few years may define Vinny's era. There will be no more "Well that was Joe's decision" no more "thats the kind of player SS wanted" or "those were the guys we thought we needed to succeed". Now he's the de-facto GM and so the successes and failures will be credited to him. For our sake as fans, I hope he does well.

[jtyler42]

Most of the moves that have been named: Archuletta, Lloyd, the 2000 spending spree...Can we blame all of that on him? Most of those moves were Snyder or the coach at the times choices...I can see where Vinny is at fault for the 49ers fiasco at the end of the 90's but with the Skins what has he done poorly?

[wildbill1952]

Again, I emphasize they can do whatever they want, it's their team. With the advantage of hindsight:
1. The signing of Deion
2. The signing of Jeff George
3. The signing of Archuleta
4. The release of Antonio Pierce
5. The lack of draft picks
6. Trading away draft picks for people who only played for a season (Duckett)
7. The same attention paid to O-line and D-Line that the media has. (i.e. nada)
8. The inability to build depth at any position
9. A 9 year learning curve
10. Going for the big splash in draft
11. The Coles-Moss trade (Moss > Coles, but the money part stunk)
12. Not signing Dockery when we had the chance to extend his contract
13. Trading draft picks for Duckett when Cartwright was already on the team

Those are the things that stick in my mind. Basically, I expect any GM-type (no matter what his title) to be able to draft a good first-round pick. Barring injury, the first 32 are generally the cream of the crop and it's hard to go wrong (except with WR). Where a GM earns his money is in all of the other rounds, where it requires skill to find that "diamond in the rough". In his tenure, I applaud Vinny for selecting Cooley. The other names we are still waiting on: Espy, Montgomery, Golston, Heyer, Alexander. We haven't drafted an O-lineman in 10 years past the 3rd round that made the team. And we've only drafted 3 in the past 10 years in the first 3 rounds. Compare that to NE.

GM's and coaches often don't get along. But one side is usually proven right. Based on the personnel moves made on this team over the last 10 years, the person acting in the GM role has not done a great job in either assesssing talent or keeping home-grown talent.

I don't hate the guy. I just think he thinks like a sports journalist. In his mind, the only players on the team are those that score (RB, WR, QB) and the "skill players" on defense (CB, LB and S). The O-line and D-Line are afterthoughts in his thinking. And that thinking is killing the Skins.