Is it smart to fire a head coach during the season?

[clskinsfan]

Three head coaches were fired during the season last year. Nolan, Linehan and Kiffin. One team got better. Two did not. Is firing the coach now basically giving up on this season? Yes it is. There may however be some advantages to pulling the trigger now. It will shake up a lackluster performing team. It worked for the 49ers last year. It may work for the Skins. It will give the new headcoach some games to get used to his players. instead of starting from scratch next year. If for example the New Coach is Shanahan. It would be good for him to have some games with his new players. Lets face it. We are not a playoff team with Zorn as our head coach anyways. Make the move now is what I say. Opinions?

[Perky72]

I don't see anything wrong with firing him now. With him we're not a playoff team anyway, at least based on last year and so far this year. The most important thing though is that we hire a good coach, and that won't happen if another terrible team fires their HC earlier than we do and get the good coach we want. Better to pull the gun now and ensure we get "top pick" of the available HCs, imo.

[GaryGreenMonk]

it is when your team sucks ass and you have no hope for the rest of the season. obviously he won't be the coach next season... so why wait to get someone else the expierience

[AsburySkinsFan]

When you're in a hole you stop digging.

[37thBeast]

Snyder should fire Zorn then fire his self right after.:mad::mad::mad:

[Rdskns2000]

Jim Zorn has lost his job. Now, the actual firing probably won't happen until after the season is over unless the Skins tank the next 4 games.

Firing a coach during the season means that season is over. No in season coaching change has ever lead to a team making the playoffs. Now some teams have gotten better after the change.

Raiders went 7-5 with Art Shell taking over for a fired Mike Shanahan. Think the Raiders made the playoffs the following season. 49ers improved last year and are doing good this season so far.

If we are to fire Zorn, at least wait until the bye.


Now, hiring a new coach from outside during the season is nonsense. That has never happened and no coach in their right mind would do it.

There will be a new coach in 2010. We have plenty of options.

[OkieSkin]

Why not, it can't get any worse.

[Bacon]

Who gives a ****? We lost to the Detroit Lions. It's impossible for us to embarrass ourselves more than we already have.

[s0crates]

No, it isn't. But my grandma could do a better job coaching this team than Zorn is, so I'm all for firing him anyway.

[Frediemac]

It won't help. might as well wait until the offseason and just write this season off. They will be drafting very high next season regardless.

[HigSkin]

This team needs an experienced coach. For whatever reasons, they're quitting on the coach. I think for this reason, you have to get rid of Zorn soon. I like him and wish he could get this team together but he's lost them.

[redshirtguy#45]

Who gives a ****? We lost to the Detroit Lions. It's impossible for us to embarrass ourselves more than we already have.

not true... they can pull the same game out against tb and kc (both currently winless), at home. that would be worse. being the fav team to see coming up on your sched....

[Year_of_The_Monk]

This was a horrible football Sunday, I can just imagine all the crap that I am going to hear at work...

[Spitfire71]

Three head coaches were fired during the season last year. Nolan, Linehan and Kiffin. One team got better. Two did not. Is firing the coach now basically giving up on this season? Yes it is. There may however be some advantages to pulling the trigger now. It will shake up a lackluster performing team. It worked for the 49ers last year. It may work for the Skins. It will give the new headcoach some games to get used to his players. instead of starting from scratch next year. If for example the New Coach is Shanahan. It would be good for him to have some games with his new players. Lets face it. We are not a playoff team with Zorn as our head coach anyways. Make the move now is what I say. Opinions?

If you're going to fire your head coach in week 3, you better be damn sure that whoever replaces him is going to be absolutely better. If Zorn goes, who do we have? It's hard to bring a guy from outside of the organization in the middle of the season, for all you guys that want to see Cowher or Shanahan - especially when they have families and are holding down stable jobs elsewhere. Remember, these head coaches are humans, too.

Examples: Nolan got fired, Singletary was already the DC waiting in the wings in San Francisco.

Linehan got fired, Haslett was already there as a coordinator

Kiffin got fired, Cable was there as the line coach.

None of these teams brought someone from outside the organization. So we'd have to promote from within. Who do we have?

We've got Sherman Smith, who's just about as experienced in coaching as Zorn is, and then Greg Blache, who is a mediocre coordinator at best. Add to that the fact that the new head coach would have to or want to assemble his own staff, and even a team with great talent that experiences that level of upheaval mid-season is going to fall into disarray with all the turnover.

Besides, I don't believe that Nolan, Kiffin, OR Linehan got fired in week 3. Still far too early.

[ManiacMark]

if its zorn, then yes its a stroke of genius.

[clskinsfan]

Linehan got fired in week 4. Nolan in week 7.

[skins fan1010]

In the Redskins' case, yes. Zorn should never have been given the job in the first place. he was the default option when no one else wanted the job. The job belonged to gregg williams.

Zorn took a playoff team and has made them mediocre at best. they had ten to twelve wins built into last year's team. He won eight. All he had to do to hit the midpoint of my estimate was beat (at the time the skins played them) the winless Rams, the one-win Bengals and the 5 and 10 49ers. That is proof right there that it was Zorn's fault. And, ultimately it was Snyder's fault for firing Williams.

The sooner they admit they made a mistake, the sooner they can get past it. Stop throwing good money after bad.

[clskinsfan]

Good point. Is Danny man enough to admit his mistake?

[SkinsBry]

Getting rid of the coach we don't want right now will probably make it harder to get the coach we really want in the future.

[Fred Jones]

The biggest problem is we don't have anyone to promote like the 49ners did. Promoting any of the current coaches would be stupid and you can't just bring someone in. We are stuck with what we got.

[WARLORD1863]

Removing a coach after week 3 will cause even more trouble. This entire season will be over before the new coach has a chance to establish himself. If Zorn is fired now then management has officially given up on the season.

Nothing good will come from replacing a coach this early in a season. I like Zorn a lot, I wish we had kept him on as an OC rather than a head coach. I think we screwed up his coaching development and he may never recover.

But it doesn't matter what has already happened, what matters is what the team will do next. IMO a coaching change now is the wrong way to go.

[TheShredSkinz]

make Bugel the coach.

[clskinsfan]

Bugel is a good option. He has head coaching experience.

[PennSkinsFanhR]

Firing Zorn makes no sense unless Cerrato is packed with him and Dan Snyder makes the decision to step put of all football operations.

[ixcuincle]

If you fire this early in the season you're basically conceding defeat. Believe it or not, even if the Redskins are 1-2, there is still a chance for .500 or 7-9 or some **** like that. How about we wait till the end of the season till we start firing people and making changes?

This isn't hockey. We can't fire Jim Zorn and bring in someone new to win the championship. If he has to be fired, at least fire him late in the season like Norvell

[BraveWarrior]

If you fire Zorn now, it'll just give our lazy players an excuse. They'll go around blaming their shortcoings on Zorn, when it reality, everyone from the top down is at fault for this mess.

[Loyal2Washington]

Dan wants one of the big four(Cowher, Shanny, Gruden or Holmgrem) and neither is going to take the job in week 4. There is no other coach on the staff that will get the team to respect him so it really doesn't matter if Zorn gets fired now or later. Either way the season is done.

[clskinsfan]

I agree the season is done. Put your new coach in now so he can see what he has for next year.