Danny: Not a Jerk...Just Knee Jerk

[Burgold]

Yeah, but Leonsis also lucked out in that he got the first overall pick in a year where a guy like Ovechkin was available. Also, his moneystream via AOL and Time Warner changed... although I guess you could say he had the patience to let the team become absolutely miserable so that they had the chance to rise from the ashes.

Leonsis actually has gone through quite a few coaches too in his relatively short tenure as owner.

[Art]

I just remember last year, people talking about how the Skins front office finally "Got it". Without making any huge offseason moves. A lot of folks talked about needing this to happen a few offseasons in a row to show they had learned.

Well, Obviously it hasn't gone down like that.

I am with the crowd who believes the best owner is the one who hires football guys to be team President, and GMs.

Look at the Caps. Teddy is involved with marketing his team....but he lets George get it done. If Teddy is MORE involved behind the scenes. Then he's good at not showing it....and he's better at it.

The problem with that talk is it fails to understand how we do things. We don't make big free agent moves every year. We do one year, then clear the contracts through, then reload a couple years later for more. We've done this since 2000. It's not a mystery.

I don't follow hockey that much, but, I imagine the Caps, having found the top young player and maybe top player in the league benefit from that and allows Leonsis to overcome, after years of horrible and a fight with a fan, the early negatives attached to him as an owner.

As for Snyder, if by some remarkable stretch Colt Brennan is the next Tom Brady, Dan will go down as the finest owner in sports within five years of that emergence. Similar to how Kraft, who was a clueless dope, has become a model owner when Brady saved his coach and franchise.

[FrFan]

I wish we had an owner who knows football. Someone who cares only about building a legacy the right way. Someone patient who's not driven by marketing or Ponzie schemes and free agents, big names, seeking frenzy. What kind of return did we get with all this free agents circus show ?
About Colt, I really wish he will be a Brady type QB, but it's not likely to happen if we keep him on the bench. Brady became a starter in his second year with the Pats.

[Buford]

You guys are right. Ovie is the best player in the world. When the holdout was coming. Ted knew to get rid of his big contracts and get his house in order for the new NHL.

But, his team also have a strong, if not THE strongest minor league system in the NHL. NFL teams don't have the luxury. That's why you need to draft linemen every year, and depth guys who can mature in your system.

There is no doubt you need LUCK.

But if you look at the 3 other major teams in DC. The GM's are always face of the front office for those teams. Ernie, George, and now Stan with the Nats. The ownership sits back and lets who they hired to do the jobs.

I don't know if the story about Mr. Snyder calling Vinny and saying to drop everything and get Cutler is true. I imagine it's somewhere in the middle of full truth, and full of ****. But I'll go back to something I said yesterday. Mr. Snyder is a marketing guru. Even with his team being the biggest in town. He should be acting like they are in 4th place. I want to see Cooley and Portis all over D.C. in ads, on the sides of buses, on TV, everywhere.

If you go to Pittsburgh, you see there guys everywhere.....and its not like they need to build their fanbase. Billboards as you go into the city have Mean Joe welcoming you to town and selling something like health insurance.

This isn't another Fire Vinny thread. But is seems the guy is just doing whatever the owner wants without holding him back. Mr. Snyder needs to look at the best front offices around the league, and hire that Assistant GM who's ready for the next step, and give him the keys while he works on the marketing side of things. It will take time to get it right. Even AZ had to spend years to change their culture. They were drafting well for a few years, then they got a good coach, and got a little lucky.

[Horatio]

Another bash Danny thread already?

There can never be enough of them. Snyder and Cerrato are the reasons this franchise is considered a JOKE by the rest of the league. Sure, we ain't as bad as the Lions or Browns, but everyone knows what an idiot Snyder is.

Snyder has these "knee jerk" reactions at a convenient time every year: right before season ticket renewals are due. To sell more season tickets, he has to drum up interest, and the best way to do that is sign some big-name free agent.

The fans drink the Snyder Kool Aid and believe his "brilliant" personnel moves will FINALLY put this team over the top. Now that Gibbs is gone, there is no counter-weight to Snyder's oversize ego and impulsiveness.

When Snyder plays racquetball, he stomps his feet up and down like a petulant child when he loses...that should be some indication of his temperament.

[SnyderMustGo]

At this point, anyone who is still defending Snyder is doing so due to some agenda, whatever that may be.

There is no basis in historical fact that would allow someone to defend him as an owner who is benefiting the franchise. It is quite clear that he has turned this once proud franchise into a joke in the league. And the proof is in the pudding: no trophies, losing record, no direction.

People used to say, "Wouldn't you rather have Snyder as an owner than Bidwell because Danny spends money?" Well, no. Bidwell's team went to the Super Bowl last year. Proof is in the pudding. Bidwell is a better owner. Now I see someone asking about Bowlen. The answer is yes: I'd rather Bowlen. He let's his general manager run things. Been to the conference championship 5 times, won 2 Super Bowls, won his division in the last decade. Bowlen wouldn't be my first choice, but I'd take him over Danny.

But this is all to miss the point: sure you can find a worse owner, probably. But that doesn't mean Snyder is a good owner. He isn't. He is a terrible owner and turned his franchise into an embarassment. Redskins fans should never feel embarassed of their team. We used to be one of the proudest franchises. But we've become a joke. And the constant factor and producing cause of this is one man, Snyder.

The problem with that talk is it fails to understand how we do things. We don't make big free agent moves every year. We do one year, then clear the contracts through, then reload a couple years later for more. We've done this since 2000. It's not a mystery.

Ok. So you think this has been a wise way of doing business? Whether we do it every year or too often is irrelevant. The relevant question is whether it is wise and good business to do it at all.

And surely we do so ridiculously often that the impression we do it every year has arisen. Can't blame people for having that impression. Snyder encourages it.

As for Snyder, if by some remarkable stretch Colt Brennan is the next Tom Brady, Dan will go down as the finest owner in sports within five years of that emergence.

No he won't. Because getting lucky on one player won't change the rest of the garbage he does that is toxic and embarassing.

Similar to how Kraft, who was a clueless dope, has become a model owner when Brady saved his coach and franchise.

Kraft became a model owner when he hired good football men to run his franchise and he sat back and let them make the decisions. Danny does not do that.

[Art]

Yes, SMG, acquiring talented players to fill voids is a very fine way to go about doing business. It's impossible to think otherwise, because it's exactly what you must do to quickly fill areas of weakness.

It's a ludicrous proposition to say the Redskins, feeling an extreme weakness at defensive tackle, ought not sign a man many feel is the best defensive tackle in the sport. It makes you seem agenda-driven to blame Snyder for signing one of the best players in the game at his position.

Such moves may not always work out perfectly, or even all that well, but, acquiring players who've proven they are able to play in the NFL versus hoping a draft pick, most of which do not work out, works out, is a viable strategy and concept.

The Redskins also receive great benefit in Snyder as the owner because he's made D.C. a destination for players throughout the league. You conceive of this because they know he'll overpay for them. Whatever the reason, the Redskins ARE the team players in the league hope has interest in them. This has proven to be an advantage for us in acquisitions as well.

Kraft, in New England, was a few games away from firing his failed coach and personnel group before being rescued by Brady. Leonsis, who was used here as a good owner example, got into a fight with a fan and had years of ridiculousness, before landing the game's best player and starting the turn of the franchise.

With how we approach building a team it is more necessary for us than for others that our QB be among the game's best because stability there will allow for moves elsewhere. Once the team finds the answer at QB, everyone will believe we're the finest run organization in sports until that QB is hurt and we go 6-10 .

[SnyderMustGo]

Yes, SMG, acquiring talented players to fill voids is a very fine way to go about doing business.

Conceptually, yes. Of course. It would seem intuitive that if you need X and you can go get the best X available, you do that.

However, the problem is that that history disproves that theory. Just like it might seem intuitive to try to climb out of quicksand, history tells us that it is the wrong thing to do.

One cannot ignore the consistent failure of this approach. And that is the problem with Snyder. He keeps doing it. Over and over and over despite its failure. Occasionally it might work on the margins. But as a model on how to build a team, it is a proven, unmitigated failure.

[PROSCOUT]

If all you can come up with is knee jerk reaction, it's because you have a false, foolish view of the team we root for. The Redskins are a .500 team who were getting worse last year. The team has holes that needed to be filled. The team has strengths as well.


Doing so provides two reasonable things.

The coaching search of a year ago was the furthest thing from knee jerk. In fact, it was a little ridiculous how long that went. While the ultimate decision to hire Jim Zorn was a surprise to everyone, it also goes to speak about the limited group of coaches out there.

I NEVER SAID THE COACHING SEARCH WAS KNEE JERK. The Skins had an opening and they filled it. HOWEVER, there were indeed knee jerk reactions INSIDE the coaching search and after the coaching search. How many owners knee jerk a defensive coodinator hiring and knee jerk an offensive coordinator hiring BEFORE they have completed the hiring of the HEAD COACH? Riddle me that one Batman?

The Redskins are an active franchise. Where we perceive we have a weakness we try to make it a strength immediately through the acquisition of a proven player like Albert Haynesworth rather than a young drafted player like Golston or Montgomery, or someone drafted earlier. It is perfectly reasonable to hope we find our next Chris Samuels in the draft rather than in free agency, thus allowing us to dip into free agency for fewer gaps.

IT WOULD ALWAYS BE REASONABLE TO FIND ANOTHER CHRIS SAMUELS BUT I HAVE NO IDEA WHY YOU BRING THIS UP.

It's hard to argue with the team's insight into itself as to where it looks to improve with such moves. Meaning, the team seems to have a fairly honest assessment of itself when it goes out to find people in free agency to improve itself with. We might whiff on the player we acquire, but, he's always a player at a position we have difficulty thinking doesn't need help.

Tell me someone in recent years we acquired who was simply not needed because we were set at his spot. The only guy I think is CLOSE to that is Archuleta who Williams wanted as a hybrid type player and it failed miserably.

How about Fred Davis at TIGHT END. We had an all pro tight end and we wasted a valuable 2nd round pick on a backup rookie while trading away our another 2nd round pick on Taylor who eventuall was cut less than 9 months later.

THESE ARE NOT SOUND DECISIONS...and they result in mismanagement that leads to poor production on the field.

[SAli457180]

Who would you rather have as an owner? Pat Bowlen? When Danny finally gets his franchise QB ... all the naysayers will fade away like a turd in a rainstorm.

Bowlen does have 2 more SB trophies than Snyder does as an owner.

[Art]

Conceptually, yes. Of course. It would seem intuitive that if you need X and you can go get the best X available, you do that.

However, the problem is that that history disproves that theory. Just like it might seem intuitive to try to climb out of quicksand, history tells us that it is the wrong thing to do.

One cannot ignore the consistent failure of this approach. And that is the problem with Snyder. He keeps doing it. Over and over and over despite its failure. Occasionally it might work on the margins. But as a model on how to build a team, it is a proven, unmitigated failure.

Except, history does not disprove the theory.

The plan, unmistakable fact, that has no counter position, is we've done a better job of acquiring players in free agency than missing on them. The fact you are so blindly foolish as to not understand this reality is where you go wrong. It is impossible to line up the acqusitions made and say, "Bad job." You can't do it.

You can't list out the successful signings and failed signings and come to any conclusion other than it's not the signings that have hurt us. So what is it that has?

We've gotten elite level play, at various times and at times together, at every position on the football field over the years EXCEPT defensive end and quarterback. So, one of those two positions is more likely an answer to our inconsistency than anything else.

That's QB. We've not found our answer there. Until we do, it'll always be hot and cold.

[Art]

Bowlen does have 2 more SB trophies than Snyder does as an owner.

John Elway.

After Snyder has his John Elway, let me know how you think things rate.

[SAli457180]

John Elway.

After Snyder has his John Elway, let me know how you think things rate.

Elway was with the Broncos for 16 years and suffered through some bad SB losses in that time before he got Terrell Davis and those 2 trophies. There no way Snyder is not going to wait that long with one QB.

[Brandon Lloyd Christmas]

John Elway.

After Snyder has his John Elway, let me know how you think things rate.

well according to some, joe montana is our quarterback, so dan must be the best owner in the history of football!

im glad youre not on the campbell bandwagon, seems like the majority of the mods are with you on that front.

[SnyderMustGo]

The plan, unmistakable fact, that has no counter position, is we've done a better job of acquiring players in free agency than missing on them.

Of course, I disagree with you. But, for the sake of the discussion, even assuming that you are correct, what are the results? We've been garbage as a team. And that is "unmistakable fact, that has no counter position." And that is the point. The plan does not work. In the military, it would make NO sense to argue that a tactic resulted in winning more battles than losing if you are still losing the war.

The proof is in the pudding. "The plan" has consistently failed, despite your belief that there are more hits than misses.