WHY did Shanny & Co. NOT bring new special teams coaches with them?

[GoDeep81]

Was just wondering.. When Dan brough in Shanny and Bruce to run the show, why did they not also bring in new special teams coaches?? Reason I ask is obvious.. It doesnt seem to matter who we have doing the punting or kicking on our team, there are always issues.. Season after season we struggle with long snaps, holds, kicks, and punts.. We also seem to always have a couple kicks and punts blocked every year..

It was noted today how Shuisham has been nearly perfect since going to Pittsburgh.. But he struggled here? I dont understand why we cant do the basics of snap, hold, kick/punt, no matter who's doing the kicking?? I give the ST's credit on their coverage, that seems to be very good, but the kicking portion of our ST's has been flawed for as long as I can remember.. Maybe it has as much to do with the way they prepare and practice, as it does with who's actually doing the on field functions? Does anyone know if the special teams (kick/punt) coaches are the same as years past??

[SonOfWashington]

We never struggled with long snaps with Albright. I'm pretty sure he never had a botched snap as a Redskin. And Danny Smith is still ST coach, as far as I know.

[visionary]

I see what Jumbo means.



http://www.redskins.com/gen/coaches/Danny_Smith.jsp

Danny Smith, always an energetic presence on and off the field, has directed the Redskins’ special teams since 2004, establishing Washington as one of the top returning and coverage units in the National Football League.

[s0crates]

Okay, I say give the OP a break. So he didn't know Danny Smith is still the special teams coach, oh well. The point is special teams are obviously a problem.

We are doing a nice job on returns, thanks to Brandon Banks, and we are doing decently well covering kicks. However, our field goal team and punt team are making way too many mistakes. Something has to give here. They have cost us several games this year. I actually think this is the biggest weakness on the team.

I like Danny Smith for his passion, but maybe the blame is on him, I don't know. Wherever the blame lies, the OP is expressing a legitimate concern. I would be interested to hear what ES members think we need to do to fix this obvious problem. Should we fire Danny Smith? Do we need a new holder? A new kicker? A new punter?

[visionary]

Okay, I say give the OP a break. So he didn't know Danny Smith is still the special teams coach, oh well. The point is special teams are obviously a problem.

We are doing a nice job on returns, thanks to Brandon Banks, and we are doing decently well covering kicks. However, our field goal team and punt team are making way too many mistakes. Something has to give here. They have cost us several games this year. I actually think this is the biggest weakness on the team.

I like Danny Smith for his passion, but maybe the blame is on him, I don't know. Wherever the blame lies, the OP is expressing a legitimate concern. I would be interested to hear what ES members think we need to do to fix this obvious problem. Should we fire Danny Smith? Do we need a new holder? A new kicker? A new punter?

I think he could have just looked it up in a few seconds.
But anyway. We'll let slide.

I definitely think we need a new snapper.
I'm not sure about Gano.
We'll see how he does the next three games.
If he has another game like this, we need to start looking for help.
As for Hunter, I would start looking now, but wait until the offseason to decide what to do.
He's probably gone. Although I don't know who we would replace him with.
We always have horrible luck with kickers and punters.

Danny Smith, I don't know.
I've never been that impressed with him, but I'm not sure what other options are out there.
Also he seems to be liked by the organization and probably the players.

[redskins55]

Nope its Danny Smith the same guy that's been here through the John Hall, Nick Novak, Shun Suisham, and Graham GaNO experiments!

[Bang]

Danny Smith blows.
i was shocked they retained him.
His special teams suck. Our special teams have consistently sucked since he's been here.
Why he stayed on I'll never know.

~Bang

[skinsfan_1215]

Danny Smith blows.
i was shocked they retained him.
His special teams suck. Our special teams have consistently sucked since he's been here.
Why he stayed on I'll never know.

~Bang

Our coverage on punts and kickoffs has consistently been near the top of the league. Very solid. Our punt return game has been very good this year after absolutely sucking for a couple years with ARE. Our kickoff return game has always been at least decent.

This year, the issues are with kicking and punting, two of the more individual efforts in the game. It just comes down to the long snapper, the holder (on kicks), and the kicker/punter doing their individual jobs. I'm not sure where the criticism of Smith is coming from here.

[andyburd]

I said it in many other posts that Danny Smith should have been the first coach out the door. The special teams have cost us numourous games the last few years, this is a joke that we can;t execute simple things time in and time out

[The Full Monty]

We never struggled with long snaps with Albright. I'm pretty sure he never had a botched snap as a Redskin. And Danny Smith is still ST coach, as far as I know.

Most idiotic and unnecessary move, I never saw the logic in it. Albright may have been in his 30s but he showed no signs of decline.

[Voice_of_Reason]

Most idiotic and unnecessary move, I never saw the logic in it. Albright may have been in his 30s but he showed no signs of decline.

Yeah, this is one of the head scratchers. I didn't understand why we didn't resign a perfectly good long snapper. I guess it was age, but, eh, whatever.

[KDawg]

Danny Smith blows.
i was shocked they retained him.
His special teams suck. Our special teams have consistently sucked since he's been here.
Why he stayed on I'll never know.

~Bang

Bang, you know I respect the hell out of you bro, but I didn't expect to see a post like this from you

Not that I disagree, I've been saying this for a few years. Just not something I'm used to seeing from you

[dg28daman]

Most idiotic and unnecessary move, I never saw the logic in it. Albright may have been in his 30s but he showed no signs of decline.

I said this in another thread. Shanny would rather lose with "his guys" then build upon what we had. We didn't have much, but we had a long-snapper and a top ten defense. Hmm....

[monarch34]

Yeah, this is one of the head scratchers. I didn't understand why we didn't resign a perfectly good long snapper. I guess it was age, but, eh, whatever.

Agree as well. Also, Shanahan gave that weird quote when asked about the Red Snapper that they didn't know much about him (but didn't even do so much as to bring him in to get to know him) ... really strange for someone who supposedly was on top of player personnel across the league to not be knowledgeable about a player who had played flawlessly for the Skins for 9 years and who had made the Pro Bowl during that time. It always smelled to me like Shanny or Bruce just wanted to go younger. I'm still puzzled by it as well since Albright hadn't shown any decline and since the replacement stunk so badly in the preseason. Oh well, water under the bridge (and one more L) now.

[paloosa]

We never struggled with long snaps with Albright. I'm pretty sure he never had a botched snap as a Redskin. And Danny Smith is still ST coach, as far as I know.

I agree we never had any botched snaps with Albright and he is sitting at home because they wanted this guy Sundberg to take over. So he is going to make mistakes because he has only been in the league 2 years. So I am willing to give him some time to develop. We haven't exactly had a great kicker here since Mark Mosley retired.