Mike knows offense, but....

[Oldfan]

Weaker defenses are nothing new to Mike Shanahan.

In his 16 years as a head coach prior to this season, Mike Shanahan's offenses have ranked #9 on the average DVOA while his defenses have ranked #18. For all but four of those years, since 1999, he has had control of the entire team. So, the responsibility, both credit and blame, for those results ends with Mike.

He has obviously done much better with the offense than he has with the defense. Since the offense and defense are equally important, his defenses have been dragging down the quality of his teams over the past 16 years.

I was unimpressed by the hiring of Jim Haslett, but firing Haslett is unlikely to effect a major turnaround of Redskins' fortunes on the defensive side of the ball. He hasn't been Shanny's DC for 16 years.

[DarrellsMyHero28]

If I remember correctly, his refusal to make changes on defense in Denver were what ultimately led to his firing.

[redskinss]

I've said in the game thread a couple times that shanahan has effectively completed his transformation of this team and put his stamp on it.

Great offense, putridly embarrassing defense.

[DarrellsMyHero28]

Mike has given Haslett the tools (players) to at the very least, field a competent defense. Yet for some reason Haz can't figure it out.

Not in the secondary.

[Bang]

His fault seems to be in giving his defense to people who are poor at running it.
he's an offensive minded coach, and much like Gibbs used to do, he leaves his D up to who he hires.
And there is his downfall.. he's not been very good at finding good defensive coordinators.

This year we have a combination problem, in that we have a sub par coordinator, some key injuries, and a secondary that desperately needs to be overhauled.
I have to believe that overhaul was perhaps partially stymied by this cap penalty we found out about on Free Agency Eve.


As to his firing in denver, the defense was probably a good excuse to use, but I also think Pat Bowlen just felt the need for change (Familiarity brreeding contempt and all) and wanted to hop on the Shiny New Thing, and hired that clown out of new england.

~Bang

[Boss_Hogg]

Mike has given Haslett the tools (players) to at the very least, field a competent defense. Yet for some reason Haz can't figure it out.

[Bang]

Mike has given Haslett the tools (players) to at the very least, field a competent defense. Yet for some reason Haz can't figure it out.

I think the injuries to Orakpo and Carriker put such a dent in our ability to generate a pass rush that Has is literally doing the best he can with what he has.
Factor in he's also having to use Doughty again, and it's just not pretty.

Kerrigan is practically a ghost out there without Orakpo.

~Bang

[Warhead36]

He did have that one good year on D when they made the AFC Title game, but you're right his Ds for the most part have been his downfall.

Hope he can find a better D-Coord this offseason.

[AKM311]

I think this is more of an issue of him being loyal to a fault to his coaching staff.

[Oldfan]

If I remember correctly, his refusal to make changes on defense in Denver were what ultimately led to his firing.

There was a rumor, ultimately denied, that the owner wanted him to fire Slowik and Shanny refused. That might be what you are thinking of.

---------- Post added October-22nd-2012 at 01:45 PM ----------

...As to his firing in denver, the defense was probably a good excuse to use, but I also think Pat Bowlen just felt the need for change (Familiarity brreeding contempt and all) and wanted to hop on the Shiny New Thing, and hired that clown out of new england.

Bowlen gave Shanahan everything he asked for and was disappointed with the results over the span 1999 - 2008.

---------- Post added October-22nd-2012 at 01:50 PM ----------

I think this is more of an issue of him being loyal to a fault to his coaching staff.

In Denver, he was accused of firing DCs to use them as scapegoats. I don't know the number, but he had a lot of turnover at the DC position.

[D'Pablo]

I wonder why Bob Slowik, one of the worst defensive coaches in the nfl, constantly finds himself on a Shanahan coached team. Either Shanny likes to hire folks that will never find employment elsewhere ('loyal', ie. Haslett), or he's looking for yes men (although I have much less proof of this).

[Oldfan]

I wonder why Bob Slowik, one of the worst defensive coaches in the nfl, constantly finds himself on a Shanahan coached team. Either Shanny likes to hire folks that will never find employment elsewhere ('loyal', ie. Haslett), or he's looking for yes men (although I have much less proof of this).

I read old Denver Post articles to see if I could nail down a problem, but nothing clear surfaced.

DCs usually bring their expertise with their own system with them. Mike hired one guy and chucked his scheme five games into the season -- which suggests he really didn't know what he was getting when he hired the guy, I guess.

[HeluCopter29]

Bring back Richie Pettibone!

[D'Pablo]

My worry is that Shanny's allegiances are too strong with these mediocre to inept coaches. It smells of Snyder, Zorn, and Vinny football family styled nepotism. I'd prefer that our coaches earn their stripes, and neither Slowik nor Haslett have done so.

[Riggo-toni]

Holy cow. OF starts a thread I completely agree with.
Yesterday's game was pretty much what I'd expected from the day we hired MS.
I posted somewhere here during the preseason that Haz's schemes had been exposed last year.
Only good DC MSh hired over the last 16 years was Ray Rhodes, but he was only healthy enough to stick around for a year. If we'd opened up the chkbook real wide and snagged Wade P we'd be going to SB next year or the year after.