Maybe Vinny Cerrato isn't the Anti-Christ

So just to be clear, you think the talent is suspect or the means to acquire said talent?

Both.

Which makes it very hard to only blame VC. Obviously, as far as the draft goes, we haven't given him much ammunition. Still, not an exemplary record by any stretch on college scouting and picking the right players in the draft. Also, I imagine that if I'm in his position I put my foot down when you are telling me about a lot of these deals involving draft picks. A stronger individual would have basically said, "if you surrender those picks for those guys, I walk."

His ability to properly scout FA players has been suspect. I am not in the JG, "Well look at Springs, Griffin and Washington I don't know where we'd be without them", camp. I think there have been many more misses than hits on that front. Although I don't believe he is the only problem, I don't think VC is part of the solution to this mess. I think getting rid of him would be addition by subtraction.

Moreover, I think we can all agree that the overall strategy of the team in terms of player aquisition needs an overhall. The good news is that there are signs of those changes this offseason. The bad news is that we are still paying for mistakes we made in the past, and we still have the same people deciding who's good and who's not.

And I don't want to be perceived as thinking that VC is the end-all-be-all and that once he is replaced by someone better and wiser we will suddenly have nothing to worry about. The issue is not only scouting but obvoiusly also has to do with what we do with said info. If I am not mistaken, Vinny's job is more to compile the reports on these guys with the help of his scouts and then let The Danny and JG do the rest, which obviously does't recommend those two highly in that regard either. Sadly, it appears that Snyder and JG are making faulty desions on top of faulty information.

My question would be this: if you are starting a new NFL franchise tomorrow and Vinny is available, do you take him?

Since the answer to that question is most likely "no", why is he still here?

I brought this up a few months ago but I really think we need to take a closer look at the actual scouts. Here's why. It's the scouts that are going to all the college and pro games, doing the research on these guys and compiling the information for the upper management to make their decisions; a lot of it based on the data the scouts have provided. It's like jobs a lot of us have. I mean my bosses make company decisions based on the information I and my peers provide them. When my boss, for example, goes to NASCAR to negotiate a new tv contract he goes there with the ammo I've provided him.

Now that's not to say that he, or in this case Vinny blind use the information the scouts provide. That's clearly not the case. But I think it has a bigger say in the decision making process than we may believe.

I'm not one to pimp other fan sites but this is the best thing they have ever posted

EXTREMESKINS.com - Final transcript of the Vinny Cerrato Chat. (http://extremeskins.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=95692)

I've never understood the structure of the scouting department and what their actual duties are. In other words, how many scouts are there total?

-- Is one scout sent out at a time to look at one game and evaluate everybody who plays in that game on both teams?

-- Do they assign scouts to various positions -- like a group of scouts looks at all the offensive linemen, another group looks at linebackers and so on.

-- Is there anything like assigning scouts to a particular region around the country? For instance, a scouting department is assigned to the southwest, the northeast, midwest, that sort of thing. Or maybe they could be devoted to college divisions and conferences like Mountain West, Pac-10, Conference USA?

With all the money Danny Warbucks has, you'd think he could flood the country with scouts -- get the best scouts money can buy. There's no salary cap with those guys, we know that.

I've never understood the structure of the scouting department and what their actual duties are. In other words, how many scouts are there total?

-- Is one scout sent out at a time to look at one game and evaluate everybody who plays in that game on both teams?

-- Do they assign scouts to various positions -- like a group of scouts looks at all the offensive linemen, another group looks at linebackers and so on.

-- Is there anything like assigning scouts to a particular region around the country? For instance, a scouting department is assigned to the southwest, the northeast, midwest, that sort of thing. Or maybe they could be devoted to college divisions and conferences like Mountain West, Pac-10, Conference USA?


With all the money Danny Warbucks has, you'd think he could flood the country with scouts -- get the best scouts money can buy. There's no salary cap with those guys, we know that.

If I remember correctly on the pro level Louis Riddick oversees the scouts. And each scout is assigned a certain number of teams whose rosters he evaluates. The college side of the scouting team is headed by Scott Campbell. This group is regionalized. So, for example, one person might scout the west coast, someone else the southeast, etc. In total I think there's something like 20 scouts.

See, it just seems like 20 scouts in total (pro and college) wouldn't be enough. I've always thought there would be hundreds of scouts for each team -- that way, you could get a much more detailed, individualized look at players who could cover a much wider range.

Then again, the bigger an operation is, the more disorganized it can become.

See, it just seems like 20 scouts in total (pro and college) wouldn't be enough. I've always thought there would be hundreds of scouts for each team -- that way, you could get a much more detailed, individualized look at players who could cover a much wider range.

Then again, the bigger an operation is, the more disorganized it can become.

Yeah I think 20 or so is pretty standard for all teams. But I honestly don't know off the top of my head.

I brought this up a few months ago but I really think we need to take a closer look at the actual scouts. Here's why. It's the scouts that are going to all the college and pro games, doing the research on these guys and compiling the information for the upper management to make their decisions; a lot of it based on the data the scouts have provided. It's like jobs a lot of us have. I mean my bosses make company decisions based on the information I and my peers provide them. When my boss, for example, goes to NASCAR to negotiate a new tv contract he goes there with the ammo I've provided him.

Now that's not to say that he, or in this case Vinny blind use the information the scouts provide. That's clearly not the case. But I think it has a bigger say in the decision making process than we may believe.

I'm not one to pimp other fan sites but this is the best thing they have ever posted

EXTREMESKINS.com - Final transcript of the Vinny Cerrato Chat. (http://extremeskins.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=95692)

Thanks for the link, that was indeed very informative. Obviously they are not half-assing the evaluation process. The system as a whole seems sound. Actually, I quite like the set-up, it seems hands on and fair for everyone involved. The results have obviously been lacking so there's clearly room for improvement.

Also, it looks like Vinny's job is mainly as an organizer and administrator between the scouts and the coaches. From looking at that and considering what is wrong with the team, on the surface some of the changes that should probably be made seem pretty simple.

1: We need a similar organizational method of determining the value of draft picks. We give them away, and it hurts us. Who is responsible for this and are they going to change it like I assume they are?

2: How do we establish the players "value" commiserate with his ranking? A guy might be the top rated free agent, and better than anyone we have, but there seems to be a breakdown in how much to pay those guys. Also, the fact that we are maxed out at the cap every year seems to make it impossible to cut players like AA and B Lloyd who are busts, or re-sign players like Smoot or Pierce who everyone likes. We would really have an advantage over people if we had the "cash" advantage Vinny notes, and we were well under the cap. We could absorb the cap hit of cutting players, and outbid other teams by simply "outcashing" them. We could essentially duplicate market value offers just throw in more guaranteed cash. We seem to go above market value AND outcash which helps put us in the cap bind.

I don't know if we can do this while signing expensive players every year. To me it seems like an effective method would be to do something similar to farming techniques when they let the land lie fallow every few years. Sign players you see as upgrades for two years, and then every third year you cut dead weight and sign next to no one. Or simply be more patient. Maybe you can get a better upgrade if you wait a year. In any case, the "upgrades" we make seem to not match up in terms of how much we pay the replacement against the guy he is replacing. It looks like no drastic moves will be made capwise while Gibbs is here. Let's face it, we are in "win now" mode. But if I'm Snyder, the first thing I address when Gibbs leaves is the cap. His best move might be to fire himself as chief negotiator or have more strict guidelines in place so he can't overspend needlessly.

If the cap problems we have were taken care of and a better system of putting a "value" on players was established, we would be in position to pick players based on their value and Redskins ranking combined. Which leads me to the Redskins ranking.

You have to take a long, hard look at VC and the pro and college scouts. Are we coming up with bad scouting reports? They say they are talking to everyone and their momma about these guys, watching all the tapes, etc. Why is the team seemingly lacking in depth and talent? Why do we pick so many players who bust? Don't get me wrong, we've got some horses but some of the age, lack of depth and holes that we can't fill because we have no draft picks and cap space are striking. It would seem that our team has a good deal of character and heart, but lacks talent. In our system it seems a bit hard to place blame because everyone is involved. Perhaps you should have a GM type "overseer" on these scouts who carries extra weight in the evaluation process both with the scouts and the players they are scouting. I imagine that VC is that guy. If so you would have to consider replacing him or keeping him on at an organizational capacity if you really think he has that much to offer. Either he is making bad judgements, or the scouts are. In either case, heads must roll if they can't fix it, starting with him. However, Vinny is obviously not to blame in large part for the overspending and the draft pick fiasco, but at the same time, I wonder if a stronger personality could have made a stand in some of these egregious cases and gotten better results.

Sorry this post is so damn long, but to wrap up...

I think if we take better care of our picks and spend a little more wisely, all we would have to do is make the right Redskins reports and get our guys. If that system is in place and the Vinny and the scouts don't succeed: Fire the living shit out of them!

I don't know why Vinny gets any criticism, he is a puppet. If the front office attitude is different this year, that means The Danny's attitude is different this year.

Hell, I can't complain about one move this offseason.

the article with cerrato should be read by all skins fans. seems like he was being very truthful, and showed some good insight

Thats fair, but it could be a whole lot better for a lot less money that is for sure.

True but I'd lay that at Snyder's feet, not Gibbs.