Lombardi's column

[sportscurmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Defensewins

Shanahan is a respected offensive coach. Shanahan went from being a QB to being an offensive coordinator to being a Head Coach that ran offense. Shanhan has never coached a defense and has zero experience coaching a defense.
Rather than hiring a very qualified defensive coordinator and letting him run his own defense, he took upon himself to dictate what defense his team was going to run and then hired a coach. Kind of like when Snyderatto hired Zorn to be offensive coordinator before hiring the head coach. No respected defensive coach will come into that kind of situation where he is dictated what defense he has to run.
This is a case where Shanahan got involved with something that he has little experience doing. In fact none of Shanahan's defenses in Denver were base 3-4 and the Redskins have never been a base 3-4. Most of the players on the Redskins defense have not played in 3-4 as the base defense. Not a good marriage.
I will be curious to see if Shanahan will show any flexibility going forward.
Or will it remain his way or the highway?
Snyder learned the lesson, let professionals that know what they are doing run your team.
Is Shanhan open to learning the same lesson?
Shanahan should let defensive coaches run the defense, personnel men run the FO and he should stick to running to what he knows best, running the offense.

I truly wish that I was as certain as you are that "Snyder learned the lesson".

True, Shanahan needs to let defensive coaches run the defense' that is not Shanahan's strangth. The problem here is that Haslett is a "defensive guy: and has been knonw as such for all of his NFL tenure.

[Defensewins]

Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon

I truly wish that I was as certain as you are that "Snyder learned the lesson".

True, Shanahan needs to let defensive coaches run the defense' that is not Shanahan's strangth. The problem here is that Haslett is a "defensive guy: and has been knonw as such for all of his NFL tenure.

Yes, but it has been overly argued when people defend Haslett from fault is that Shanahan is the one that made the decision to switch to the 3-4. So the guy that made this important decision is not a defensive coach or expert in defense, much has any experience ever using the 3-4 defense on any of his teams. This was a poor decision.