Lombardi's column

[skinster]

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 see your point about shanny not being qualified to make defensive decisions, but I do respectfully disagree. If we look at all the defensives in the NFL when shanny was hired, there were 12 that ran a 3-4 and 20 that ran the 4-3. The top 5 scoring defenses were all in the 3-4. 9 of the top 13 scoring defenses were all in the 3-4. Green bay and Denver had switched that year. Green Bay went from the 21st ranked scoring defense to the 7th with the most turn overs, and Denver went from the 30th ranked defense to the 7th. I feel that with Albert being the NT and orakpo being the edge rusher, it looked like we had much better personel than Denver who had an amazing switch (of course that whole albert thing didn't work out, but if you say you expected this to happen you are lying).
From shanahans point of view it was a smart switch. Even now it still seems smart. The three teams that ran the 3-4 that weren't in the top 13 scoring defenses were Cleveland at 21, Miami at 25, and Kansas City at 29. This year, in points per game, kansas city and cleveland are tied at 8th while miami is 11th.
Switching to a 3-4 was for sure the right thing to do. It is the more proven defense, and when hiring a defensive coordinator, it is smart to go with one that runs the scheme that has worked the best. I am happy that we made the switch. I think it will end up paying off for us in the long run, especially with our two young star players, orakpo and landry, performing so well in it.

[SirClintonPortis]

Originally Posted by skinster

I see your point about shanny not being qualified to make defensive decisions, but I do respectfully disagree. If we look at all the defensives in the NFL when shanny was hired, there were 12 that ran a 3-4 and 20 that ran the 4-3. The top 5 scoring defenses were all in the 3-4. 9 of the top 13 scoring defenses were all in the 3-4. Green bay and Denver had switched that year. Green Bay went from the 21st ranked scoring defense to the 7th with the most turn overs, and Denver went from the 30th ranked defense to the 7th. I feel that with Albert being the NT and orakpo being the edge rusher, it looked like we had much better personel than Denver who had an amazing switch (of course that whole albert thing didn't work out, but if you say you expected this to happen you are lying).
From shanahans point of view it was a smart switch. Even now it still seems smart. The three teams that ran the 3-4 that weren't in the top 13 scoring defenses were Cleveland at 21, Miami at 25, and Kansas City at 29. This year, in points per game, kansas city and cleveland are tied at 8th while miami is 11th.
Switching to a 3-4 was for sure the right thing to do. It is the more proven defense, and when hiring a defensive coordinator, it is smart to go with one that runs the scheme that has worked the best. I am happy that we made the switch. I think it will end up paying off for us in the long run, especially with our two young star players, orakpo and landry, performing so well in it.

More "proven"? How about that Baltimore defense that won the Super Bowl? Or the Giants D that helped them get theirs?