Analyzing Mike Shanahan at the Midway Point

[Paintrain]

So far he gets a B+ in my book.. He was charged with more important tasks than just winning ballgames when he was hired and from all accounts, it's been an overwhelming success. He was brought in to instill an overall culture change-from the top down in the organization and he has done it. Accountability is now present where it was missing before. Discipline is obviously more prevalent than it was in year prior. As it's been said many times over, it's clear the grown-ups are in charge now.

The Trent Williams draft pick looks like a winner, bringing in Torrain, bringing up Armstrong, moving Landry to SS, promoting Banks from the PS all seem like positive moves for the team short and long term. While I didn't care for the way he handled the McNabb situation, I think he handled Haynesworth like no other coach could/would have, he made the right call in retrospect on Devin Thomas so he has enough credit for me to give him a pass on McNabb with an eye open to how it turns out the rest of the way.

As for our record, we're just about (if not sightly ahead) where I expected us to be at the break. I figured we'd lose to Indy, GB, Houston and Philly and beat Dallas, St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit. Shows how much I know! I think we won games (Green Bay, Dallas) that we would have found a way to lose in years prior. We were inches from also winning the Houston game and a healthy RB away from probably winning the Detroit game as well. To be sitting at 4-4 with a new offense, new defense and the number of injuries we've had is a testament to Shanahan's program.