February 9-- Final Answer: Zorn
I think it's too late and I'm in too much of a sarcastic mode (after seeing Chris Rock live) to actually comment on the hiring of Jim Zorn as the successor to Joe Gibbs.. I think I'll reserve my feelings about him until after I actually get to meet him, which will be tomorrow..
The process by which we ended at this decision however is worth a quick once over..
Is there reason to believe his hiring was announced around 7PM on a Saturday night for a reason? Maybe I'm thinking a little too much about this, but that screams of trying to bury the story. Locally, it will always be a big deal, but nationally, there is no way for ESPN and the like to fire the big guns at what at best is an extremely curious decision.. Instead of a cattle call of live shots for the local and national broadcasts had the subsequent press conference been held during a weekday, now the Skins are asking the media to line up on a Sunday afternoon where there is no live programming of note.. It smells a little of trying to make the hiring with as little criticism as possible.. Dan Snyder knows marketing, he made millions on it.. This seems to make little sense in terms of the marketing buzz it would generate..
2) Had the Cowboys just pulled the trigger on Wade (Dead Coach walking) Phillips and given their head coaching position to Jason Garrett, then I suppose the Skins would be playing a little NFC East follow the leader in terms of hiring an assistant, and then just giving him the job a couple of weeks later.. But Jerry was a little gun shy at the notion of firing a 13-3 coach for a first year coordinator. The Redskins apparently were not.. In the end, the series of events that will be described should be interesting to say the least.. I cannot wait to hear the spin on how Jim Zorn went from right guy to run an offense (he'd never done that before) to head coaching material in two weeks.. Let this not come off as a bashing of the choice, Zorn deserves the benefit of the doubt, but there is one part of this that is a little frightening: The Seahawks named their coach in waiting and it wasn't Zorn. Certainly they could be wrong about him, Zorn deserves that, but it's curious.
3) The Redskins quite obviously misjudged the field of candidates following the surprise resignation of Joe Gibbs.. In Snyder's defense, Gibbs owed the owner better then a "I only thought about leaving last night and then decided I'm done," excuse.. He didn't need to make it public that this run would be his last, but he could have told Snyder to allow him time to better assess who'd be the successor before the off-season bullets started flying. Bill Cowher and Pete Carroll couldn't be bought. Jim Fassel didn't fly, and the rest of the candidates lacked the sizzle of "the right choice for this team." So the Redskins settled (again, meant not to disrespect Zorn). Jim Mora appears now as the first real candidate of merit. Fassel certainly green lit the choice of Zorn, but the team was strong armed out of pulling that trigger, and they already ran Gregg Williams out of town. Once Steve Spagnuolo used the Skins for leverage with the Giants, the Skins were left with their pants down. No clear cut favorite, so they might as well take chance, and in Zorn, they may ultimately get a diamond in the rough..
Now, to be fair to Zorn, Snyder and everyone involved, lets hear them out before we make any rash decisions about whether this thing will work as the team moves forward..
OK men..
The process by which we ended at this decision however is worth a quick once over..
Is there reason to believe his hiring was announced around 7PM on a Saturday night for a reason? Maybe I'm thinking a little too much about this, but that screams of trying to bury the story. Locally, it will always be a big deal, but nationally, there is no way for ESPN and the like to fire the big guns at what at best is an extremely curious decision.. Instead of a cattle call of live shots for the local and national broadcasts had the subsequent press conference been held during a weekday, now the Skins are asking the media to line up on a Sunday afternoon where there is no live programming of note.. It smells a little of trying to make the hiring with as little criticism as possible.. Dan Snyder knows marketing, he made millions on it.. This seems to make little sense in terms of the marketing buzz it would generate..
2) Had the Cowboys just pulled the trigger on Wade (Dead Coach walking) Phillips and given their head coaching position to Jason Garrett, then I suppose the Skins would be playing a little NFC East follow the leader in terms of hiring an assistant, and then just giving him the job a couple of weeks later.. But Jerry was a little gun shy at the notion of firing a 13-3 coach for a first year coordinator. The Redskins apparently were not.. In the end, the series of events that will be described should be interesting to say the least.. I cannot wait to hear the spin on how Jim Zorn went from right guy to run an offense (he'd never done that before) to head coaching material in two weeks.. Let this not come off as a bashing of the choice, Zorn deserves the benefit of the doubt, but there is one part of this that is a little frightening: The Seahawks named their coach in waiting and it wasn't Zorn. Certainly they could be wrong about him, Zorn deserves that, but it's curious.
3) The Redskins quite obviously misjudged the field of candidates following the surprise resignation of Joe Gibbs.. In Snyder's defense, Gibbs owed the owner better then a "I only thought about leaving last night and then decided I'm done," excuse.. He didn't need to make it public that this run would be his last, but he could have told Snyder to allow him time to better assess who'd be the successor before the off-season bullets started flying. Bill Cowher and Pete Carroll couldn't be bought. Jim Fassel didn't fly, and the rest of the candidates lacked the sizzle of "the right choice for this team." So the Redskins settled (again, meant not to disrespect Zorn). Jim Mora appears now as the first real candidate of merit. Fassel certainly green lit the choice of Zorn, but the team was strong armed out of pulling that trigger, and they already ran Gregg Williams out of town. Once Steve Spagnuolo used the Skins for leverage with the Giants, the Skins were left with their pants down. No clear cut favorite, so they might as well take chance, and in Zorn, they may ultimately get a diamond in the rough..
Now, to be fair to Zorn, Snyder and everyone involved, lets hear them out before we make any rash decisions about whether this thing will work as the team moves forward..
OK men..
posted by Bram Weinstein | 9:59 PM
2 Comments:
thanks for not being negative right off the bat. the decision is lack luster for sure.. all real fans know that.. but it's too easy to sit back and take shots at zorn and snyder now. we will just have to wait and see what happens.
This is an excellent hire, it is fresh, which means there will be plenty of time for Zorn to prove he's worth the job, and unlike with Fassel or Mooch, I don't think he has to worry about getting the hook mid season if things go bad. This is a great fit for us, I said when he was hired as OC, wow this guy is top shelf, I wonder why we didn't interview him for the HC position, and I think that in hiring him as the OC Dan Snyder set the bar high on what he wanted from his next HC. I don't think any candidate (except maybe Spags) had the goods to compete with the likes of Zorn in house, and this just proves it. Like the hire or not, it is a GREAT day to be a Redskin Fan!
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