Mike Shanahan new coach of the Washington Redskins
Well, it’s official. Mike Shanahan is the now the man in DC. Not just the head coach, he’s a VP of football operations, as is Bruce Allen. I for one am excited about this. It’s not the first time a big name coach is in DC, Marty Schottenheimer, Joe Gibbs, Steve Spurrier were all good coaches. What they all lacked was a good GM to go along with them.
Bruce Allen is a solid pick to keep the front office in line. For the first time there is a tandem in DC. We have had solid coaches but never a solid leading force supporting the head coach. That will be what makes the difference I think.
The Sports Junkies, a local radio show program in DC that I have listened to for way too long, had an interesting theory that this was all planned out. That Shanahan had talks with Dan Snyder and basically said, you need a good GM before I am coming there. I want you to hire someone that knows what they are doing with a football organization. The results? Bruce Allen is hired and begins cleaning things up in anticipation for Shanahan to come to DC.
I happen to agree with the Junks on this. For sure Snyder had this thing sewn up. I think Dan Snyder took a good hard look at what was not working with his organization and decided that he wanted to win more than he wanted to be like Jerry Jones, both the owner and GM of the Dallas Cowboys.
The end result is good for the Skins. Allen/Shanahan combo will only do better than Cerrato/Zorn. I am not saying we are going to the Superbowl next year, not by any means, but we are going to improve as a football team. Look for a playoff berth in three years for sure, that is of course if there is even an NFL by then.
