The Washington Redskins Are a Ship With A New Rudder

By Richard Rogers

Every week in the National Football League is “must win”. Depending on who you ask, week six is just as important as week twelve. But for as long as one can remember, the Washington Redskins organization has seen many seasons where they have been just as bad in week twelve as they have been in week two. For the first time in nearly TWENTY YEARS, the Redskins will post back to back winning seasons and, with a win over the New York Giants in week seventeen, can boast back to back playoffs appearances since 1991. To put that in perspective, that was six presidential terms ago!

So where exactly is this franchise as we end the 2016 season? Dan Snyder has owned the team since 1999. Since then, the Redskins are on their eighth coach. No coach under Dan Snyder has led the team for more than four seasons. There have been many different front office “executives” including Charlie Casserly, Morocco Brown, and John Schneider, who is one of the architects of the Seattle Seahawks. But when one mentions the Redskins front office, you’d better duck if you mention the name Vinny Cerrato. Under Cerrato, the Redskins had the fewest number of draft picks of any team in the NFL. Draft picks were treated disrespectfully and given away for players who mostly didn’t perform or didn’t play – a fifth for TJ Duckett, a second for Jason Taylor and a reported offer of two first round picks for Chad Johnson. Thankfully the Bengals had a conscience and saved Vinny from himself on the Johnson trade. We all know about the ten pick haul of players in 2008. NOT ONE are still in the NFL.

The Marty year was encouraging but fleeting, Spurrier didn’t care enough, Gibbs 2.0 gave us flashes of hope, yet we seemed so far away. Zorn was a joke and Shanahan was a debacle. But at some point, the organization began to steer itself to calmer waters. The years-long storm seemed to let up, and the Redskins were finally committed to investing in a new rudder, repairing its sails and hiring a new captain. To me, the two most franchise defining decisions with this organization were the decisions by Bruce Allen to remove himself as GM and hire Scot McCloughan, and Jay Gruden’s decision to move forward with Kirk Cousins as the starting quarterback for the 2015 season.

For years, fans flooded talk radio phone lines begging for a real “football person” in the front office to make “football decisions”. The Redskins had not had a legit GM since Casserly, but Bobby Beathard was “king” in this town. Bruce Allen not only stepped aside and recruited Scot McCloughan to the organization, he promoted himself to Team President in the process. We heard catch phrases like “build through the draft”, “football players”, and “winning in the trenches”. McCloughan had the pedigree, the resume and the rings to make everyone pay attention. The Redskins were finally, at least, able to claim that we had “football people” in charge. The Redskins had its full complement of draft picks in place in 2015 for the first time since 2011. McCloughan drafted Brandon Scherff, a guard, with the fifth overall pick…a guard! Who does that? Where’s the running back? Where’s that stud WR? Where’s the draft day drama of trading down? Sorry folks, but that ship has sailed. Scot McCloughan has brought this organization back to respectability from a football standpoint.

The front office seems to have righted itself, but what about the coach? Gruden was 4-12 in his first season, and seemed to be headed for Snyder’s list of coaches who are being paid not to coach because they had been fired. Robert Griffin III, the Redskins golden boy, the rookie of the year, wanted to be a “pocket passer”. Jay Gruden, who worked wonders with Andy Dalton, was the man for the job, but Griffin looked horrible. He was tossed like a rag doll, and often seemed like he’d never played football before. But even with the McCloughan, the football guy, in place, the Redskins were at a crossroads as to what to do with Robert Griffin III and Kirk Cousins. The fan base was deeply divided, even some along racial lines, but in a press conference before the start of the 2015 season, Jay Gruden stepped to the podium and declared Kirk Cousins the starter for the season. This was a stunning event. Sure, anyone with eyes could see which QB gave you a better chance of winning, but Gruden’s career flashed before his eyes. Kirk was his guy and if he was going down, it was going to be with Kirk. What a coup! The QB with seemingly limitless talent was being benched for what some considered to be a career backup. Nobody had the onions to stand up to Dan Snyder, not even Shanahan, who had full autonomy over the roster. This goofy coach who talked funny and seemed in over his head put all of his chips in the middle of the table and gambled.

After a slow start to the season, it took a miraculous turn of events against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the ship to finally move to calmer waters. The irony of a “get right” game against a team whose mascot has been known historically to sink many ships was thick. The Redskins have had some bumps along the way, but after 16 years under Dan Snyder, this is once again a respectable NFL franchise. This is a team with some young talent who seem to play hard for its coach. No longer do you hear leaks from “sources close to the team” or talks of players only meetings.

This fan base can come out now. There’s no need to hide. You can re-pledge your allegiance. The Washington Redskins are respectable and headed in the right direction.