Coaching Vacancies, Vacant Heads

GM,

The Redskins have made Mike Shanahan the highest-paid coach in all of football, and the misery will continue in Washington, at least for one more year. In most professions, the elite don't get fired unless they sleep with the wrong guy's wife. In football, though, the numbers don't always add up. You can be fired for a memorable collapse in 2009 and hired in early 2010 for what you did early in 1998 and 1999!

Shanahan entered the scene for the Broncos in 1995--a time in which John Elway's talent was being underutilized and it looked like he'd never win a SuperBowl. Of course, we know the rest of the story, but few people realize the rarity of Shanahan's grace period. Denver won one playoff game--a sweet, sweet defeat that ended the Patriots' championship dynasty (oh yes, it's over)--in the decade after Elway retired. Extending his leash even further was his close friendship with Broncos owner Pat Bowlen.

Obviously, the man was going to get another job as soon as he wanted one, but Dan Snyder's typical approach--throwing money at personnel with high quotes regardless of fit or actual abilities--may not even work on head coaches. Surely he knows Mike Shanahan is far from a sure bet to turn the team around, but he also knows that he's incapable of picking the right guy for anything! He's hired five head coaches this decade, including Marty Schottenheimer, Steve Spurrier, and Gibbs--three guys who are bound for the Hall of Fame because of their abilities to coach. Somehow, all failed under Snyder. He's hired an offensive coordinator for every year Jason Campbell has been in the league!

This contract is nothing but an admission by Snyder that he has no idea what he's doing, but he's willing to pay his way out of any possible blame. After all, who could blame you for getting Mike Shanahan?! Too bad you still have an average quarterback, a post-prime running back, one of the shortest "big-play" split ends in the league, and a culture of losing. At least we won't see this anymore.

-JW

JW,

Once a fairly low bar of competence is cleared, coaches don't particularly matter in the NFL. Yes, I said it. If the Redskins compete next season, it will be because the Collective Bargaining Agreement didn't get renewed and we're playing without a salary cap. Give Mike Shanahan every significant free agent and the financial upper hand in trade negotiations and he'll be just fine. Stick him with Jason Campbell and Clinton Portis--calling Clinton Portis post-prime is like calling Barack Obama post-partisan: both descriptors are the best their marketing people can hope for--and he'll lose as often and as badly as Jim Zorn. Not only has Shanahan never won a ring with mediocre talent, he's never won one without a Hall of Fame quarterback and a 1,700-yard rusher. What he has done is choked in the playoffs, held decades-long grudges, and followed the money to what has got to be the worst coaching vacancy in football. If you want to win, that is.

Elsewhere in the league, the coaching carousel appears to be operating with similar illogic. In Cleveland, team president Mike Holmgren's first order of business was keeping the universally loathed Eric Mangini--a move that ESPN has rightly called Mangini's "biggest win yet." In Dallas, certified buffoon Wade Phillips continues to function beneath the previously mentioned competence bar solely because Jerry Jones likes weak personalities. In Kansas City, a hideous defense and a $63 million career backup at quarterback will apparently be bailed out by yet another New England Patriots transplant whose name isn't Bill Bellichick.

Only Carolina seems to be behaving reasonably, refusing to fire the perfectly tolerable John Fox just because Bill Cowher has a house nearby. Why should they? The same squad will lose for both of them.

-GM