Redskins Achieve Consistency, Hire From Within

Ok, so that is not a totally accurate statement. While they did promote D-line coach Greg Blache to the Defensive Coordinator position, the Redskins did the unthinkable on Saturday by promoting their newly hired (like, not even 2 weeks) Offensive Coordinator, Jim Zorn, to the position of the Head Coach of the Washington Redskins.

Mustafa did a great post this weekend on this topic, and many others have posted their own takes, so, being a Redskins fan, and a pretty die-hard one, I figure I might as well put in my two cents on this decision.

I heard about the hiring of Jim Zorn while drinking a tasty Strongbow (official beverage of the Deuce of Davenport) at the always fun Atomic Billiards in Washington DC and my reaction was shock, anger, sadness and disgust all at once. My girlfriend thought someone had died in my family, I started to tell her the news, and she quickly lost interest right about when I said "The Redskins...". So I decided to share my news with the bartenders and patrons around me. As a whole, the reaction from everyone at the bar was shock, anger, sadness and disgust all at once, just like me. I wasn't alone.

Soon thereafter, Trapper John entered the establishment, he being a Buffalo Bills fan I thought he would enjoy mocking the Redskins decision if only because his team is coached by Dick Jauron and anyone the Redskins hire is going to actually be worse than Dick. I told him the news and indeed his comment was "Hah! That's it, that's all I have to say. Hah!" After this, text messages came in from all over. A friend of mine from Seattle has not stopped texting me the same message of "HAHAHAHAHAHA!" for now going on 24 hours. Mustafa was texting me the same as well. My father is giving me the silent treatment after I texted my mom the news to break to him. He is getting old and surely didn't want to hear this was going to be the Redskins' head coach for around 3 more years. There's only so much a man can take.

After a day of getting mocked and processing my own emotions I have come to this conclusion... Maybe it's not so bad? He will be the most driven coach we have ever had because he actually has something to prove. This is not to say the other coaches weren't "driven", Schotty is always driven, but he's been there and done that before, Spurrier was done once he got his multi-million dollar payday, Gibbs didn't have anything to prove because he could always fall back on the whole, "I won you 3 Super Bowls" thing, but Zorn, he has to succeed, or he might not get another chance at this. He has got the most to prove out of any coach we've had here since Norv was hired...but lets not think about him...

Andy Reid worked out ok with the same level of coaching experience, same with Shanahan, and I cannot honestly say I wanted Fassel or Mariucci as coaches here. Ron Meeks would have been a solid hire in my mind, but that would mean they'd have to fire Greg Blache, and they only promote after 2 weeks, they don't fire after 2 weeks. Really, is there anyone else that they could have hired at this point that actually could be a good hire? I somehow think this is actually the best they can get, and while sad, at least he's got low expectations to start unlike the other coaches who were supposed to lead the Redskins to the promise land.

So while unorthodox, very very unorthodox, some would say unprofessional ( I certainly would), I am not sure if it is really a bad move at this point. It is a really poorly handled move and I think if they had to somehow salvage this bungled, crock of shit, mess of a debacle of a head coaching search...this might be the best way to do it.