The Washington Redskins drop to 0-3 with the latest loss coming at the hands of the Detroit Lions. I think it’s time to start talking about which coach is on the hot seat, if any. This has been a long start to the season and things have not been looking good. In my last article I said that everyone is to blame, not any one person. But after this third loss, man, things need to change.
Let’s start of with the head coach Mike Shanahan, as he is the man in charge of things on the football field. I know that some fans want to fire him – one fan even told me that we should fire Mike then hire Kyle Shanahan and have him run the offense and the team. That is not the best plan for plenty of reasons, not least of which is Kyle is 33 and is too young to handle an entire football team or run its offense. Firing Mike Shanahan is certainly jumping the gun, and is not the answer.
Shanahan has one year left on his contract and I think that Bruce Allen will give him a one or two-year extension so that he can begin to groom Kyle Shanahan to eventaully run the football team. I can see Mike staying in charge until Kyle is ready to takeover. I truly believe Kyle Shanahan is the heir to the Redskins Head Coach position. Not to be overlooked, is the key to Robert Griffin III’s success is stability, which I believe he will have with Mike and they Kyle running the team. I can already see the bond that he and Kyle have together and to keep that going year after year will help Griffin take his talents to the next level. The longer RGIII is in Kyle Shanahan’s system the more productive he will be. The Head Coach and the offensive side of the ball should not be messed with for the sake of the stability of the franchise quarterback.
Now let’s move on to the defensive side of the ball and talk about Raheem Morris, who is the Defensive Backs Coach for the Skins. Many fans have been putting the fire on our defensive backs, and for good reason as they have given up the most yards in the first three games in history of the NFL. That said, I do not put that blame on Raheem Morris because as DB coach he does not call the coverages that they use. His job is simply to show the players where they need to be in certain coverages and how to play those coverages. So firing Raheem Morris is not the answer – yet – and he is not on the hot seat.
However, the coach that I feel is on the hot seat is our Defensive Coordinator, Jim Haslett. In my mind he should have been fired last year, and the reason why he wasn’t is because the defense started making plays. The current situation has gone too far and needs to stop. Before Haslett was hired and moved us to a 3-4, the Redskins defense was in the top-ten in defense almost every year. Contrast that to the four years he’s been here when our defense has been middle of the pack at best, and hovering around the bottom the rest. This year has gone horribly wrong and it’s not all the offense’s fault. The defense couldn’t stop anyone when needed (like last week against Detroit when we were down by three) and let offense’s drive down the field and score.
I’ve been saying it all along: an offensive game plan can’t be followed when the defense is giving up seventy some-odd number of yards in the first half. I believe that it is time to move on from the Jim Haslett era, and until the end of the season let Raheem Morris take control of this defense. Hey, he couldn’t make it any worse than it already is.
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