Kyle Shanahan

[SkinsFan4Life71]

Nice article on Kyle Shanahan and how well he's performed in creating an offense that best takes advantage of his players' strengths, esp. RG3's.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100...s-malleability

The article implies that he's really burnished his resume' as a possible head coaching candidate for a needy team next season, but I think he'd be a fool to leave the Redskins because I think he'd be the clear choice to succeed his father when he retires. It would be the best case scenario for both the team and Kyle as both would benefit from the continuity.

The team would get to keep the same offensive system in place after Mike Shanahan retires and Kyle wouldn't have to go to a new team and start from scratch. Plus, when a head coaching job opens up, it's usually for a team that's in really bad shape and doesn't have a great QB. I doubt Kyle would take a head coaching job elsewhere in the next few years if he thinks he has a good chance of succeeding his father with the Redskins, which would mean he'd be the head coach of a team with an elite QB. How often does a new head coach ever get that opportunity?

I recommend reading the entire article, but I think the follow excerpt might interest those who worry that the system puts RG3 at greater risk of injury:

"We don't want Robert to get hit, but the thing I've noticed is that people notice when he gets hit running the ball," Kyle Shanahan said. "But they don't realize how violent it is in the pocket. ... He doesn't get hit like (Matt) Schaub did or Rex (Grossman) did. Robert will do that (dropback) stuff, but with the threat of the zone-read, and the fact that he's not sitting there, defensive linemen aren't teeing off on him. It's not the same."

Still, to make it work, the Redskins have built in rules for Griffin. In scramble situations, he's only to run when he's not accounted for by the defense. And in most of those spots, he's told to use the angles and run to the sideline. They're coaching him to slide some, and get out of bounds more -- on option plays, too.

Kyle Shanahan also mentions that Griffin's two injuries this year came on scrambles, not designed runs.

[SkinsFan4Life71]

I hope people who were crucifying Kyle Shanahan over the first 2 years now better understand that our offensive problems then were largely a result of a lack of talent. I think our issues on D are also personnel-related and I think once we're able to upgrade our weak spots, people will stop blaming Haslett for everything that's wrong with the defense.

[AWH1979]

I hope people who were crucifying Kyle Shanahan over the first 2 years now better understand that our offensive problems then were largely a result of a lack of talent. I think our issues on D are also personnel-related and I think once we're able to upgrade our weak spots, people will stop blaming Haslett for everything that's wrong with the defense.

I'll admit it, I had my doubts, I love being wrong about this though!!! Also, it does help to have a little RG3 on your side.

[SkinsFan4Life71]

I'll admit it, I had my doubts, I love being wrong about this though!!! Also, it does help to have a little RG3 on your side.

That absolutely helps, but an OC still has to have the humility to not try to force his concepts on personnel that don't suit them and then know how to adapt to best take advantage of his players' strengths. The rest of the article gets more into how well Kyle's been able to do that. It sounds like a no-brainer than any OC should adapt the scheme to best take advantage of the personnel he has, but that doesn't always happen.

It's why Cam Cameron was fired from the Ravens. He kept trying to force a down field passing attack when he didn't have the WRs for it and his best weapon on offense was Ray Rice, one of the best RBs in the league. Having a RB of that caliber, who's also a huge asset in the passing game, is a huge advantage, and yet Cameron often abandoned the run way too early when the team was behind and inexplicably went away from feeding their best player the ball for long stretches of many games. In their 3-pt. loss to the Steelers, for example, who were being lead by Charlie Batch, Rice only got 12 carries despite the fact that he gained 78 yards on them -- a 6.5 ypc average.

I think Kyle has been very good at adapting as the season has progressed and he's gotten to know his new players. In all but 1 of our 6 losses, Morris had fewer than 20 carries, but during the 5-game winning streak, he's carried it 20+ times every game. He's also done an excellent job of bring RG3 along, but starting him off with what he's most comfortable with and does best, and then adding in knew things along the way.

[mattcribbin]

I've always supported both the Shanny's and Haslett. Always knew it was player issue and not a coaching issue. These guys are sharp and KNOW FOOTBALL.

[IHateTheSkins]

I've had my doubts about Kyle. Still do. Seems to be improving though.

[Hitman21]

alot of people in this area were really negative about it. People said that Bruce Allen was just a cap manager, they said shanahan was never good at talent evaluation, and he had never done anything without John Elway.

As soon as Zorn was fired, i wanted shanahan or cowher. I thought bringing in Allen and shanahan was a great move. designed the whole staff around them. And i believe at that time kyle had the #1 offense in the league with houston, so there was no question in my mind. Everyone wanted the shanahan's and allen out of here after 2 years. the whole time i could see what shanahan was doing. stock piling draft picks, getting depth, going younger, and building a team from ground up. he passed over gabbert, clausen, and a whole mess of qbs that snyder/cerrato wouldve drafted, and got draft picks for it. Our late round draft picks are making huge contributions.i couldnt be more pleased with shanahan's talent evaluation.

Even if we dont make the playoffs this season, we are built to be able to contend every year for the next decade, and right now, nobody wants to play against us.

[SkinsFan4Life71]

Yeah, Shanahan and Allen came in with a plan and they've been executing it to great success. I knew it would take time to get better so I set my expectations accordingly and wasn't really disappointed the first 2 years. I understood that we really had a dearth of talent and it simply takes time to completely overhaul a roster and then for the new personnel to gel.

About the only misstep I'm critical of Shanny about is bringing in McNabb. I understand that he figured McNabb could give us some stability while they figured out whom they were going to get to be the franchise QB and give him some time to develop, but giving up 2nd and 4th round picks when you're rebuilding isn't the way to go. It was a bit of window dressing to give the appearance that we could still be somewhat competitive, when they should've just said from the start that we were rebuilding and gone after a veteran QB that wouldn't have cost us any draft picks as a stop-gap instead of McNabb.

But hey, I'm not going to knock it because in the end we got RG3, and maybe if we hadn't given up those draft picks for McNabb, our team might've done better the following year and we wouldn't have ended up with a high enough 1st-round pick good enough to put into a package for RG3. So it all worked out.

[Hitman21]

Its funny you bring up Mcnabb, I literally just got done reading an article on espn how that trade worked out in our favor. Mentions about how Philly used those picks on drafting busts in nate allen, and casey mathews, and how we ended up trading mcnabb for the pick that got us alfred morris. I know its a wierd way of lookin at it, as we probably wouldve drafted better than philly with those picks, but who knew mcnabb was completely done. I wasnt a fan of the trade when it happened myself. so i completely agree it was a bad move. The one move that we didnt make that i didnt like was not resigning Carlos Rogers. We could def use him right now.

[AWH1979]

Its funny you bring up Mcnabb, I literally just got done reading an article on espn how that trade worked out in our favor. Mentions about how Philly used those picks on drafting busts in nate allen, and casey mathews, and how we ended up trading mcnabb for the pick that got us alfred morris. I know its a wierd way of lookin at it, as we probably wouldve drafted better than philly with those picks, but who knew mcnabb was completely done. I wasnt a fan of the trade when it happened myself. so i completely agree it was a bad move. The one move that we didnt make that i didnt like was not resigning Carlos Rogers. We could def use him right now.

I agree with you man, I'm so happy they've done what they've done....the road that they paved led to RG3 and Morris, I support them 100% now.

[SkinsFan4Life71]

Its funny you bring up Mcnabb, I literally just got done reading an article on espn how that trade worked out in our favor. Mentions about how Philly used those picks on drafting busts in nate allen, and casey mathews, and how we ended up trading mcnabb for the pick that got us alfred morris. I know its a wierd way of lookin at it, as we probably wouldve drafted better than philly with those picks, but who knew mcnabb was completely done. I wasnt a fan of the trade when it happened myself. so i completely agree it was a bad move. The one move that we didnt make that i didnt like was not resigning Carlos Rogers. We could def use him right now.

I just finished reading that article myself and came here to add it to my other post, but you beat me to it. I didn't realize that we got Morris from the pick we got for McNabb. And how stupid does McNabb look now for his comments before the season started about RG3 not being a good fit for the Redskins because the Shanahans have too much ego to adapt the offense to him? Looks like McNabb is the one who had the oversized ego and was unwilling to work outside of his comfort zone, not to mention there were rumblings about him not having a great work ethic anymore. I think he succumbed to the notion of his own greatness and stopped doing the things that would've helped him continue to get better.

And I totally agree about Carlos Rogers. I was one of the people who kept arguing that, even though he couldn't hold on to INTs, having a guy that's strong in coverage and can match up well against bigger WRs was still a big asset.

[geo21874]

Anyone hear/read any rumors about other teams wanting to interview k shanny for a HC job?

[IHateTheSkins]

Only read the article on this site saying that hes more than willing to do interviews when the seasons over

[geo21874]

Would think Mr Snyder would like to discuss a possible succession plan with skins' coaching staff

[SkinsFan4Life71]

Would think Mr Snyder would like to discuss a possible succession plan with skins' coaching staff

That sort of thing is hard to guarantee. I'd love for it to happen because I'm a big believer in continuity breeding success, but Kyle doesn't have any head coaching experience so I'm not sure he'd get a guarantee from Snyder that he's first in line to succeed Shanny Sr. because great coordinators don't always make great head coaches and Kyle's resume' is still a little thin. I think what's most likely to happen is that he'll be given a big fat raise that will pay him like a head coach (albeit an unproven one) to eliminate the financial incentive he has for wanting to become a head coach (like Jones did for Garrett, for which I'm sure Ravens fans are eternally grateful since rumors had it that they were going to make run at Garrett).

That said, there's always the possibility that Kyle really wants the opportunity to be a head coach and money won't stop him from leaving if the right opportunity presents itself. I think he'd definitely want to take Kirk with him because he could hit the ground running with a QB that's already familiar with his system/terminology, and Kirk has obviously flashed a lot of potential. I'd hate to see that happen because, while I think RG3 can be successful in any system, I think it would temporarily slow down his development if he had to learn a new scheme and there's no guarantee that he'd be just as good in it as he is in Kyle's, which does a great job of taking advantage of what RG3 does best.