It All Starts With the Owner: Snyder’s Ideology Should Be Bottom-up

By Chris DeMarco, Staff Writer

Another Redskins’ loss brings more and more criticism onto the organization. In the Redskins’ first seven games, they have played six winless teams. As a result, they are only 2-5.

They gave the lowly Detroit Lions their first win in 19 games. That is the closest thing to a highlight for the Redskins this year, and it is definitely not a pretty one.

The media can only blame Head Coach Jim Zorn so much. He does what he can with what he is provided, which is practically a team made up like a fantasy football team.

Zorn and the fans have the Redskins wonderful owner Daniel Snyder and President of Football Operations Vinny Cerrato to thank for that.

Do not get me wrong, as an Eagles fan, nothing makes me happier than seeing unhappy Redskins fans, but it has gotten to the point in which I just feel bad for them, and that pains me to say.

In the 10 years since Snyder bought the team, he has opened his wallet and overpaid for past-their-prime stars in Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith, and Mark Brunell.

He has hired and fired good coaches like Norv Turner and Marty Schottenheimer. He overpaid for former Florida Gator Head Coach Steve Spurrier, and it just ended in disaster.

He begged legendary coach Joe Gibbs to come back, and he did.
Essentially, the Redskins have gone from mediocre to bad to decent to pathetic during Snyder’s rein.

What the Redskins and Snyder need to do is take a page out of the other successful franchises of the last decade’s book.

Look at how the New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, Pittsburgh Steelers, and on a lesser note, the Philadelphia Eagles.

Each of these organizations built from the bottom-up with players through the draft along with keeping good core players and having strong-willed head coaches that have stayed put during the past decade.

The Patriots have one of the greatest coaches in Bill Belichick along with one of the greatest quarterbacks in Tom Brady. They also have a good group of players, not super stars, but good team players.

The Colts had Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning. Enough said. The Steelers have an excellent owner in the Rooney family along with excellent head coaches like Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin. The Eagles have built through the draft, and it all started with Donovan McNabb.

Say what you want about the Eagles and McNabb, but they know how to win. All of these organizations, minus the Eagles, have won Super Bowls.

This is because they do not necessarily go out and sign the prized free agent like Albert Haynesworth, they build from within and have excellent team players to build around.

What the Redskins need is for Snyder to back off. They probably need to get rid of Cerrato and bring in someone with a backbone to stand up to Snyder. Someone like Bill Cowher or even Jon Gruden can easily do that. One still has to feel badly for Coach Zorn.

He was put into a lose-lose situation since he is practically just a go-between until Snyder can convince some high profile coach to come in, so the failures of the Redskins do not fall squarely on the shoulders of Jim Zorn or even quarterback Jason Campbell.

I personally think former Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins Head Coach Jimmy Johnson said it best about the Snyder and the Redskins: “Realize that a great 53-man roster is what wins championships, not five or six high-priced stars.

“Dan Snyder builds his team like it’s fantasy football and that’s a big negative. The Redskins need a general manager who can prevent Snyder from making decisions while letting Snyder think he is involved. Who can work that magic? I don’t know.”

Coach Johnson said it perfectly, and he knows how to deal with big personalities in the front office with still-owner of the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones.

For you Redskins fans, I hope for your sake that Snyder wakes up soon, but as an Eagles fan, I hope he does not.