The Redskin Report

Can anyone explain to me what’s going on this off-season? There has been some serious strange happenings already.

• The San Diego Chargers, a early 2008 Super Bowl contender, fire Marty Schottenheimer after he goes 14-2 and replace him with Norv Freaking Turner? Getting rid of Schottenheimer I can see after another disappointing playoff, but Norv Turner?? How many times does the guy have to fail as a head coach before NFL execs get it through their heads, he’s just not very good at it. Turner is a very good offensive coordinator, just not a head coach. Remember what was said about the Cowboys when they hired Wade Phillips? Double that for the Chargers.
• The Bears were known for two things all year: 1) their terrible QB play and 2) their outstanding defense, so what to do during the off-season? Obviously you just let your defensive coordinator go free after not being able to agree to a contract. Granted Lovie Smith is a great defensive mind, but you’d think you’d like to keep the defensive coaching staff intact if you had that chance.
• And lets not let Ron Rivera off the hook just yet either. He’s had about 9 million head coaching interviews and gotten no offers, when you are being beat out by Norv Turner, you just may have issues. But bad interviewing skills aside, he’s obviously a pretty highly regarded defensive mind. So why did he accept a job as a linebacker coach with San Diego? The spin is that by going to San Diego and learning the 3-4, he’s going to improve his chances at getting a head coaching job next year. That’s some pretty poor logic there. The Chargers aren’t going to go 14-2 next year and you aren’t going to improve your stock by helping a team get worse.

Its been a crazy start to the off-season. What’s next, the Redskins not signing a guy to a 50 million dollar deal on the 1st day of free agency? (yeah, I know, easy line).

The Mock draft is still coming, I had a busy weekend and couldn’t get to it. It’ll be up later this week. But it was pointed out to me that I missed ole Mel Kiper’s pick on my previous draft post. He’s got the Skins taking Jamaal Anderson. Everyone’s got Washington going DL, which is how I would go. Most of the replies to the post wanted secondary help, but I don’t think that’s in the cards unless the Skins can trade down.