Here's the thing. They do have the makings of an 8-8 team, not that that is noteworthy in the NFL where every team has the makings. They were a few plays from beating Houston, Philly and Seattle. Granted, Seattle did everything they could to throw away the game, playing rather poorly, and the Skins, in some ways, played pretty well and the clearly better team pulled it off. So, Jax, Houston and Philly, a few plays, the Skins have 3 wins. Giants and Seattle, clearly better teams. Say we got lucky against Seattle and made one more play and won that but then throw in a loss to either Houston or Philly and it's still the makings of somewhere around 8-8 with a few more plays made.
THAT is the NFL; a few more plays. And that's the difference between New England and Seattle and San Fran and Denver; the superior teams that CAN be beat but, tend to make one or two or three more plays, then, the next tier of San Diego, the Cardinals, Philly, the Giants, the Chiefs, Cinncy, Baltimore, the Colts and so on; a play or two or three less here and there. Then, everyone else, a play here and there and there more. Even a single play can lead to a snow ball effect where, say, New England really plays well against the Bengals but, was lost against the Chiefs, an up and coming team, the week before.
It's a funny thing, the NFL, the difference between success and failure. I mean, go back to Seattle a few years ago in the Griffin playoff game. No doubt we could have won that game. Do they go on to become what they are or, had they lost that one game because of one or two plays, do they make some change or a trade or even an injury, and that fine balance is lost? A better team, which they are, finds a way, even if they lose that game somehow, to be better next time because, from the owner to the coach to the players to the guys who clean the locker room, they believe in what they're trying to do. Doesn't mean they agree with everything or don't have doubts or bad days. It simply means they overcome that stuff. A play at a time. Owner, coaching, players, everyone.
The Redskins don't have that. Those better teams don't trade away draft picks time after time after time. They don't make enormous free agency mistakes. They don't hold on to players too long. They have stability and consistency in ownership and coaching and players, types of players, that get the thing all working in the same direction and everyone believes in it.
The Redskins are not about winning in that sense. We are about making plenty of good choices, good picks, good free agent signings but, we're also about, when it matters most, when a single thing needs to go right, we DO trade away too many picks for the wrong guy. We DO make a key signing that is no good. We DO screw up.
Dan Snyder isn't a bad person. He's a marketing guy, which does make him a bad person. However, the point is that what makes winning in that is ALL about the appearance. Every step of the way, each decision point, Snyder went with what he knows and THAT isn't a bad thing. It's just that what feels right to him is an endless circle of trying to make a better call, yet, somehow, because of what the whole is, it keeps coming back around. I mean, look at the Marty pick; Dan was faced with giving up all control and letting the coach do his thing. He did and we were well on our way to becoming a solid, consistent team. But, Dan being Dan, he didn't want to be out of the loop. He wants to be part of it which is totally understandable. No sense in having the toy if you can't play with it. But, time after time, the whole that is the Redskins, the complete lack of stability and consistency at coaching, at player decisions, the whole is what it is. And, at the end of the day, Dan is making a ton of money so, it is a success there.
And the players are getting paid. And that is a success, at least in our team culture. The players KNOW we don't get rid of guys when we should; Moss being but one example. The players KNOW we keep a team leader like Williams who got in trouble over something a team leader NEVER gets in trouble over. The team KNOWS there will always be a guy who is the owners guy, meaning an owner that puts individuals above team. They KNOW this coach is merely the current one and will just as likely be gone before they are. They KNOW we will throw out draft and free agency discipline whenever someone says "Look! Shiny!"
The culture of the boss is the culture of the team. The Redskins front office may be everything one could want but those people do a job, do it well and get paid. Winning is judged by objective things and it is a simple matter of doing. The games, it's not about want to. Everyone wants to. It's not about talent. Everyone has talent. It is about subjective things, all the little things that prevent the Redskins from being a place where everyone believes and is on board, going in the same direction, season after season. Like the Giants, like the Pats, Bronco's, Seattle, San Fran, Baltimore, and so on.
Snyder can change that but, it will take time and each new mistake, the coaching debacles, the draft debacles, re-set that clock of time. 2 steps forward, 1, or 2, or 2, back. Picking Gruden, frankly, is only the latest chapter. What we've learned there is that we didn't get the next Gibbs or John Gruden. We got his brother. He has a loyalty to Haslett and we all accepted the line that it was the Shanahans fault Haslett couldn't do his job. Well, the defense still isn't very good. The players still aren't very good. The culture does what it does. Jackson got CUT by a team that was about TEAM. We were first in line at the dumpster. The Griffin debacle isn't just a bust of a pick but, the other things it costs; the extra draft picks and, MOST of all, what it says to everyone else, all the decisions, one after another;
At the end of the day, it is just a football team that the owner wants to be sparkle-y and we've all got jobs so, make the best of it while we can. It's a fine line, each individual decision, and you can make a case for it each time so, a little thing goes wrong or isn't right and it was CLOSE and made sense at the time. But, that all builds up to make the whole and it never takes much to get it all off balance.
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