The Mike Shanahan era may be long over in Washington, but the former head coach apparently wanted to clear the air and speak about what really happened during his four-year tenure with the Redskins organization.
He appeared on ESPN 980’s The Sports Fix on Wednesday to do exactly that during a radio interview. Dan Steinberg and Scott Allen of the Washington Post transcribed the hour-plus long interview.
Shanahan said he and Robert Griffin III had a meeting shortly after the quarterback’s rookie season came to a close. He said Griffin told him which plays he liked, and which were “unacceptable,” which isn’t something you typically see from a player who had just completed his first full season in the league.
“He actually [mentioned] what plays were acceptable and unacceptable, and when he started talking about what plays were acceptable and unacceptable, and that he wasn’t a rookie anymore and wanted to voice his opinion, the term unacceptable is used by Dan, the owner, quite often. So [I had] a little bit of a smile when I heard some of these complaints.”
Shanahan did a nice job of poking fun at the relationship between Snyder and Griffin there. Many have insinuated that the team’s owner coddled Griffin, so Shanahan managed to cleverly sneak in that they used the same terminology in discussing what worked and what didn’t.
But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Shanahan then went on to say that Griffin wanted to be more of a drop-back passer—preferring to throw more and run less.
“He wanted to be more of a drop-back, Aaron Rodgers-type guy,” he said. “He did a few more things, and basically what I did is I went and talked to Dan, and I said, ‘Hey, Dan, for a quarterback to come to me, a veteran coach, and share these things, number one, he can’t be the sharpest guy to do something like that, or he’s got to feel very good about the owner backing him up. And since you have been telling me from Day One that he’s a drop-back quarterback and we should do more drop-back, and you guys have spent the last couple months together, I would think, or at least the last month, that this is an extension of you.’ [Snyder] said it wasn’t.”
Griffin’s decision to tell his head coach how he should be utilized is a bold one, and that is certainly not the norm. It’s up to the coaching staff to figure out what scheme they want to run, and how Griffin fits in there.
Shanahan also wanted to clear the air and make it known that he did not feel good about trading up and relinquishing multiple draft picks to acquire Griffin.
“I did not feel good about giving up two No. 1s and a No. 2, and they all knew I felt that way,” he said. “I said, ‘Hey, yeah, I would take the chance. But I want you to know that he’s really going to have to commit to what we’re doing.”
There’s a lot to digest from Shanahan’s interview, and it will be interesting to see if Griffin addresses any part of what he said in the future.
This much is clear: Redskins’ management seems to operate a bit differently in regards to team building, player development and the dynamic between players and coaches. And until a culture change takes place in the front office, it will be difficult for the team to have sustained success in the future.