Some thoughts on the challenges facing Jim Zorn as the Washington Redskins new head coach.

    Will he be able to stand up to Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato on personnel matters? Before Joe Gibbs arrived, Snyder and Cerrato made all the decisions on who would be drafted and who would be signed as free agents, with one exception.

    The exception wsa the year Marty Schottenheimer coached the Redskins. He fired Cerrato and made all the decisions on personnel, from the draft to free agency. Schottenheimer also excluded Snyder from the discussions involved those decisions.

    Schottenheimer was fired after a year with the Redskins.

    Gibbs, with four Super Bowl appearances and membership in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, took back the final authority on personnel decisions. Snyder and Cerrato worked with Gibbs, Gibbs included Snyder in every discussion and everybody got along.

    But remember Norv Turner’s experience? He never seemed to want Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith and Jeff George, especially George. He still wound up with them on the roster. Turner got fired after 13 games of the 2000 season.

    Steve Spurrier’s involvement in the draft was minimal. He didn’t seem to mind. But he was upset when he was told he could not keep Danny Wuerffel on the 2003 roster. He should have turned in his resignation then. At least he would have made a point. Instead, he suffered through a 5-11 season, then resigned.

    Zorn eventually will be in a situation where he wants to keep a player, but someone in personnel disagrees. Zorn will have to stand his ground and maybe even threaten to quit to keep his job. If he does that and wins the argument, he’ll have to win games and get into the playoffs to keep his job for the long term.

  And while we’re on the subject of the Redskins, many think Snyder and Cerrato took too long to hire a coach.
 
  I disagree.

  They wanted to talk to Steve Spagnuolo, the New York Giants defensive coordinator. They had to wait until after the Super Bowl to do so.

  Had they hired Zorn or Jim Fassel or Ron Meeks one week before Spagnuolo’s defense shut down the seemingly invincible New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, Snyder would have been excoriated for not waiting to talk to Spagnuolo.

  Nothing has been lost by taking a month to hire a head coach. Almost all the assistants are in place. Zorn still gets to hire his offensive coodinator. The scouts have continued working on the draft and NFL free agents. The coaches are not involved in that process until the time comes to narrow the list and decide who to pursue in free agency and how to rank the college players for the draft.

  There’s plenty of time for both, although some late nights are going to be invovled in getting the free agent list in order.

  If Zorn turns out to be the next Joe Gibbs, or even a reasonable facsimile thereof, spending a month finding him will be no big deal.