Saunders speaks!
 

Its not much...but he did say a few things publically:

"It was disappointing," Saunders said. "That would have been a wonderful organization and a wonderful thing. [Chiefs President] Carl Peterson chose the coach that he felt was best for him and the organization at that time, and I understand that."

Saunders wouldn't comment when asked about reports that Peterson had once promised him the Chiefs job.

"I am just very grateful that I right now have the chance to do this with the Washington Redskins, and that is where I am looking," Saunders said."


Full story here:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2301861

Raiduhs

We wasted him. He deserved the HC job more than anyone. I wish he would have stayed. DAMN YOU CARL PETERSON.

we are better off without him..we got a coach with playoff wins....what was al saunders record as a head coach?

knowing the luck of KC sports history....Im sure The Redskins will win the Super Bowl with a Saunders led offense sometime in the next 2-3 years...

Wouldnt surprise me.

aren't we optimistic

Hell, he was on the NFL Network this afternoon.Talking about how great it was working with Vermeil, and Gibbs is the only other HC he will work for besides Vermeil. Of course, he had a snide tone when the question of why didn't go back to KC as OC. It was your basic sugarcoated candy appled bullshit.

:titus:






jabberwocky

I just don't understand this comment...How did he deserve it more than anyone else exactly? Did Gunther deserver it more than anyone else 7 years ago when he was hired? After all, he was every bit as good of a DC at the time as Al was an OC for the last few years. How did that turn out?

Not saying this would turn out the same way, but how can you confidently say he was the best out there? IMO, we clearly got the best coach that was hired this offseason. I don't even know how that could be disputed.

Well, we will probably never know the complete story but Whitlock was on to something in his story. There has to some good reason why Saunders kept getting passed over for unproven kids with resumes half his size.

I think most people are just scared of a return to the old "Martyocrity" days with Herm. Im with you though, Herm is proven and im willing to give him a chance. Only time will tell.

:titus:


ya know i remember the same people saying similiar stuff about Vermeil when he was hired.

and we had a good team a couple of years under him didn't we

S.T.F.U.

you shut up...


you don't KNOW whether we are better off ... you just HOPE we will be.


i hope we will be better too but making your HOPE into some kind of lecture for other people is bullshit.

Considering most of the crappy hires this offseason (Mike McCarthy? Dick Jauron? Whoever the Raiders hire?) that isn't saying much.

I really think its because of his age. Except for Herm, all the coaches hired this offseason are all pretty young (all younger than 45 I think).

Its hard to believe though that the offensive coordinator of the 32nd ranked offense this past season got a Head Coaching job, while the offensive coordinator of the #1 ranked offense (for the second straight season) couldn't get one.

Not arguing that, but out of TEN new coaches, we cot the best. That is saying something. Maybe you could throw in Al Saunders along with the rest of those other unproven coaches you just named.

im sorry .....please remove the sand from your clitorus

"Martyocrity" was better than "As&DViocrity" regarding playoff spots at least and Ws.

Saunders is going to look very average in Washington without Willie Roaf.

if Al can't get it done quickly, Synder will throw money at the next hot OC available

I don't think it's a coincidence either.

Al was great here.

However, there is something wrong with him obviously. There is something that fans will never know about Al that GM's and other teams do.

The Rams hired an OC that wasn't anything special. That's a team and organization that he's tremendously familiar with, but they didn't want him.

People can bag on Carl for not hiring him all they want, but other teams passed too.

There's just something that doesn't jive with Saunders. He seems like a nice guy who has produced.

But he doesn't get a chance.

That's not a coincidence.

Hell, it even took him a long time to get a coordinator's job.

lol true

Yep I have to agree. Skins will get every free agent out there to help him though.

I think it was identical to Belichick's prior to him joining the Patriots.

For my part, I'm glad that the key architect of your offense is now in the NFC, and a Carl Peterson 'yes man' was installed as your head coach. I think it's unfortunate for Chiefs fans, who clearly deserve better than this, but I guess the stadium will sell out regardless.

I look for Washington to take another step up next year. As a Portis fan, I'll take great interest in what Saunders can do for him.

You realize Solari designs the running game, don't you?

Yes, I'm aware of that. I also don't think it's all that ingenious. I just think you've had a run with one of the best offensive lines in the history of the NFL, in particular, Willie Roaf and Willie Shields, both of whom I consider the top of their class in the NFL.

I don't think it takes a genius to run the ball to the left, using Willie Roaf as the axis of your running game. I think that any coordinator at this level could have a lot of success if they were blessed with Roaf.

If anybody can do what we do, then why are you glad our "architect" is gone?

Nice trick. I never said anybody can do what you do. I said anybody could have success running the ball behind hall of fame linemen. There's more to your offense than your running game. In fact, your offense is pretty damned balanced between the passing game and the rushing game. Your team averages 31.7 Passing Attempts per game this past year. You attempted 32.5 rushing attempts per game.

It's no skin off my back that you guys want to minimize the impact that Saunders had on your offense.

Redskins have talent
 

The Redskins already have a talented offense, with Cooley, Postis and Moss. They are in dire need of a sturdy QB though. Saunders should be able to make this offenseput up some numbers.

As opposed to you trying to now maximize the impact he had? According to you don't we have a loser QB running our offense? Yet now you choose to praise our pasing attack?

People fail to realize that our offense was more than the offensive coordinator. Just because an offense is successful doesn't mean a guy has the skills to be a head coach or even the skills to succeed elsewhere in the same capacity with different personnel.

Give Al Saunders credit. He took the players and called plays that managed to produce yards and points. That's what you want. But others contribue to that success, mainly the players, and also the assistant coaches. Look at Mike Mularkey, he went to Buffalo and they had crap offenses under him, while Whisenut takes over in Pittsburgh and now is being hailed as a genius himself. Look at Hermerdinger, who did pretty well in Tennessee but lacked the personnel to do it in NY. Ernie Zampese used to be called a master but his offenses in the end there a few years ago in Dallas was pathetic.

Our offense is built around our running game and our pass protection. If we don't have those, we suck. You can say the same for most teams. So yeah, it's about the linemen in both aspects, because anyone can call a good game with a good OL and good personnel running it. You even admit that in your post before this ("I think that any coordinator at this level could have a lot of success if they were blessed with Roaf."). For all we know, Mike Solari may be a better coordinator than Al Saunders. I mean this supposed genius Al Saunders was a position coach since getting fired from the Chargers in the 80's before anyone gave him a shot at being an OC. So I don't understand much of the reaction. Sometimes change is good.

And TJ, it's not like we just straight up block and run it at you. There is a whole blocking scheme we use which stresses the chip blocking method Solari is so good at teaching. So to try to minimize the complexity of our running attack by saying it's nothing but running it behind Roaf is ludicrous...

I am not trying to take TJ's side here, but if my memory serves me correctly, we DID lose Raof for a few games last year, and our running game suffered a bit.

it did a lot of good for us, but we didn't have the skins defense... if we would have had that. we may have been playing next week-end...

Let's talk about the impact of Kubiak on the Denver offense.

What will change with the Denver O?

Wow, that was an excellent backpedal by Taco.

Exactly how I feel.

Of course Saunder said in some interview that he also wasn't sure he was up to all the duties that a HC would have to deal with, like dealing with FA's and all the diff teams out there, blah, blah, blah. Which I found a very odd thing to say for a guy who was interviewing for HC jobs around the country.

That explains the offensive juggernaut that was the New Orleans Saints prior to Roaf's departure.

The Oakland job wouldn't have worked. Nick Athan reported that Davis offered Saunders a nickel if he picked up and brought in the newspaper on the way his office that morning.

With the defense they have and playing in the NFC, I fully expect that.

Rightly or wrongly, there are millions of Jets' fans laughing at that statement. Carl Peterson evidently believed he was the best out there, but other teams did not. No other team offered compensation to the Jets to hire Herm Edwards.

Maybe Carl is just smarter than all the other GMs......

Herm might turn out well, but just to assert that he was the best available is questionable at best.

Having a good O-line is necessary but not sufficient to having a great offense. Marty had dominant O-lines back in the day, and our offenses were very average at best. We had a pretty good offense under Saunders with John Tait at LT. Not great, but certainly above average, with the worst WRs in the history of the league.

For every Mularkey argument, there is a Weis and Linehan argument the other way -- dramatic improvement with a new coach with the same personnel. We'll see if that happens in Washington.

Noone offered him a HC position. There must be a problem there somewhere. I don't know. I'm no fan of CP, not sure why you are cursing him, though...

all the cool kids do.........

I curse him as well. Just not for not promoting someone to HC that noone else wanted...

Did anyone else want Herm Edwards?

If he hit the open market, I imagine he'd been in high demand with the crop of candidates out there this year...

He was on the market. We were the only team bidding on his services.

Not the open market. We had a huge advantage there because he obviously wanted to come here, and everybody knew his ties to KC.

He left NY for the money. Had another team offered more than KC, he'd have been all ears.