Cerrato latest to earn scapegoat label under Snyder's 'Skins
When I think of what happened to Washington's Vinny Cerrato Thursday, there is one word that comes to mind -- and, no, it's not hallelujah. It's scapegoat, which is what Cerrato becomes in the wake of his firing ... er, resignation.
Yeah, OK, so the Redskins said he resigned. The San Diego Chargers said the same thing when Don Coryell was pushed out the door in 1986. As Coryell pointed out later, there's a difference between resigning and being told to resign. The way he saw it, he was fired.
Couldn't agree more, Don.
Nobody has found Cerrato to discover what happened, and I'm still waiting for him to return a couple of voice messages. In the meantime, I'm left to read the tea leaves, and what they tell me is that nobody announces a successor to an acting GM the same morning that GM resigns unless that successor was lined up for weeks.
That means the hiring was premeditated, which also means the departure of his predecessor was premeditated.
OK, so that's semantics, and I know a lot of Washington fans who don't care what you call it. They're just happy for a change. Well, be careful what you wish for, people. Vinny Cerrato is not the problem with the Redskins, and he never has been the problem. Cerrato did what owner Dan Snyder wanted, and what he wanted was to make high-profile coaches and players into Washington Redskins.
So Cerrato accommodated him, hiring defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth -- the top player in this year's free-agent market -- and acquiring people like wide receiver Santana Moss and linebacker London Fletcher and defensive back DeAngelo Hall. But when Cerrato deviated from the plan, when he convinced Snyder to try a different path and take a flyer on a longshot, assistant coach Jim Zorn, he lost -- and that move finished him with the owner.
Zorn was not cut out to be a head coach, and all of us know it now. A year ago, it didn't seem that way, with Zorn winning six of his first eight before the club went south and finished 8-8. So Zorn didn't work out. Big deal. Steve Spurrier did? Snyder hired him. Marty Schottenheimer did? Snyder hired him, too. Heck, Schottenheimer, who won everywhere he was, went 8-8 after canning Cerrato, so you can't blame that on Vinny.
In Cerrato's first season in Washington the Redskins made the playoffs, and that was under Norv Turner. But Snyder soured on Turner, fired him and didn't win again until Joe Gibbs arrived on the scene -- and then had to endure a 6-10 finish in Gibbs' first season.
What the Redskins will tell you is that Gibbs took them to the playoffs in two of his four years there, which is he did, but that means they didn't go to the playoffs in two of his four years there. Furthermore, they were 30-34 in his four seasons there, and that is not the Joe Gibbs I remember from his first tour in Washington. But his first tour was under different ownership, and there, people, is your problem.
The Redskins can't win because Snyder thinks that success and money are directly related -- meaning, the more you spend the more you win. So he latches on to high-profile players like Bruce Smith and Deion Sanders and Jeff George and can't understand why he has to stand in line almost every year behind Dallas and Philadelphia and the New York Giants. Those teams know how to win; Snyder does not, and making Cerrato the villain here is just another example that Snyder doesn't get it.
| Blogs |
|
|
| More links |
Cerrato got canned because Zorn didn't work out and because fans started booing the club and boycotting boring games and calling the owner bad names. All of that I understand. Someone had to pay for the team's failures, and that someone was Cerrato. Wait a couple more weeks, and that someone will be Zorn.
But what did Cerrato do that was so wrong? Spend his first draft pick this year on linebacker Brian Orakpo? Naysayers said he didn't fit the Redskins, but he fit them well enough to produce 11 sacks and become a Defensive Rookie of the Year finalist.
Critics shredded Cerrato for the second round of last year's draft, too. He took a tight end and two wide receivers, and that was supposed to be a mistake -- with second-guessers saying that Washington should have drafted an offensive lineman, maybe two, instead.
Maybe they should have, but look what the Redskins gained instead: Tight end Fred Davis is a force now that he's playing and could be one of the best at his position in the future, while Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly have made significant contributions to Washington's recent play -- a four-week run where the Redskins should have beaten Dallas, Philadelphia and New Orleans and did beat Oakland.
OK, so the Raiders stink. Washington buried them in Oakland, something neither Philadelphia nor Cincinnati could do.
Cerrato was criticized for hiring Sherm Lewis as the team's playcaller, too, and I must admit I didn't like it when the move was made. Zorn called the plays, and if you didn't like what he was doing he should've been fired. But Zorn went along with the decision, and the decision paid off.
With Lewis calling plays, Washington averages 22.1 points per game. Before he showed up, they averaged 13.2 in six games, never scoring more than 17 points in any of them. They've scored fewer than 17 only once since, and, yeah, I'd say that makes a convincing case.
All of that is a long way of saying Cerrato got a raw deal here. Yeah, I know, the guy's got blind spots. Tell me a GM or head coach who doesn't. I know he had his share of misses, too. But that happens, and it happens to everyone sooner or later. Vinny Cerrato no longer works for Washington because the Redskins needed someone to punish for a lackluster season, and the owner can't fire himself; so he fires the guy closest to him, and from where I sit that makes him a scapegoat.
Cerrato's biggest mistake wasn't doing what he thought was right; it was doing what owner Daniel Snyder thought was right. He carried out Snyder's plan, and that plan failed -- as it almost always has since he took over.
So now it's Bruce Allen who carries out Snyder's plan, and good luck. All I know is Vinny Cerrato was squeezed out for doing what he was told to do, and that makes him a good soldier who was sacrificed. In the end, it doesn't matter if he was fired or resigned. All that matters is that he left for the right reasons.
And he didn't.
