Tag: Charley Casserly resigned in 1999

What can we learn from Daniel Snyder’s football personnel decisions?

Looking back at some of Dan Snyder’s worst personnel decisions.

Daniel Snyder might be hated, but never forget he is also a lesson for all Washington NFL fans.

Snyder has not been a successful owner of the franchise. Purchasing the team in 1999, the strongest person in the building, Charley Casserly, was leaving a few days before Snyder’s opening training camp.

Head coach Norv Turner would be shown the door with three games remaining during the next season (2000). There was a playoff win in the 1999 and 2005 seasons, only two.

Snyder thought he could play “general manager” and ended up making his own deals for aging free agents, getting rid of Marty Schottenheimer following the 2001 season, never bringing a general manager for Steve Spurrier, meddling in the football decisions, leaving Spurrier to say in all his years of coaching the only team he never had control of the roster was his two seasons in Washington.

Snyder spent three first-round draft choices and a second-round choice so he could move up four spots in the 2012 draft to select a quarterback who had not proven he could run any sort of offense from the pocket. He then sided with Robert Griffin against Mike and Kyle Shanahan.

Griffin got his way and got to run an offense he wanted, but never developed as a pocket passer. Thus, he never saw any sort of success or even roster significance again.

Snyder imposed his will in the 2019 NFL draft, insisting the first-round selection be another quarterback. He simply did not understand Dwayne Haskins was not worth that high of a selection.

Mike Shanahan insisted Snyder was also behind the wheel in the Donovan McNabb trade when Andy Reid shrewdly traded away his quarterback to a team within the division.

The “poor” guy simply was wrong so often regarding football personnel and football-related decisions. He would have been so much better off being willing to let his football people do the jobs they were hired to perform.

Perhaps a lesson in this is that while he was confident in his abilities, his decisions cost him dearly time and time again. We, on the other hand, easily can be critical, but our preferences for the team are never actually tested.

For THAT, we can all be thankful as well.

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Puzzled by Daniel Snyder in 1999; clueless how bad it would become

The Snyder era began badly when Charley Casserly “resigned” as GM.

Daniel Snyder had only been the newfound owner of the then-Washington Redskins a few months when suddenly I was dumbfounded.

The news was breaking, and Washington general manager Charley Casserly was resigning. “What? What is going on?”

Never did I imagine the next 23 seasons would bring loads of frustration and consternation, but yes, I was old enough (age 36) and had followed the team closely enough, I was somewhat puzzled by this new development.

More flags were raised for me when it was announced that day that Casserly would actually still be a consultant for Snyder. “Is this young guy firing Casserly but paying him to be his consultant?”

Of course, I had no idea that for the next 23 seasons, there would be no actual general manager who had ultimate authority in football decisions ranging from who gets drafted, and signed as an unrestricted free agent to hiring and firing the head coach.

Even more mystifying was the fact that his firing/resignation/reassigning of Casserly transpired only a couple of days prior to the 1999 Washington training camp launching.

“Wait, would Charley Casserly actually wait to resign only a couple of days prior to training camp?”

Honestly, I had no clue how bad it would be for the next 23 years. However, looking back, I absolutely did think, “If no health concerns were found in the next months regarding Casserly, then only at age 50, Casserly did not resign but was being moved out of the front office.”

Never did I dream it was because Daniel Snyder was actually going to interfere in the football decisions many times in his tenure as owner. I had no way of recognizing this guy was actually thinking he could be an effective NFL GM.

Of course, I did believe the initial statement Snyder made at the press conference that he realized Turner and Casserly could no longer work together.

But beginning the next offseason, I was immediately uncomfortable when he began to play general manager, signing older veterans to massive contracts and overpaying them. Then I knew we have a serious problem. I do vividly recall in 2000 being disappointed and worried about the future.

But of course, I STILL had no idea how serious the problem would grow to be over the next 23 seasons. But that is another story for another day.