Jim Zorn Will Rise Again, but Redskins' Future Less Certain

Sometimes in baseball, players who fail in the big leagues are often said to have been rushed into action.

In football, we might be witnessing something similar in Washington.

Jim Zorn, in only a few short weeks, went from Seattle Seahawks quarterbacks coach to Washington Redskins head coach.  He completely leap-frogged being a coordinator. 

Now, perhaps, is a good time to visit how that skipped step may have changed the outcome of his first head coaching job.

Zorn is a great person.  If there was anyone who could take over for Joe Gibbs the person, it's Zorn.  He's soft spoken in his press conferences and seems to have an inner peace about him, just like Gibbs.

But replacing Joe Gibbs the coach? No, I'd say he wasn't quite ready for that.

For all of his great personality traits, Zorn is too young in his coaching tenure to be running the show.  Some guys, like Josh McDaniels in Denver, can do it at a young age.  Some, like Zorn, cannot.

McDaniels credits his former boss, Bill Belichick, with preparing him for and mentoring him in the reality that is coaching an NFL team.

Who did Zorn have?  Mike Holmgren. 

Holmgren is a great coach.  You don't need to even look at his record to know that.  But Holmgren hasn't really groomed a successful coach since he left Green Bay.  Even then, his record is mixed.

That's not to say Belichick is spotless either.  He gave the league the pensive and totalitarian Eric Mangini (who failed in New York and is on his way to one-upping that failure with a new one in Cleveland) and Romeo Crennel (whom Mangini is replacing).

The difference is that Zorn never publicly credited Holmgren with his early success.

The other difference is that everyone from Belichick's coaching tree was a coordinator before they put on the big headset.

Let's not gloss over the fact that Zorn was supposed to be the team's offensive coordinator before Dan Snyder either got tired of looking for a coach or was just wowed by Zorn that much (my bet is the former).

Then, without preamble, Zorn was thrust into the driver's seat of a train that has steadily gone from very good to beyond awful. 

Not only has Zorn struggled to run an already quixotic franchise, he has been undermined at almost every turn since he took over.

After his eight-game honeymoon period (also known as before the Redskins fell apart last season), Snyder openly flirted with replacing him after the 2008 season. 

By the time that he decided to keep Zorn in charge, Snyder had already assassinated his leadership role with the team.

Since then, Zorn has been the weekly topic of hot seat rumors.  Part of this is driven by the veteran coaching names sitting at home or in broadcast booths (Jon Gruden, Mike Shanahan, Bill Cowher, Brian Billick, Mike Holmgren).

Part of it has been that the Redskins' brass seems bent on blaming Zorn for the continual failure of the Redskins to field a competitive team for more than a season or two.

This week was the ultimate in betrayal.  Several head coaches call their team's offensive and/or defensive plays.  Zorn was calling the 'Skins offensive signals since last season.

Immediately after losing another abysmal game, Zorn was publicly stripped of his play-calling duties by team Vice President Vinny Cerrato (whose future is likely closely tied to Zorn's).  Who got those same duties?

Enter Sherm Lewis, hired no more than two weeks ago as a "consultant" (read: interim replacement).

Lewis will call the plays.  If he fails?  Well, maybe at that point Snyder will hire a consultant again and give him the duties. 

I think Snyder has been sharing a hotel room with Al Davis during ownership meetings.  He's beginning to act like our befuddled friend in Oakland.

So what about Zorn?  He'll live until the bye week and then likely be let go.  For him, I would think it would be a huge relief.

But what about after that? Well, a lot of it is up to Zorn.

If he wants to coach, he will surely get a shot as a quarterbacks coach or even as an offensive coordinator.  He won't get an immediate shot at another head coaching job, but I'd be lying if I said that I thought that we've seen the last of "head coach" Zorn.

The guy is a good coach in the making.  He needs to work under the tutelage of a Bill Belichick or a Bill Parcells or even a Mike Tomlin and get his feet under him as a coordinator.

Then, once he's showed he can excel at calling plays, he can go back out and look for a head coaching job.

This time around should and hopefully will be chalked up as too much, too soon.

Zorn will rise again.  Just not in Washington.  And he should be very thankful for that.

Where do the Redskins go? 

Mike Shanahan said no already.  My guess is that Bill Cowher will also decline if approached.  I'm of the school that Cowher still isn't ready to go back to work on the sidelines.

Jon Gruden? He could be the answer.  He's a quarterback genius with a winning track record. 

But what if Gruden says no?  Does Dan Snyder hire another new kid on the block?  Does he look at colleges to find a coach?  Does it really matter?

It probably doesn't until Snyder learns how to actually run a team.  The old trick of throwing money at a problem, then yelling at the problem when it doesn't just fix itself, and then blaming someone for the problem doesn't work.

Albert Haynesworth?  Great player.  Worth over $100 million?  No way.

Jason Campbell?  Snyder and his front office have been about as good with him as they have been with Zorn.  Trying to trade your supposed franchise quarterback doesn't help his psyche.

The fact of the matter is that the Redskins make very poor personnel moves.  They overspend and are poor talent evaluators. 

Until all of that changes, it probably wouldn't even help if George Halas and Vince Lombardi co-coached this team with an assist from Chuck Noll and Don Shula.