The early word following the Redskins disaster in Detroit was the Jim Zorn would not be fired. And this is to be expected — even the likes of Dan Snyder wouldn’t march into the locker room and fire the head coach minutes after a loss. But it also doesn’t mean Snyder & Co. won’t change their minds as this week of infinite sadness in Washington progresses.
Firing Jim Zorn Seems Like a Fine Idea, Until You Consider the Ramifications
To that point, as Chris Chase notes, the last time high-ranking sources within the organization were making claims about the future of the team’s head coaching position, they all turned out to be dead wrong.
Although Redskins fans wouldn’t mind if the “sources” are wrong this time around as well. At least, according to a poll on Redskins Insider:
Regardless of the fan clamoring and the media prying, it does seem extremely unlikely that Zorn will be fired this week — or anytime during the season. To do so would be completely surrendering the season. They can’t bring a new coach in externally mid-season and expect them to get any sort of offense established. Which leaves internal candidates as the only feasible options. Those candidates would likely be Stump Mitchell — the running backs coach who has been a head coach before … at Morgan State … a decade ago — or Sherman Smith — a long-time running backs coach himself who is in his second year as an NFL O.C. Not exactly the sexiest options, although when you lose to a team that was 0-19 since December ’07, your standards of sexy drop dramatically.
So, essentially, it boils down to this: If Snyder & Co. determine that Zorn’s version of the Redskins have hit rock-bottom, they should fire him … but, if they see any glimmer of hope left for this year, they cannot remove the head coach mid-season.
The front office will probably decide on option 2, after which the team will go 5-11 and Zorn will be fired on January 4th. 1991 never felt so far away.
See More:
