The WFT has arrived at the bye week. Finally. This is the last week for byes throughout the League. It arrived not a moment too soon for the squad. Thirteen weeks of bruising and bashing takes its toll on the body. One of the inherent elements of the sport is that the recovery time between games takes longer as the season evolves. It doesn’t help that the weather turns to cold making the ground harder so the bruises are deeper. There are more games now to play than ever. When Philadelphia won the NFL Championship in 1960 it played 13 games total. Other than the top team in each conference it takes 21 games to win the title these days. It all coalesces against the athletes. A break is most welcomed. It affords the fanbase an opportunity to survey the landscape and appreciate how special this year really is.
Culture Changes
When Vince Lombardi came to Washington in 1969 it was a curiously moribund franchise. The 1968 team compiled a 5-9 record despite having four Hall of Famers on the roster. Chris Hanburger, Sonny Jurgensen, Bobby Mitchell, and Charley Taylor were all on the field. Yet, the team couldn’t win. One of the first things Lombardi did was talk a fifth HOF player, Sam Huff to come out of retirement. The team would have new emphasis on conditioning, Defense, and culture. Players at Green Bay bemoaned Lombardi as a harsh taskmaster. But, his stern approach was just what the Doctor ordered for the Burgundy and Gold. The culture changed quickly and for the better.
Culture is the observable norms and behaviors that characterize an organization
One of dozens of definitions of Organizational Culture
“Culture” is a word thrown around when discussing NFL teams on a daily basis. What fans see on the television on gameday is a reflection of what happens all the other non-gamedays. For this year’s team the team will have some 178 non-gamedays from the start of Training Camp until the last game of the season. The total is much higher when considering Organized Team Activities and other such off-season frivolities. What happens on all those other days is what drives the “observable” on gameday. When looking at a team it is all too easy to rely on wins and losses. It is always helpful to remember that the results are driven by the process. Focusing only on results diminishes much of the entire picture.
Of Second Chances
Some 54 years after Vince Lombardi arrived in Washington a new coach, also coming into his second gig Head Coaching gig came to town. Dan Quinn was not the first choice of much of the fanbase. A common thread among the Burgundy-and-Gold faithful was that he was not the guy from Central Casting they wanted. The object of desire was the hottest Offensive Coordinator in the League, Ben Johnson of Detroit. He checked the boxes of most fans; young, Offensive-oriented, and innovative. Scuttlebutt is that the team itself was going in that direction. As they were flying to Michigan to meet Johnson, presumably to hire him, Ben shockingly pulled himself out of consideration. Washington pivoted to Dan Quinn who checked none of those boxes. He was older, Defensive-oriented, and was on his second go-around. It turned into a blessing in disguise.
Washington was burned pretty badly once by hiring the hot, young, Offensive Coordinator. The year was 1994. Dallas was coming off of a Super Bowl season. Their OC was one Norv Turner. He was the hottest ticket in town. But, he among many others are evidence that success as a Coordinator is no guarantee of success at the Head Coaching level. They are two very different jobs. Norv went 49-59-1 (.454) in is his 6+ years with the WFT. Two more Head Coaching jobs ended up in his resume. The results were similar. Overall his HC record is 114-122-1 (.483). The bottom line is that Norv was never going to be a great Head Coach. He is joined by most of the first-time Offensive Coordinator hires so craved by fanbases.
The knock on coaches coming for their second attempt is that they have failed somewhere else. Everyone in the NFL coaching fraternity is hired to be later fired. Even the greats eventually get the boot; Vince Lombardi himself was ushered off the sideline in Green Bay after winning the first two Super Bowls. Other joined him in the out-processing center. Pete Carroll, Bill Belichick, Tom Coughlin, and even Don Shula eventually were shoved out of the door. But, a second bite at the apple is not an indicator of future failure. There have been 29 Super Bowls since Washington hired Norv Turner; 16 of them have been won by Head Coaches on their second stint at the helm. The only real failure for a Head Coach in being fired is failing to learn from it.
Deja Vu All Over Again
Quinn arrived to find a franchise in even worse shape than Lombardi found it. The record for the previous decade was slightly better at 64-97-2 (.393). There had even been two (barely) winning seasons in there. But, Vince inherited a roster with plenty of talent. The old rule of thumb is that a Championship team needs about six so-called “Blue” players. (A popular industry ranking system assigns colors to players based upon skill level and production. Blue is the highest rank.) In 1969 there were at least six Blues on that squad. In 2023 there were two; Terry McLaurin and one of the two Defensive Tackles, Jonathan Allen or Daron Payne, take your pick. And, those two were iffy as neither played particularly well that season.
Making things worse the Draft had not been productive for a period of years. Here the team sits today without a single first-round Draft selection on the roster from the previous regime. The failures are all well-documented. The latest is Emmanuel Forbes, sent packing a week ago. Rumors are that the Rams will try to make him a punt returner. It would be good for him if it revitalized his career. But, no team drafts a punt returner in the first round. Lombardi had plenty to work with. Quinn had darned near nothing.
Lombardi brought back Sam Huff as a role model for the Locker Room. Quinn brought in Bobby Wagner to do the same. The recipe for success is often sitting out in plain view.
Aside from purging as much dead weight as possible the task for Quinn was to establish new expectations, inject massive quantities of positive energy, and sell his vision of excellence relentlessly. He’s done all of the above in Spades. Even when this team loses it plays hard. That was not the case heretofore.
Beyond Expectations
Football season is 3 hours of game time followed by 165 hours to cogitate on it. The old Science teacher would say that two data points don’t constitute a trend. He was not a football fan. Within the fandom universe even a single data point will produce an entire geometric curve towards glee or despair. If one looks hard enough there is someone on TV, the internet, or radio talking football at any time of the day. It’s not that one thing is blown out of proportion. EVERYTHING is blown out of proportion. It is hard work to keep perspective in such an environment.
The only problem with this Washington team is that it is a year ahead of schedule
Matt Ryan CBS Sports
The gambling industry set the “Over/Under” on wins for this season at 6.5 games. It would be interesting to see which side of that ledger had the most money laid upon it. This author laid out a scenario where the team could win enough games to qualify for that “Over” wager; one win against the AFC North, two wins within the Division, and four wins against the nine other games on the schedule. As we sit here the team won two against the AFC North, two against the Division with two to play, and four against the field with four to play. If someone told you that in August you would have likely dismissed it out of hand as highly unlikely.
This team is in contention for the playoffs. The meaningless “Playoff Percentages” drivel on most media outlets has them well above 50/50 to make it. Those numbers swing wildly in the wind. For this team the playoffs are essentially starting now. It’s unthinkable terrain for a franchise hopelessly mired in the mud just a year ago. If you tune out the noise from the naysayers, the trolling keyboard warriors, and the pre-dispositions of failures past the scene is nothing short of remarkable. It’s December and this team is playing meaningful football.
Grab a rose and inhale.
