Largent blisters Redskins

…”The problem is that Jim was hired as an offensive coordinator and then promoted to head coach the same offseason and yet the coaching position that Jim was given, he was told who his coaches were going to be, he was told who his players were going to be. He didn’t have the opportunity to see and find any players or coaches with a couple exceptions … And so he inherited everything he has to work with today. Yet all the blame is being laid on his feet because he can’t make them Super Bowl champions. I could have told you two years ago that they didn’t have a Super Bowl quality team. It doesn’t matter how good a coach you are, you won’t get there with the players the owner gives you. I know it’s frustrating for Jim. He’s making the best of it.”

…On if he was set up to fail in this job, unintentionally: “That’s exactly what I’m saying. The formula the Redskins owner and the Redskins general manager have for producing a winner on the field is not a winning formula. They can’t make all the decisions on the coaches and personnel and then hire some guy off the street and win with what they put on the field. It doesn’t work. That’s been proven 10 years in a row. They had Joe Gibbs in here and he couldn’t do it with the formula they gave him. The failure of the Redskins is not about Jim Zorn. The failure of hte Redskins starts above him, above his level.”

…On whether another coach should proceed with caution before taking this job: “That’s what I would say. That’s my advice to anyone coming into this coaching position. I would say you need to make sure, if you want to be successful and win here. You need to make sure you have either a general manager or you are the general manager of the team and that you’re the head coach and that you have autonomy over what the general manager decides and over what the head coach decides and that Dan agrees that he will step away and he will let you run the organization. Let him do something else. Move his office out of Redskins Park. Don’t even have him coming to the place. Have him come to the game and be the owner but don’t have him be the general manager and the coach at the same time because he can’t fill all three roles. That’s been proven the last three years.”

…On whether or not Jim nearly resigned after the play-caller change: “I would say this, yes he did consider it and no he did not want to give up those responsibilities. They went to the point of pulling out his contract and saying you have to do whatever the owner says you have to do. His choice was to resign or continue on under the current scenario and Jim’s not a quitter. He said I’m not going to quit on this coaching staff or quit on this team. I will do everything in my power to pull this out and get it going on the right track.”

…On potential embarrassment Monday night: “I think it will be humbling and embarrassing, but not for Jim. It’s humbling and embarrassing for the Redskins owner and Redskins management that made the decision. To think that you can bring a guy in from a retirement center who was pulling out ping pong balls in Bingo games. bring him down here for two weeks and say you will call the plays against the Philadelphia Eagles … and think that will succeed, that’s a joke. That is really a joke. And so I think the embarrassment lies at the feet of the people that made the decision and that is not Jim.”