When the Redskins hired Sherman Lewis, it reflected mostly on two people: the offensive coordinator and the head coach. One, Sherman Smith, revealed more of his feelings about the move. The other, Jim Zorn, tried to sell the move.
We’ll start with Smith since, well, his quotes were a little better. More honest, perhaps. Not that we know exactly what Zorn is thinking, but in talking to several people around the league, they all agree that this is bad news for him and his staff.
“I don’t think he’ll tell us anything we don’t already know,” said Smith, the offensive coordinator. “I think we’re doing the scheme the right way, so if he sees something in our scheme that we don’t, that will help us.
“We think it’s about the execution.”
There’s more from Smith:
“We have a handle on the scheme. Z-man knows the scheme. We feel the scheme is good. I don’t think he’ll come in and say you need to run this route two yards deeper or you need to do more of this or that. We don’t think that’s the issue. Our players and we agree, we just need to do everything better. We don’t need to do anything different.”
Smith did say he thought Lewis was a good coach, but said he must learn the offense and how they want to run their system.
But, in the end, this is about Zorn and what he has, and has not, done. His offense has yet to produce a 30-point game in 20 chances. They’re 17th in total offense and 29th in scoring. They are struggling. That’s why executive vice president Vinny Cerrato spoke with Zorn about doing this on Monday.
“It’s not something I was looking for initially,” Zorn said. “I wasn’t saying, ‘Hey, Vinny, you need to go out and find a guy for me.’ But when the suggestion was made, I’m open to it. I just want to make sure that I don’t have so much pride in having to have all the answers that somebody can’t come in and look and see what we’re doing.”
Lewis will not call plays. He will not be involved in the game planning. Lewis will sit in the coach’s booth during games.
It’ll take him a while, Zorn said, to learn the vocabulary of the offense and the personnel.
“He’s got a lot to learn,” Zorn said. “[But] he’s not coaching. He’s here to observe and he’s here to have a set of eyes. He should look at things that maybe we don’t see. That’s really what I want from him.”
Though numerous league sources say this is bad news for Zorn’s future, the coach himself does not see it that way. Or, at least, when he was asked to react about this being a prelude to a worse move, as others have speculated, he said, “I have no reaction to that.”
And he said he did not take this personally. Zorn was composed during his nearly six-minute post-practice press conference. The only time he reacted with more emotion was when he was asked if he’d still call the plays.
Smith? Even beyond his quotes, you could see the displeasure on his face. He did not go as far with his words as he could have, a wise move.
But Zorn is the head coach and had to take it a certain way.
“I have to look at and try to be as objective as I can, not subjective,” he said. “I think that’s what you’re talking about. Am I going to get all emotional about help? I can’t have so much pride in who I am and who I think I am that I can’t have an extra set of eyes and a voice to listen to.”
Zorn had no pre-existing relationship with Lewis. Nor did he talk to one guy who knows both well: Mike Holmgren. Cerrato said he would not have pursued this had Zorn balked.
And Zorn defended the system.
“It’s very sound,” he said. “I mean, it’s been well used. It has been very creative. We’re moving right along. We really are.”
But to where? That’s anyone’s guess.
