Josina Anderson Tweeted Monday that she has heard that Josh Harris’ perspective, after the Commanders’ 40-20 loss to the Bears, is to not make any rash decisions on personnel, instead “allowing things to play out when it comes to potential staff decisions.”
Not exactly “news” per se, because Harris has suggested all along he’s not going to do anything immediate, choosing to wait and see what happens this season on the field while focusing on business for now – but as Anderson also said, Harris is ‘a seasoned sports owner who is viewed internally as generally patient, but one of Harris' biggest concerns now is the impact an emotional national loss may have on ticket sales, which always has to be taken into account, too.’
Given that, should a shake-up happen, and would it be warranted?
If you're telling me, hey, that's a concern, okay, but is it now a concern that's now overriding? Meaning, I'm so concerned about that I will do something, or is it something that you're worried about will eventually become a pain in the butt?” Danny asked, referencing a plumbing issue in his house as an example. “Is it I'm gonna still stay the course, or is it an overriding concern that now governs your decision making? That, to me, is the $6 billion question.”
Grant read some more from Anderson, noting the relationship between Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio, and how maybe a defensive coordinator in waiting in Chris Harris is gone, so replacing Del Rio may not be the right move based on the rest of the staff.
“You could make the case as the year goes on that you want to see Eric Bieniemy as a head coach, or could have made the case you wanted to see how Harris looks and acts as a defensive coordinator calling plays,” Grant said, “but do you really need to see Jeff Zgonina, the D-line coach, doing that? Probably not, right, because he’s not gonna be the coordinator here moving forward.”
Harris will receive counsel from other owners on the idea of changes, per further Anderson writing, but does tht mean anything other than knowing the sooner he starts a search, the better off he is?
“We’ll see, but the one interesting tidbit I got out of this so far is that Harris is worried about season ticket sales, which I guess is obvious after you lose 54 points worth of games twice over here,” Grant said.
Oh, wait, there’s one other part that could be ‘compelling’ to Grant:
“She writes that ‘while I'm told some of the other limited partners have their own thoughts,’ and you can read between the lines there, ‘we'll see how things settle as the season evolves. There is still time for better results, but the clock is ticking,” Grant read. “I took that to mean some of the minority owners might be more inclined to want to make a change right now. The only guy that's been front facing or doing interviews or giving opinions that he's disappointed is Magic Johnson. I’m just speculating, but I think basically she's saying other limited partners have their own thoughts? The idea being that it's Josh Harris' show, he doesn't want to do anything, but maybe the guys working under him aren't as calm and patient here?”
“Here’s my takeaway from this: the ownership group is annoyed that this is what's happening; no one's gonna do anything about it, but we're just sort of letting everyone know, or the word's getting out eventually, that we find this annoying,” Danny said. “Please stop losing at home by 25 points a week, and please stop getting shellacked in prime time. Something’s got to change.”
There’s something else for Danny, too.
“The news to me is that there’s maybe some feelings of unrest of lack of urgency here, but the biggest nugget in this, to me, is Rivera doesn't want to move on from Del Rio,” Danny said. “To Del Rio’s credit, they’ve had bad starts pretty much every year over the last several seasons, but some adjustment has been made where they've improved dramatically multiple times over, so there is some benefit of the doubt there. I know it’s not popular right now to be in Del Rio's corner, and I’m not saying I am – but my issue is please stop giving away a month of football by being terrible. Have a better plan coming in, because you probably could have used one of these three games that you just got the doors blown off in.”
