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 Casserly's moves pay off without him
Posted: Thursday October 07, 1999 12:12 PM
Got a comment or question for Dr. Z? Click here. The guy most responsible for the Washington Redskins' 3-1 record watches their games at home on TV. "No, I don't feel like going to the stadium," Charley Casserly says. "It would be tough to sit in the stands, with all those distractions. A seat in a VIP box? Never thought of asking for one. They'd probably turn me down, anyway." Officially he's a "consultant" to Daniel Snyder, the owner. Which is what they call a general manager who's been fired but is still allowed to draw a paycheck for a while. Snyder is into firing, as you know. First he cleaned out the office staff, then Casserly got the axe. The writers who like to do death-watch pieces were speculating on how long it would be before Norv Turner, the coach, was gone. The general consensus was late September, after the Skins dropped a pair to the Giants and Jets in New York. Turner fooled them. He held serve in both games, and now the Skins are 3-1 -- with Casserly's material. And how did Casserly get that material? He did it under the most trying conditions a general manager ever had to work with. How would you like to go into the start of the free-agency and trading period without even knowing whether or not you'd be allowed to make any deals? How would you like to try to set up your draft board without any assurance that you'd be permitted to draft players? That's what Casserly faced. It was all part of the trusteeship arrangement regarding the sale of the club. Casserly was John Kent Cooke's man, but Cooke lost out on the bid to buy the 'Skins. The new owner was Howard Milstein -- for about 20 minutes -- until the league told him to take a hike. Whereupon Milstein turned around and sued Casserly and Cooke for blocking the sale, which indicates just how much he wanted Casserly to stick around and try to line up a team for 1999. And while the 'Skins were in ownership limbo, Casserly, the phantom GM and player personnel director, plodded on, denied an office in Redskin Park, denied any idea of what he could or could not do. And then on the eve of the free-agency and trading period, commissioner Paul Tagliabue stepped in and said, Somebody's got to be able to make deals for the Redskins and it might as well be Casserly. That was on Feb. 11. Four days later he traded a couple of draft choices this year and one next year to the Vikings for quarterback Brad Johnson. This wasn't an easy sell. The staff was divided. I mean, the guy's still limping. He's got an injury history. There was competition from the Ravens' new coach, Brian Billick, Johnson's old offensive coordinator in Minnesota. Billick wanted Johnson in Baltimore. First Casserly had to convince his own staff, then he had to sell Johnson on the 'Skins. He swung both. Last time we looked Johnson ranked second in the NFL with a showy 119.9 QB rating, with nine TDs and no picks, and Washington ranked No. 1 in the NFL in offense. Casserly's draft-day magic is well documented. He started 1999 with four No. 1s over the next two years, the extra pair coming from Carolina in the Sean Gilbert deal. What he ended up with, after he traded for Johnson -- but got a first-rounder back, plus lots more, in giving New Orleans its shot at Ricky Williams -- was a hot quarterback, a talented young starter at the left corner ( Champ Bailey ), a starting right tackle on an offensive line that badly needed one ( Jon Jansen, who was selected with one of the Saints' choices), and three No. 1s next year. All this performed under the worst possible conditions, with a lawsuit hanging over his head. And then Snyder fired him. I talked to Charley during the week, just to find out how he was doing. "Well, I'm trying to watch as much football as I can," he said. "It's hard on TV because the announcers are so inaccurate, and you can't really get a reading on the coverages." "Don't you get the coaching tapes?" I asked him. I mean, wouldn't the 'Skins supply him with what he needed, since, technically, he's still a consultant? There was a pause. "I asked them for them once," he said. "They said they were pretty busy but they'd try to get me what they could." "And?" "And that's the last I heard of it. I didn't feel like asking them again." Something very cold and creepy was being transmitted here. I've always kind of rooted for the Redskins, but I believe that will be ending now. I asked him if there weren't some people around the league who could get coaching tapes to him. "You don't want to pester people who are busy," he said, "but, yes, I still have friends in the NFL who take care of me." I don't know how this will play out. A man gets canned following his greatest series of triumphs, and all of a sudden he's an outsider. I'm hoping Charley, who is a very decent person, scrupulously honest and very astute in the business, will surface in somebody's front office next year. If I were Bob McNair, who just got the Houston franchise, I would think very seriously about the guy who turned the 1999 draft board on its ear, who made a contender out of the Redskins, and who certainly deserves better than what he got.
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