I think their needs to be awareness that Shanahan has to win the battle over Haynesworth right now.  There are a few reasons why one would side with #92.  He came here to play a certain kind of defense, and he has certain style that has given him success in the past. He knows how to do his thing and be successful.  This doesn't really mean much when you consider he was paid handsomely to play for this team.  A person with a contract that size just doesn't garner much sympathy when that kind of money is thrown at him.

However, this team and organization needs to win this battle of wills for a number of reasons.  

First, the X's and O's: Most good defenses are scheme-based.  They aren't reliant on 11 of the best players out there (a concept that this team may be realizing about 13 years too late).  So AH's usefulness is decreasing by the year.  

Secondly, with all the defenses looking at the 3-4 or some hybrid, he needs to embrace this type of defense simply for job security.  

Thirdly, he has no idea exactly what style of 3-4 we will run.  This may be my biggest issue with all of this.  He came out and said that he wouldn't play it before he ever knew what they were going to do.  He has no idea what his role will be in this defensive scheme.  Not only was he ignorant before, but he is making no effort to learn it by not showing up to minicamp this weekend.  To me, this is a no brainer.  He should be there and figuring out what his role would be in this defense.  This just shows me that he is trying to big-time the coach and strong arm his way into whatever position he wants.  He has to understand that he is not bigger than the team and the rest of the team needs to see that he isn't treated as such.

As for what Shanahan should do, it is very simple here.  I see Shanahan giving Albert four options:  

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There are reports swirling around DC United park today that a certain new assistant coach will be resigning tomorrow morning.  This follows earlier reports of his criticism of players and the grittiness that has not been on display on the pitch.  Earlier in the offseason, Ben Olsen got into a dust up with Morsink about his play in the middle.  Olsen was looking for more intensity, and more passion.  Morsink was looking for a way to get out of Olsen's shadow.  Reportedly, this all came to a head when Morsink tried to buy the #14 jersey from Najar just to show Olsen what a real #14 could do.

Club officials refused to comment but a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions said that an announcement would be coming later today or first thing tomorrow.  If this announcement comes this week, this can only be seen as a way to fire this team up after the offseason was spent re-structuring the team.

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I was going to write in the comments of my own fanpost about this but it got too long and I figured I'd set it aside as it's own thought.  I was think about Quaranta and the forwards and what I want to see out of our offense this year.  Lets face it, we all see Pontius as the future of our goal scoring.  The problems last year were many but I'll bring up a few:

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We have our forward now to pair with Pontius.  We have our midfirelder to try to bring the ball up creatively the "DC United" way on the wing.  We have our goalkeeper in place.  And we have our coaching staff in place.  Now what? 

I think there are still two things from here to get us out of the cellar.  We need a central midfielder that can create space and creatively get the ball through to Allsopp and Pontius.  I'm not sure if you saw the videos of Allsopp, but most of his gioal were created by putting the ball through and letting him run onto it.  He has a great feel for holding a defender off and striking cleanly on the ball.  But at this point, there really isn't anyone with the experience to get it to him.  We have some options and we'll take a look at them in a minute.

The other aspect of this team that has to be shown is the coaching.  I think we have a good defensive unit, a solid midfield and good forward tandem.  There is nothing great about this team.  There are better defenses out there but this should be a strength for us with us our talent.  The midfield is strong (assuming we solve the center mid situation) but they won't be confused with the best midfield in the league.  And our forwards should show well, but i doubt they'll be confused with the best forward tandem in the league either.  What will make these good-but-not-great areas of the field great is coaching.  Our defense should be pitching shutouts this year.  Jakovic is a stud at D!  Mark these words: He will be defender of the year.  He is that good and he has an ability to lead the defense with Perkins's help.  James is solid.  He will either play in central defense or have to go out wide for Namoff.  I almost would rather see him out wide.  We need aerial prowess in center defense.  We lost a ton of 50/50 challenges last year because all of our guys are like Smurfs (3 apples tall).  This will only get better with good coaching.  The defense needs to be tight and they need to be supporting each other.

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Was I the only fan that cringed every time Campbell got hit?  There was a ton of cringing being done against the Falcons.  I can't believe the ineptitude of this offensive line.  It is astounding how the Falcons T'd up on us.  I watched, as Mike Williams got beat by the same spin move over and over and over again.  I watched as Heyer got pushed backwards most plays.  I say most plays, because the other plays, he just held the dude so he didn't get pushed back.  If Rabach holds that d-lineman one more time, they will officially be married in the state of Georgia.  It's amazing that every play, something stupid happened.  I wasn't even looking for the indicator in the score line on the screen when I penalty was being called.  I could tell there was a penalty when Campbell was still upright after the play.  That was as good an indication as any. 

This got me thinking (another reason I'm pissed at Cerrato, thinking on Monday).  If I cringe every time Campbell gets hit; if I actually feel bad for Campbell every time he struggles to get up; if I can't stand seeing him spend more time on his back than John Mayer in Ken's bedroom; then how should Cerrato feel?  This is the same guy who looked the media in the eyes and said that he still believes he gave Zorn a playoff caliber team.  Then answered the follow up question about the offensive line and reiterated that this was a playoff caliber team.  Look, its been talked to death.  If Cerrato believes that, then he is obviously not very smart in this role.  Why is that so hard to understand?  Anyway, that's been discussed more than enough.

Cerrato owes Jason Campbell an apology in front of all the media and for the fans to see.  I think it should go something like this:

"Jason, I am sorry for ruining you as a quarterback.  I know that I gave you a good quarterbacks coach.  And I admit that I put a completely inept offensive line in front of you.  I know that I told everybody that we did the best we could, but that was a lie.  In fact, we took bets in the offseason to see what it would take to piss you off.  Quite frankly, nobody had anything past the Sanchez thing.  So we held a whole new meeting where I guessed that getting sacked 5 times in one half would do it.  You are a fighter out there but I did sandbag one idea.  I won't tell you what it is, but you'll appreciate its creativity (rumor has it that Cerrato will actually put an alligator in the backfield of every play).  Anyway, I owe you a great apology since I never humanized the effect this would have on you.  I can't believe how many times you are getting creamed back there!  Even I didn't think it would get this bad.  I promise that as I am packing my desk and belongings on the way out there door, I'll offer a piece of advice to the new guy.  I'll make sure to drop him a hint that he may want to have a second look at the offensive line if he has time.  So I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me.  I really do feel pretty bad.  But I feel even worse that Todd has no desire to come into the game and we don't have a #3.  Do you have Jeff George's number?"

I had an epiphany when thinking about how this team should get itself back.  I was trying very hard to think of what actually needs to happen to turn this franchise around.  We all know that it's not simply a player here and a player there.  There are structural changes that need to take place.  Unfortunately, this all begins with Snyder swallowing his pride.

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