Twelve months removed from leading the Washington Redskins to their first playoff appearance since 2007, Mike Shanahan is looking for another coaching job.
NFL Media's Jeff Darlington and NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reported Monday that the Redskinshave fired Shanahan. Shanahan and owner Dan Snyder met briefly Monday, at which point Snyder told the coach he was done.
Shanahan's assistants were told they would meet individually with general manager Bruce Allen, who would advise them of their fates. But multiple assistants expect to be fired, Darlington reported, with offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan having been officially relieved of his duties.Â
General manager Bruce Allen will stay with the organization and said that he will have personnel control. Allen plans to keep the personnel department in place.
At this time last year, Shanahan was living up to his "Mastermind" reputation. His hand-picked franchise quarterback, Robert Griffin III, had just turned in one of the most electricrookie campaigns in NFL history. His team had reeled off an unlikely string of seven consecutive victories and took the NFC East crown.
It's hard to escape the notion that Shanahan met his Washington Waterloo when he failed to protect an obviously injured Griffin in last season's wild-card round loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
Griffin couldn't channel his pre-injury form in a lost season that should have been the culmination of Shanahan's franchise reconstruction. The tenuous relationship between quarterback and coach was never the same.
Whereas Shanahan ran Donovan McNabb and Albert Haynesworth out of town after lengthy feuds, it was Griffin who outlasted Shanahan this time.
If Shanahan had visions of bolstering his Hall of Fame case after an impressive run with the Denver Broncos, his four-year stint with the Redskins backfired. He finished 24-40, along with garnering three of his four double-digit loss seasons in 20 years as a head coach.
His team imploded down the stretch this season on the way to a 3-13 record, and he made history as the first coach to bench a healthy franchise quarterback as preparation for the offseason.
Shanahan exits leaving the roster in rough shape. There are roster holes up and down the depth chart. The Redskins just lost a potentially valuable trade chip when Kirk Cousins underwhelmed as Griffin's replacement to close out the season.
The unceremonious final act in Washington will give teams with coaching openings second thoughts about Shanahan's ability to turn their own franchises around.
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