Hottoddie
04-19-2002, 01:50 AM
This article is a good read on Casserly's drafting abilities. His drafts seem to be getting better as each one goes by. After reading this article, I have no doubt that he'll have a great draft this year. Go Texans! :)
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/fb/nfl/1373658
Casserly balances draft highs, lows
GM known for being thorough
By RICHARD JUSTICE
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
Long before the Washington Redskins made him their general manager in 1989, Charley Casserly was highly regarded in NFL circles among the personnel men and scouts who scour the country looking for talent.
As an assistant to then-Redskins general manager Bobby Beathard in 1987, Casserly needed just a few days to put together a replacement team that went unbeaten during a labor dispute.
One of the victories came over a Dallas Cowboys team loaded with veterans and was such an improbable thing it became the inspiration for The Replacements, a movie starring Keanu Reeves.
As a scout, Casserly found a pair of free-agent offensive linemen -- Joe Jacoby and Jeff Bostic -- who helped the Redskins win three Super Bowls. He also found a guy named Nate Newton, who failed to make the Redskins his rookie season, but landed with the Cowboys and became an anchor on three Super Bowl winners.
In addition, Casserly brilliantly juggled the NFL's early, limited free-agent system -- it was called Plan B -- to overhaul an aging defense and help the Redskins win Super Bowl XXVI.
But his record was decidedly more mixed during 10 years as the man in charge of the Redskins.
During that time, he drafted a total of 82 players, ranging from future Pro Bowlers to guys who didn't make it out of training camp. His smartest moves came in the middle rounds when unheralded choices such as Brian Mitchell and Stephen Davis developed into stars. Conversely, his worst choices were in the first round as Desmond Howard, Heath Shuler and others didn't come close to performing as he had hoped.
As he prepares for his first draft as general manager of the Texans, Casserly offers a blunt assessment of many of his Washington choices. He doesn't brag about his best picks, nor does he hide from his worst ones. In the end, he points to the bottom line.
In his first three full seasons on the job, 1990-92, the Redskins made three straight playoff appearances and won at least one playoff game each season, including 1991-92 when they went 17-2 and won the Super Bowl.
Casserly was fired just before the start of the 1999 season. That year, the Redskins won the NFC East and defeated Detroit in the opening round of the playoffs with 13 of Casserly's draft choices in the starting lineup. Two other starters, Pro Bowl quarterback Brad Johnson and defensive tackle Dan Wilkinson, were acquired by Casserly for draft choices.
Before he was dismissed that year, he left the franchise with two extra 2000 draft choices, which owner/general manager Dan Snyder used on two future stars, offensive tackle Chris Samuels and linebacker LaVar Arrington.
"The draft is hit and miss," Casserly said. "We had our hits. We had our misses. You can't run from your mistakes. At the end, I thought we were doing a solid job. If you look at the playoff teams from that last season, you're not going to find a lot of them with that many draft choices, plus we traded draft choices to get two guys. That's how we ended up. We got better as we went along."
What Casserly surely believes but won't say is if he'd had a better head coach during his final seasons with the Redskins, his teams would have performed better.
When Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs retired after the 1992 season, defensive guru Richie Petitbon was promoted for one season. When the Redskins went 4-12, Petitbon was fired, and Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Norv Turner was hired as head coach.
Gibbs is among the people who lavish praise on Casserly's work ethic and judgment.
"Of all the people I've been around, as far as hard work and being dedicated and being thorough, he's the best," Gibbs said. "He works his rear off. I knew every guy we'd picked had been gone over as thoroughly as he could have been. The problem with the job they have, and really with picking people in any business, is that it's hard. You're going to miss on some. But Charley is tireless. He understands coaches, and he's a good partner."
Although Turner was the NFL's hottest head coaching candidate at the time of his hiring, he never made it as a head coach. Some of the franchise's worst draft choices were Casserly taking players Turner wanted.
Turner declined to be quoted for this article, but made it clear he has a different recollection of some of the draft-day decisions. In their five seasons together, the Redskins didn't make a single playoff appearance.
Their relationship worsened the longer they were together. Had Casserly had a say in the matter, he probably would have fired Turner. But because Turner had grown close to late Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke, dismissing the coach wasn't an option.
One of Cooke's final moves before his death in 1997 was to award Turner and Casserly contract extensions, in effect, extending a bad marriage until Snyder arrived in 1999.
Snyder fired Casserly, but he eventually fired Turner, too. Later, he told Casserly that in 1999 he had "fired the wrong guy," according to sources.
Casserly's best Washington drafts came in his last years on the job. For instance, in 1997, seven of the eight players he chose are still in the NFL.
Likewise, all seven of his 1998 picks are still in the league, and his first two 1999 picks -- cornerback Champ Bailey and tackle Jon Jansen -- appear on their way to stardom.
Those drafts were significantly better than, say, the 1992 draft -- Gibbs was coaching the Redskins at the time -- in which he whiffed on all 11 picks. In 1993, he missed badly with two third-round picks.
"I think I learned something from all of those drafts," he said. "One thing I learned is that you've got to take the best player on the board and ignore your depth chart. You can't force something that's not there."
Casserly said it's important to note that some of his best deals came in trading choices for players, or vice versa.
At the end of training camp in 1990, he traded two draft choices to get a pair of starting defensive tackles, Eric Williams and Tim Johnson. Both made significant contributions on the the 1992 Super Bowl team.
He traded a 1996 first-rounder for defensive tackle Sean Gilbert, then sent Gilbert to Carolina for two No. 1s in 1998. He surrendered a 1998 No. 1 for Wilkinson.
Any assessment of his Washington years must begin with his three highest picks.
The Redskins were the defending Super Bowl champions and had two first-round picks in the 1992 draft. They discussed a dozen or so different players, but in the end, swapped both choices to get the fourth overall pick and use it on Howard, the Heisman Trophy winner from Michigan.
They believed they had trumped the NFL by sliding ahead of the Green Bay Packers, who also wanted Howard. They believed they were adding an explosive offensive player to an aging offensive team.
Gibbs pushed for Howard as much as Casserly, and with Pro Bowl quarterback Mark Rypien and wide receiver Gary Clark, the Redskins believed they had a chance to win a second straight Super Bowl. They couldn't have been more wrong. Howard did end up with a Super Bowl Most Valuable Player trophy, but only after the Redskins cut him, and the Packers made him a full-time return man.
"Hey, we were wrong," Casserly said. "We all saw him the same way. We thought he was going to be a great player. As a return man, he's one of the greatest in the history of the league. People tend to forget we made a trade to get him. We went over Green Bay. (Former Packers general manager) Ron Wolf and (former coach) Mike Holmgren had decided to take him. We beat them to get the guy. We blew that one."
The Redskins were in position for another big hit in 1994 when they had the third overall pick -- their highest ever -- and needed a quarterback. That year, there were two: Shuler and Trent Dilfer.
Casserly told reporters late in the 1993 season that he favored Dilfer, but when Casserly hired Turner, the new coach fell in love with Shuler.
Bad mistake.
Casserly went along with Turner, and while Dilfer has at least proved himself a solid performer, Shuler was a bust.
"I learned a lot on that one," Casserly said. "Basically, we let the head coach pick the quarterback. I thought Trent Dilfer was a late first-round pick, and we thought Heath was a project. We sent the coach in to evaluate him, and this was the guy he wanted. I think it was handled poorly the whole way through."
The Redskins missed again in 1995. That year, the Redskins wanted a wide receiver to go with their young quarterback. They had Ohio State wide receiver Joey Galloway rated the best at his position, but Turner favored Colorado's Michael Westbrook.
Westbrook has not been a bust, but thanks to injuries and a work ethic and attitude that sometimes frustrates his coaches, he hasn't come close to being the player the Redskins thought he would be.
"We shouldn't have taken him," Casserly said. "It's that simple. Every one of us, including myself, had rated Galloway ahead of Westbrook, including (Redskins wide receivers coach) Terry Robiskie. They were two different receivers. One guy could run (Galloway). The other guy had size (Westbrook). The thing is, Galloway had no off-the-field issues at all. He had a clean slate. Our unanimous decision was to take the clean slate, but the head coach wanted a big guy. The head coach said he went out there and interviewed him and felt there would be no issues."
Turner declined to comment on choosing Westbrook and Shuler, but in previous interviews pointed out that no one in the organization, including Casserly, attempted to talk him out of drafting either player.
The Redskins blew another first-round choice in 1996 when they used the 30th overall pick on Penn State tackle Andre Johnson. On draft day, the Redskins said he would be their starting left tackle from day one. By the time day one rolled around, they knew they had blown it.
"Bad deal," Casserly said. "I learned something on this one. We kept saying we had to get a left tackle. The year before, we'd played with Joe Patton at left tackle and had a winning record. He didn't give up a lot of sacks. We forced this guy (Johnson) up on the draft board. We fell victim to that. That's my fault. I should have been smarter. That's how we got (quarterback) Gus Frerotte and (running back) Stephen Davis (in the later rounds)."
A tireless researcher, Casserly believes he has learned more about the drafting process the longer he has worked.
"We eventually changed some things internally," he said, "and we started making much better decisions. I thought our last three or four years there, we were pretty solid. If you look at the last four years, we drafted a lot of good players. In the end, your job is to put a team on the field. The last team we put on the field went 10-6 and won a game in the playoffs. We learned some things going through it, and you can't run from your mistakes. I know that."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/fb/nfl/1373658
Casserly balances draft highs, lows
GM known for being thorough
By RICHARD JUSTICE
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
Long before the Washington Redskins made him their general manager in 1989, Charley Casserly was highly regarded in NFL circles among the personnel men and scouts who scour the country looking for talent.
As an assistant to then-Redskins general manager Bobby Beathard in 1987, Casserly needed just a few days to put together a replacement team that went unbeaten during a labor dispute.
One of the victories came over a Dallas Cowboys team loaded with veterans and was such an improbable thing it became the inspiration for The Replacements, a movie starring Keanu Reeves.
As a scout, Casserly found a pair of free-agent offensive linemen -- Joe Jacoby and Jeff Bostic -- who helped the Redskins win three Super Bowls. He also found a guy named Nate Newton, who failed to make the Redskins his rookie season, but landed with the Cowboys and became an anchor on three Super Bowl winners.
In addition, Casserly brilliantly juggled the NFL's early, limited free-agent system -- it was called Plan B -- to overhaul an aging defense and help the Redskins win Super Bowl XXVI.
But his record was decidedly more mixed during 10 years as the man in charge of the Redskins.
During that time, he drafted a total of 82 players, ranging from future Pro Bowlers to guys who didn't make it out of training camp. His smartest moves came in the middle rounds when unheralded choices such as Brian Mitchell and Stephen Davis developed into stars. Conversely, his worst choices were in the first round as Desmond Howard, Heath Shuler and others didn't come close to performing as he had hoped.
As he prepares for his first draft as general manager of the Texans, Casserly offers a blunt assessment of many of his Washington choices. He doesn't brag about his best picks, nor does he hide from his worst ones. In the end, he points to the bottom line.
In his first three full seasons on the job, 1990-92, the Redskins made three straight playoff appearances and won at least one playoff game each season, including 1991-92 when they went 17-2 and won the Super Bowl.
Casserly was fired just before the start of the 1999 season. That year, the Redskins won the NFC East and defeated Detroit in the opening round of the playoffs with 13 of Casserly's draft choices in the starting lineup. Two other starters, Pro Bowl quarterback Brad Johnson and defensive tackle Dan Wilkinson, were acquired by Casserly for draft choices.
Before he was dismissed that year, he left the franchise with two extra 2000 draft choices, which owner/general manager Dan Snyder used on two future stars, offensive tackle Chris Samuels and linebacker LaVar Arrington.
"The draft is hit and miss," Casserly said. "We had our hits. We had our misses. You can't run from your mistakes. At the end, I thought we were doing a solid job. If you look at the playoff teams from that last season, you're not going to find a lot of them with that many draft choices, plus we traded draft choices to get two guys. That's how we ended up. We got better as we went along."
What Casserly surely believes but won't say is if he'd had a better head coach during his final seasons with the Redskins, his teams would have performed better.
When Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs retired after the 1992 season, defensive guru Richie Petitbon was promoted for one season. When the Redskins went 4-12, Petitbon was fired, and Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Norv Turner was hired as head coach.
Gibbs is among the people who lavish praise on Casserly's work ethic and judgment.
"Of all the people I've been around, as far as hard work and being dedicated and being thorough, he's the best," Gibbs said. "He works his rear off. I knew every guy we'd picked had been gone over as thoroughly as he could have been. The problem with the job they have, and really with picking people in any business, is that it's hard. You're going to miss on some. But Charley is tireless. He understands coaches, and he's a good partner."
Although Turner was the NFL's hottest head coaching candidate at the time of his hiring, he never made it as a head coach. Some of the franchise's worst draft choices were Casserly taking players Turner wanted.
Turner declined to be quoted for this article, but made it clear he has a different recollection of some of the draft-day decisions. In their five seasons together, the Redskins didn't make a single playoff appearance.
Their relationship worsened the longer they were together. Had Casserly had a say in the matter, he probably would have fired Turner. But because Turner had grown close to late Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke, dismissing the coach wasn't an option.
One of Cooke's final moves before his death in 1997 was to award Turner and Casserly contract extensions, in effect, extending a bad marriage until Snyder arrived in 1999.
Snyder fired Casserly, but he eventually fired Turner, too. Later, he told Casserly that in 1999 he had "fired the wrong guy," according to sources.
Casserly's best Washington drafts came in his last years on the job. For instance, in 1997, seven of the eight players he chose are still in the NFL.
Likewise, all seven of his 1998 picks are still in the league, and his first two 1999 picks -- cornerback Champ Bailey and tackle Jon Jansen -- appear on their way to stardom.
Those drafts were significantly better than, say, the 1992 draft -- Gibbs was coaching the Redskins at the time -- in which he whiffed on all 11 picks. In 1993, he missed badly with two third-round picks.
"I think I learned something from all of those drafts," he said. "One thing I learned is that you've got to take the best player on the board and ignore your depth chart. You can't force something that's not there."
Casserly said it's important to note that some of his best deals came in trading choices for players, or vice versa.
At the end of training camp in 1990, he traded two draft choices to get a pair of starting defensive tackles, Eric Williams and Tim Johnson. Both made significant contributions on the the 1992 Super Bowl team.
He traded a 1996 first-rounder for defensive tackle Sean Gilbert, then sent Gilbert to Carolina for two No. 1s in 1998. He surrendered a 1998 No. 1 for Wilkinson.
Any assessment of his Washington years must begin with his three highest picks.
The Redskins were the defending Super Bowl champions and had two first-round picks in the 1992 draft. They discussed a dozen or so different players, but in the end, swapped both choices to get the fourth overall pick and use it on Howard, the Heisman Trophy winner from Michigan.
They believed they had trumped the NFL by sliding ahead of the Green Bay Packers, who also wanted Howard. They believed they were adding an explosive offensive player to an aging offensive team.
Gibbs pushed for Howard as much as Casserly, and with Pro Bowl quarterback Mark Rypien and wide receiver Gary Clark, the Redskins believed they had a chance to win a second straight Super Bowl. They couldn't have been more wrong. Howard did end up with a Super Bowl Most Valuable Player trophy, but only after the Redskins cut him, and the Packers made him a full-time return man.
"Hey, we were wrong," Casserly said. "We all saw him the same way. We thought he was going to be a great player. As a return man, he's one of the greatest in the history of the league. People tend to forget we made a trade to get him. We went over Green Bay. (Former Packers general manager) Ron Wolf and (former coach) Mike Holmgren had decided to take him. We beat them to get the guy. We blew that one."
The Redskins were in position for another big hit in 1994 when they had the third overall pick -- their highest ever -- and needed a quarterback. That year, there were two: Shuler and Trent Dilfer.
Casserly told reporters late in the 1993 season that he favored Dilfer, but when Casserly hired Turner, the new coach fell in love with Shuler.
Bad mistake.
Casserly went along with Turner, and while Dilfer has at least proved himself a solid performer, Shuler was a bust.
"I learned a lot on that one," Casserly said. "Basically, we let the head coach pick the quarterback. I thought Trent Dilfer was a late first-round pick, and we thought Heath was a project. We sent the coach in to evaluate him, and this was the guy he wanted. I think it was handled poorly the whole way through."
The Redskins missed again in 1995. That year, the Redskins wanted a wide receiver to go with their young quarterback. They had Ohio State wide receiver Joey Galloway rated the best at his position, but Turner favored Colorado's Michael Westbrook.
Westbrook has not been a bust, but thanks to injuries and a work ethic and attitude that sometimes frustrates his coaches, he hasn't come close to being the player the Redskins thought he would be.
"We shouldn't have taken him," Casserly said. "It's that simple. Every one of us, including myself, had rated Galloway ahead of Westbrook, including (Redskins wide receivers coach) Terry Robiskie. They were two different receivers. One guy could run (Galloway). The other guy had size (Westbrook). The thing is, Galloway had no off-the-field issues at all. He had a clean slate. Our unanimous decision was to take the clean slate, but the head coach wanted a big guy. The head coach said he went out there and interviewed him and felt there would be no issues."
Turner declined to comment on choosing Westbrook and Shuler, but in previous interviews pointed out that no one in the organization, including Casserly, attempted to talk him out of drafting either player.
The Redskins blew another first-round choice in 1996 when they used the 30th overall pick on Penn State tackle Andre Johnson. On draft day, the Redskins said he would be their starting left tackle from day one. By the time day one rolled around, they knew they had blown it.
"Bad deal," Casserly said. "I learned something on this one. We kept saying we had to get a left tackle. The year before, we'd played with Joe Patton at left tackle and had a winning record. He didn't give up a lot of sacks. We forced this guy (Johnson) up on the draft board. We fell victim to that. That's my fault. I should have been smarter. That's how we got (quarterback) Gus Frerotte and (running back) Stephen Davis (in the later rounds)."
A tireless researcher, Casserly believes he has learned more about the drafting process the longer he has worked.
"We eventually changed some things internally," he said, "and we started making much better decisions. I thought our last three or four years there, we were pretty solid. If you look at the last four years, we drafted a lot of good players. In the end, your job is to put a team on the field. The last team we put on the field went 10-6 and won a game in the playoffs. We learned some things going through it, and you can't run from your mistakes. I know that."