The Washington Redskins had one of the worst defenses in the league in 2013. The 29.9 points per game they allowed was tied for 30th in the league. The two years prior were not much better, as the Skins finished in the bottom 10 in the league in 2011 and 2012. DeAngelo Hall believes Mike Shanahan was part of the problem.
During an interview with ESPN 980’s “Inside the Locker Room” on Wednesday, Hall claimed that Shanahan — who is known as an offensive-minded coach — kept defensive coordinator Jim Haslett from doing his job by “micromanaging” him at times.
“Defensively man, I just feel like we played so bad last year, we’ve got some unfinished business to definitely take care of,” Hall said, as transcribed by DC Sports Bog. “I’m excited after talking to Haslett about the possibility of him being able to just run his defense without anybody in his ear telling him what to call or what not to call. So I’m really excited to see Haz unleash his full arsenal of play calls.”
When one of the hosts mentioned that Haslett could have been better if given more freedom, Hall had no problem calling Shanahan out by name.
“I mean, (Haslett has) been in this league for so long for a reason,” he said. “It’s not because he’s the best-looking guy; it’s because he can call plays and have a great defense. No disrespect to Mike Shanahan, he’s a great coach, but he liked to micromanage things. He kind of liked his hands on everything.
“Jay [Gruden’s] kind of like, ‘Look, I’m gonna let Haz kind of do his thing. Obviously if I see something that I feel like as an offense we can stop or we can’t stop, I’ll definitely let him know, give him a heads-up on some things to help us get better as team. But Haz is going to get to do what he does.'”
Hall added that he was also held back as a player by being told to play his position a certain way. Bottom line? It’s easy to blame Shanahan for the team’s struggles now that he is gone. If Washington’s defense stinks again in 2014, we’ll know he wasn’t the only issue.
