Redskins hire Saunders as offensive coordinator

Redskins coach Joe Gibbs upgraded his offense Thursday by adding one of the brightest offensive minds to his sidelines.
Gibbs hired Chiefs offensive coordinator Al Saunders as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator, convincing him to sign a three-year contract worth more than $2 million a year. Saunders was considered the leading candidate for the Raiders head coaching job after their first set of three interviews but he had not been offered the job.
With only two head coaching opportunities left -- Oakland and Buffalo -- Saunders was fielding a lot of phone calls by teams and coaches who wanted him as their offensive coordinator. The biggest surprise was the arrival of Gibbs in Kansas City on Wednesday.
Gibbs made Saunders an offer he couldn't refuse, a deal that trumped a chance to be a head coach. After the season, Gibbs talked defensive coordinator Gregg Williams into staying instead of taking a head coaching job on an other team. Williams received a three-year, $7.8 million deal. His deal, the most lucrative ever for an assistant coach, includes a $1 million bonus if he is not named the Washington head coach when Gibbs retires.
The Redskins offense finished 11th in the league but faded toward the end of the season and during the playoffs because of a knee injury that slowed down quarterback Mark Brunell and injuries to receivers on the other side of wide receiver Santana Moss.
Saunders was a natural fit because he learned the system of Gibbs and Don Coryell in San Diego as an assistant coach from 1983 through 1985. Saunders became the Chargers head coach from 1986 through 1988, where he compiled a 17-22 record.
Since joining the Chiefs in 2001, Saunders has been running one of the NFL's hottest offenses. The Chiefs finished first in the league averaging 387 yards a game in 2005. They averaged 25.2 points a game. Under his stewardship, the unit never ranked lower than No. 5 in the NFL in total offense, and was No. 1 each of the last two seasons.
His new assignment is to spice up a Redskins offense that averaged 22.4 points a game.
The Washington offense statistically ranked 11th in 2005, a big jump over its No. 30 finish in 2004, but still was inconsistent down the stretch and especially in the playoffs.
ESPN.com senior writer Len Pasquarelli contributed to this report.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2298365

Petrino, Saunders, Hill all turn down the Raiders. Too funny.

Skins are winning the Superbowl next year. HELL YES. Now all we gotta do is get Reggie Wayne and we'll be good.

we are definetely going to make some noise next year.
Our offense will be in the top 10 to match our top 10 defense.

They need to sign a WR and do something with there QB situation. Maybe start JC or get another veteran. Brunnel has taken them as far as he could.

Just an FYI tidbit...most people outside of UT fans don't know this but Saunders help design the VOLS offense back in the 80's...I don't know if that is good or bad news for the Skins fans considering how the UT offense has been over the past few seasons. Here is an excerpt from an article.

How it began... Hot dogs have been more than something the coaches order for lunch. One of UT's passing patterns from the mid-1980s was called "Oscar Meyer."

Tennessee still uses a version of that play, but the name has been shortened to "Meyer." Former offensive coordinator Walt Harris took the play to Pittsburgh when he became head coach of the Panthers.

"We used it in our bowl game last season, but we called it 'Orange,' '' Harris said with a chuckle.

Sanders says that is one of several plays in UT's offense that is "like the great-grandson of what they ran here back in the 80s."

Fulmer traces the roots of Tennessee's current offensive system to 1982 when Al Saunders was hired to coach the quarterbacks. To be specific, Fulmer says the transition occurred the week the Vols played LSU.

"We had some injuries to some of our guys, including our tight end Kenny Jones,'' Fulmer said. "So we put in three wideouts and we ended up tying a good LSU team. That started the process of where we are today."

UT had averaged a modest 133 passing yards per game under offensive coordinator Bill Pace in 1981. Tennessee's passing yardage jumped to 186 yards per game in 1982, a 40 percent increase.

However, Saunders departed Knoxville after only one season. In 1983, Harris became UT's offensive coordinator. He called Tennessee's plays the next six seasons through 1988.

"When Al left, he would not let anyone there know the pass offense,'' Harris said. "There were some sheets with pass routes diagrammed on them in the office, but nobody knew the hows or whys.

"So the offense we ran was the offense I brought in, and what I developed along with the staff."

The basic philosophy Harris brought to UT expanded on the packages employed by Saunders, and it was patterned after the West Coast offense Bill Walsh used at Stanford.

"I learned it first when I was defensive coordinator at Cal Berkeley and I had to coach against Bill Walsh,'' Harris said. "At Tennessee we put in that style within the personnel and formations we used because of our talent."

Great pick up.

Just exactly how screwed up is this Raiders organization?uppy: .