The Redskins' New Sheriff

Saunders Jumps Into Uncharted Waters With Unbridled Enthusiasm

Fifty-nine-year-old Al Saunders is now the man in charge of the mix on offense. (Gerald Herbert - AP)

During the Washington Redskins' minicamp last month, change could be measured in heart rate and decibels. Reserve tailback Ladell Betts broke through a crease on the right side and raced free. Defensive teammates Sean Taylor and Pierson Prioleau tailed off, conserving energy while preparing for the next mundane repetition.

As Betts dashed near the sideline, he was joined suddenly in full sprint by 59-year-old Al Saunders, the Redskins' new associate head coach in charge of the offense. Saunders ran with Betts, his voice booming.

"That's right! We don't stop running hard until you cross that goal line! That's Redskin football! We don't stop! Way to finish! Good job, Ladell!"

Redskins defensive end Renaldo Wynn looked on and said after practice that day: "There are a lot of coaches who tear you down to build you up. Al builds you up to build you up higher."

The Redskins open training camp Monday on what they hope will be an upward trajectory after last season's playoff run. Big names, like LaVar Arrington and Patrick Ramsey, are gone. Big-time free agents have arrived.

And Saunders is now the man in charge of the mix on offense, the one who must find a way to make sure everyone gets the ball, the one who will help second-year quarterback Jason Campbell become either a star or a costly mistake.

Most important, though, it is through Saunders that Coach Joe Gibbs will complete his transition from offensive guru to game-day CEO, high on oversight, low on play-by-play masterminding. Gregg Williams has enjoyed autonomy running the defense since 2004, but for the first time in team history, the primary offensive footprint of a Redskins team coached by Joe Gibbs will not belong to Joe Gibbs.

The 65-year-old Hall of Fame coach sought this transfer of authority since late last season. There was a meeting Jan. 17 at the home of Al and Karen Saunders in Leawood, Kan., a rendezvous so clandestine that Saunders's silence was a condition of the meeting. Gibbs, who had not told his coaches he wanted to hire Saunders for nearly a month, had asked the Kansas City Chiefs for permission to speak to Saunders before the Redskins' first playoff game, according to sources.

Saunders, the Chiefs' offensive coordinator for five seasons, had been among those mentioned for one of numerous head coaching vacancies in the NFL as the regular season ended. But two weeks into January, the door was closing fast, as openings were being filled by other candidates.

For eight hours, Gibbs and Saunders traded offensive philosophies, and Saunders later agreed to a three-year, $6 million contract that multiple sources said was more than what he might have commanded as a head coach.

Gibbs got his man, but equally intriguing is why a coach as qualified as Saunders was available to the Redskins. How he emerged without a head coaching position from the biggest coaching market in 15 years -- one that concluded with novice candidates receiving jobs -- is not just a study in the fragile nature of relationships in professional sports, but of old-school networking, a reminder that in the tightly interconnected world of the NFL, acumen alone is rarely the final determinant.

It is a story that ended on a hot June day when the dominant voice of a Redskins practice was not that of the cool, reserved Gibbs, but of Saunders, sprinting energetically after a 26-year-old tailback young enough to be his son.