Thought I would break out of the Wallpaper Wednesday mould and do something different – and recognize a coach instead of a player. Well in this case, a coach who is a former player – Greg Manusky. The Redskins defensive coordinator took over the reigns from Joe Barry in the offseason, after serving as the outside linebackers coach the year before.
The Redskins defense has had an up and down season – how much of that is on Manusky is open to individual interpretation.
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It would seem irresponsible to completely ignore the large amount of injuries that the Redskins have been expected to overcome. On defense, Manusky has lost a nose tackle (Phil Taylor), a defensive lineman (Jonathan Allen), three starting linebackers (Trent Murphy, Mason Foster and Will Compton), and safety Su’a Cravens. That’s without even addressing the issues that the secondary has faced injury wise since week three.
So it’s been tough sledding for Manusky in his first year as the defensive coordinator, but I think time will prove him to be a worthy candidate for the job.
Manusky was a linebacker and special teams standout for the Redskins from 1988 to 1990. He carved out a 12-year NFL playing career that also included stays in Minnesota and Kansas City. He played a stretch of 113 consecutive games and retired from the NFL in 2000.
In 2001, he joined the Redskins as the linebackers coach under Coach Marty Schottenheimer. In 2002, he took over the same position for the San Diego Chargers when Schottenheimer was fired in D.C. and took the head coaching job in San Diego. Manusky coached the linebackers until 2006 before moving on to the San Francisco 49ers as the defensive coordinator under head coach Mike Nolan in 2007. Manusky was the defensive coordinator for the 49ers for four seasons, before heading to San Diego as the DC in 2011. After just one season in San Diego, he joined the Colts in 2012 as defensive coordinator and spent the next four seasons there. In 2016, he returned to the Redskins, again as the linebackers coach.