Redskins hiring Joe Barry as defensive coordinator is a mistake

The Washington Redskins have hired San Diego Chargers linebackers coach Joe Barry as their defensive coordinator.

Barry has been a coach in the NFL since 2000, but was a defensive coordinator in just two of those seasons, both with the Detroit Lions (2007 and 2008). The 2008 Lions were the first non-expansion team to lose every game in a full season since World War II.

Thus, fans got a little anxious when this move was first reported a few weeks ago.

Not all the blame for those years can be put on Barry. After all, the team was pretty bad before his arrival. They won just three games in 2006 and allowed 2.0 points per drive that season, sixth most in the league. But the defense got way worse once Barry was put in charge. Below is a chart of the team’s defensive SRS, a rating that takes into account average point differential and strength of schedule. The rating is denominated in points above/below average, where zero is average. After a full year on the job, the Lions’ defense was four points per game worse than they were in year one.

Some would say the talent just wasn’t there.

Of course if it is Barry, the focus will be on his two years as Lions DC. Abysmal D. talked 2 some there who said talent was horrible

As @john_keim just said, Barry's abysmal tenure as Lions D.C. will be focal point. But that 2008 Detroit team was just all around bad.

That’s true, but part of the coordinator’s job is to improve the squad, and just two players who were there for both of Barry’s seasons improved: Alex Lewis and Anthony Cannon.

And among players whose first year in Detroit was 2008, just two were rated positively by the game charters at Pro Football Focus.

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So not only did Barry make a bad defense worse, he wasn’t able to get things going with the new players that arrived in his second year.

Now fast forward to Washington’s 2014 season, where the defense was 5.1 points per game worse than average and just four players were rated positively by Pro Football Focus (minimum 100 snaps): Ryan Kerrigan, Jason Hatcher, Brian Orakpo and Trent Murphy. Three of those players are linebackers, which means that the rest of the defense that needs serious improvement will be out of what could be considered Barry’s area of expertise.

In other words: don’t expect things to get better anytime soon with Barry as Washington’s defensive coordinator.

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