Insanity, they say, is doing the same thing over and over, year after year, and expecting a different result. And, for the totality of Dan Snyder’s tenure as owner of the Redskins, they had been in some respect, an insanely run organization.
Snyder continued to adhere to an organizational flow chart devoid of true checks and balances, without a real personnel man in charge of that side of the ball and true divisions between coaching, personnel and ownership. Finally, perhaps, that is changing. Snyder might just be seeing the big picture after all this time.
A few weeks after then general manager Bruce Allen delivered one of the most bizarre press conference performances I can ever recall to end a season, one in which he seemingly had no clue as to how deep Washington’s malaise was, seemed utterly out of touch with his fanbase and was completely overwhelmed by a cogent media corps, and infamously gushed about how the team was “winning off the field,” comes word that the Skins have completed negotiations with esteemed personnel man Scot McCloughan to take over as the general manager.
He will have full autonomy over the roster, I am told, reporting to Snyder directly for the most part (and to Allen, who remains as team president overseeing the business operations and budgets, in some instances). He has control of the roster. McCloughan’s hiring will become official with a press conference that I’m told will take place by Friday.
McCloughan is moving to Virginia, he is throwing himself into this demanding job and he will be overseeing the team’s pursuits in free agency and the draft. It’s a bold and long, long overdue first step to getting out of the organizational dark ages and maybe charting a course to eventually become a team with a cohesive roster, a long-term plan and the ability to be competitive on at least a quasi-regular basis. Of course, concerns will linger about how much Snyder will meddle and whether Allen will butt out and not act as an in-house mole, and McCloughan must manage his demons and not let his issues with alcohol derail what could be a life-changing career opportunity. And few will believe Snyder is completely divested of meddling in football operations until they see it with their own eyes.
But we must applaud the attempt. There really is nowhere to go but up.
McCloughan’s eye for talent, his ability to mold a roster and utilize latter rounds of the draft and the waiver wire to great impact are precisely what the Skins need, especially now finally out from under the specter of the Robert Griffin III trade with the Rams and with a full complement of picks. Assuming Snyder opens the coffers some -- not to set the market on top free agents but to be willing to overpay some middle-of-the-road competent starters who will require more money to pry them away from winning programs -- and salary cap guru Eric Schaffer continues to ably mind that side of things, there is reason for optimism in Washington.
McCloughan deserves considerable accolades for crafting the roster that Jim Harbaugh coached to three straight NFC Championship Games after years of futility in San Francisco. He then was the trusted confidant for Seattle’s rising star general manager John Schneider as he helped put together a Super Bowl winning roster there. His off-field issues, for sure, played a role in his eventual departure from those two locales, and he had found a rewarding existence in the aftermath being close to his children and starting a scouting service. Still, Washington, Oakland and the Jets all had interest in having him help come salvage their front offices -- in varying degrees of disrepair -- and a football life is McCloughan’s calling.
Ultimately, had he continued to remain on that path, out of the limelight, watching film in anonymity and letting his evaluations speak for themselves, I would not have been surprised. At all. But he spent considerable time assessing his options with family and confidants and his agent, Peter Schaffer, before deciding that after taking off from the rat race following his departure from Seattle he was ready to make this commitment. Schaffer and Allen crafted the deal -- the men share a strong relationship -- with Skins officials stressing they were looking for the best personnel man possible, and not a “yes” man and not a flunkie. This is a new era.
There is a special allure to the league and a degree of competitiveness that can only be exercised on Sundays. Winning and losing. Massaging the bottom of the roster, trying to find riches in someone else’s junk drawer, creating a culture of winners. And in the end, that carried the day.
This is, without a doubt, a significant challenge. No one has succeeded here, at all. Not close. Not Joe Gibbs. Not Mike Shanahan. No one. Seeing this through and actually building a winner in Washington would make him nothing short of a rock star in this part of the country. It won’t be easy and as this team begins to succeed -- assuming it does -- there will be plenty of jealousy and perhaps infighting, and you never know how long Snyder can remain committed to cohesiveness and incremental gains and a slow and steady rise (he seems to revel in the quick peaks that always are a precursor to the epic fail).
Only time will tell. Maybe, just maybe, McCloughan is catching Snyder at is lowest point, more vulnerable than ever, truly on wounded knee, willing to win on someone else’s terms rather than continue losing on his. The mere possibility, for long-suffering Skins fans, is almost too tantalizing to conceive of. McCloughan has already captured their hearts and minds, and much better days might be just ahead.
