Tag: Bruce Allen

Trent Williams says he returned to the Redskins with the intention to play

Williams was placed on the NFI earlier this season but says in a recent interview that he came back to the team with the intention to play.

Despite the recent string of wins, and the preluding streak of losses; the firing of a head coach and the inability to score a touchdown, the Washington Redskins’ 2019 season has largely been ruled by a single storyline — the Trent Williams debacle that has played out in front of our eyes.

When it comes to Williams and his lengthy holdout that was ended over a month ago, we have facts, and we have opinions. For many, the reasoning behind all of it is in the eye of the beholder, and you can claim that he either had ill intentions when returning minutes before the NFL Trade Deadline to collect a check or that he actually ended his holdout with intentions to play football with his teammates.

In a new interview with The Washington Post, Williams says that when he returned to the team, he did so with every intention of returning to the field.

Yes, his coming back was a procedural move, to get credit for the 2019 season and keep the team from claiming it still controlled him for two more years on a contract that would otherwise expire after next season. But as long as he had returned to the team, he was going to play.

“At the end of the day I just wanted to do it for my teammates,” he says.

He passed his physical and was ready to take the field, that is until the seven-time Pro Bowler tried to put on his helmet for the first time in a long while and experienced severe discomfort stemming from a scar on his scalp that was left after a rare form of cancer was removed earlier that year — the debacle that started this whole thing in the first place. While the team was working with Williams to find a suitable helmet that didn’t irritate his surgically repaired scalp, Bruce Allen and the Redskins placed the 31-year-old on the Non-Football Injury list, ending his season and assuring that Williams would not receive payment for the year on his contract.

“It’s kind of a vindictive move, and it just showed their hand on how they wanted to operate,” Williams said. “I mean, I had until Tuesday and the new helmet Riddell was talking about was coming in on Monday, so for them to prematurely put me on the list without taking [time to see if the helmet would work] goes to show you that they didn’t really want me to play anyway.”

So the question now is about who you believe. Williams, who long said that he would never play for the Redskins again, is now proclaiming that he had every intention to suit up upon his return and take the field with his teammates. If we’re to believe his side of the story, he was never given that chance. Or you could believe Bruce Allen’s side of the story, where the 31-year-old was just returning to the team in order to cash a $5.9 million check and call it good, waiting to be traded in the offseason.

A muddled situation gets even more confusing, and the answers are left open for your interpretation.

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Report: Bruce Allen’s future is in doubt with the Washington Redskins

Team owner Dan Snyder is going to evaluate every part of the front office this offseason, and that could mean that Bruce Allen is out.

Members of the #FireBruceAllen club in Washington D.C. might be getting their wish soon.

According to the NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder is seriously evaluating Allen this season, as the Redskins have had one of the worst showings in recent memory. Garafolo says that things have reached “rock bottom” in Washington, and according to the sources he’s talked to, everything is up for evaluation this offseason.

Garafolo says that he has not spoken to Snyder directly and that he has run his reporting by several people with the organization and they refrained from commenting. However, he has spoken to several sources, and they all said the same thing — that absolutely everyone in the organization will be up for evaluation this offseason.

It may not be the perfect answer, and as long as the team is owned by Snyder, the losing ways may continue. But over the years, it’s grown apparent that Allen is not the man for the job, and the owner may finally be realizing that.

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Poll shows that Redskins have fallen from the graces of the D.C. sports fan

A new poll tells us what we’ve already known; that the Redskins have fallen from the top of the pyramid in D.C. sports fans’ favorite teams.

‘Poll’ is a word you’re sure to hear spread throughout the English lexicon for the next year as we enter another Presidential Election. However, a recent Poll in the Washington D.C. area has made some waves for sports fans, and it paints a grim picture for the Washington Redskins.

The Washington Post recently conducted a poll of 905 adults in the D.C. area,  and some of the questions centered around the sporting world. As a result, the poll showed that fans overwhelmingly thought of the Washington Nationals — who are fresh off of the first World Series victory in franchise history — are clearly the city’s favorite team.

The Redskins, who have long been the dominant team among fans in the region, has dropped significantly in the standings, with only 13 percent of people saying it is their favorite team. That number is down 21 percent since 2010. Here is how the polling shook out:

  • Nationals: 28 percent
  • Redskins: 13 percent
  • Capitals: 10 percent
  • Wizards: 8 percent
  • Mystics: 8 percent
  • D.C. United: 6 percent
  • Don’t Prefer Any Local Teams: 23 percent

According to The Post:

So the results underscore the elation that surrounded the Nationals’ postseason run but also the precipitous fall for the local football team. For years, the Redskins were the toughest ticket to get in town, dominating television ratings and water-cooler chatter.

In response to the poll, an image started circulating on Twitter that perfectly depicts the turmoil around the Redskins, and exactly how fed up the fans are.

That’s less than a cup of coffee in most places!

The poll also shows a disturbing trend that paints a bleak future for the Redskins, as younger fans look to be growing fewer and far between. According to the numbers, ‘a younger generation that didn’t experience the Redskins’ glory years has less affinity for the local football team. While the Nats have steady support among all age groups, the Redskins’ highest support is among Washingtonians 65 and older (22 percent say the Redskins are their favorite team) and that support weakens with each younger age group.’

It may be the ‘Redskins’ name, or it may be that the team has continually been the laughing stock of the NFL for the better part of a decade, but it’s resulted in empty seats and a growingly fed-up fanbase. There are a few options going forward that owner Daniel Snyder could try to make things better, but he likely will be reluctant to try the one at the top of the list.

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Bill Callahan says the Redskins are nowhere near ‘close’ to being successful

The mantra in Washington from GM Bruce Allen has been that the Redskins are ‘close’ to being successful, but Bill Callahan disagrees.

The mantra in Washington — whether it’s truthful or not — is that the Redskins are “close” to getting things going in the right direction, despite a now 1-9 start to the season and no semblance of a plan going forward. 

When asked about what “close” means to him, head coach Bill Callahan expressed some frustration and honesty in his response. 

It’s nice to hear the head coach be honest with the media and tell them that the “close” word that we’ve heard so much in the past really is not any closer than it was then. Of course, it’s still frustrating to see the Redskins try to be good at things, and fail when they should really be trying to improve young talent instead of winning games. 

But, you take what you can get, and what we got from Callahan on Sunday was honesty. The Redskins are nowhere near “close.”

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