Tag: Dan Snyder

Report: Bruce Allen to be relieved of football operation duties on Monday

The Redskins could choose to limit Bruce Allen in his reach soon, taking away his ability to make roster decisions in Washington.

A new report has surfaced within Washington that the Redskins team president Bruce Allen will be relieved of his football operations duties within a few days.

According to NBC Sports Washington’s JP Finlay, multiple sources have informed him that Allen will likely have a number of decision-making duties taken away from him on Monday, following the Redskins final game of the season against the Dallas Cowboys.

As the team president, Allen’s role expands beyond just football operations duties, but this reported shift will make it so that he is no longer in charge of roster decisions that affect the product on the field.

This is a developing story as Allen’s role within the organization runs beyond just football and it’s unclear what other changes will happen but the immediate news is that after a decade in charge of the Redskins on the field Allen will no longer serve that role.

Should owner Dan Snyder and the Redskins choose to limit Allen’s role, or get rid of him altogether, a number of other changes might be on the horizon, as the team also looks to fill the void at the head coaching position.

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What’s Dan Snyder plotting for Redskins?

What’s next?

Mystery surrounds the Washington Redskins regardless of what happens during the team’s season-closing contest against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 17.

Interim head coach Bill Callahan doesn’t figure to be the long-term option as head coach and a whole host of options seem readily available depending on what team owner Dan Snyder wants to do.

Does he bring on someone like Urban Meyer? Bring on a veteran like Marvin Lewis? What about promoting from within with offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell?

All outsiders do know is Snyder has been hard at work considering changes and what direction to take the franchise. MMQB’s Albert Breer noted a report also echoed by JP Finlay:

Not involving someone like Bruce Allen in these proceedings would seem to indicate a change will happen there too and it provides some reassurance that outsiders are at least getting to throw out their ideas.

Fans will find out what the first step of the process is Monday at what should be an interesting season-ending press conference.

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Redskins player agrees with Dan Snyder’s involvement in Dwayne Haskins’ injury decision

One Redskins player thinks Snyder was in the right by encouraging Haskins to sit for the rest of the game on a bum ankle.

There are some feelings in the Washington Redskins’ fanbase that team owner Dan Snyder might have overstepped his bounds by encouraging rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins to listen to trainers and sit out for the rest of the game after suffering a high-ankle sprain in the third quarter.

Some people think that Snyder was being too ‘hands-on,’ though the situation was a bit muddled at first after Haskins said post-game that the owner told him not to go back in. A bit later, it was cleared up on social media that Snyder rather encouraged Haskins to listen to the trainers, who were saying the rookie was done for the day.

Regardless of what the fanbase thinks, there are some players in the locker room that don’t think Snyder was out of pocket, and he was well within his rights as owner of the team to try and protect his assets.

“I mean, Haskins is the guy. He’s the guy of the future,” running back Chris Thompson said, via NBC Sports Washington. “So it would make sense to me for [Snyder] to go down and talk to him and tell him to be smart. That’s the biggest thing. He’s a competitive guy, so he’s going to try and go back out there in the game, of course. That’s the smart thing to do right now, in my opinion, is to sit back and chill.”

Thompson later detailed his time sitting next to Haskins on the sideline, where the rookie was lobbying to get back into the game. If we’ve seen anything so far, Haskins is hard-pressed to let anything keep him out of competition, and it takes a lot to keep him away from the action. This time, it took the owner of the team to tell him to be smart, and it was the right decision all around.

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Redskins owner Dan Snyder encouraged Dwayne Haskins not to return to game after injury

After Haskins left the game with an ankle injury, a report has surfaced that Dan Snyder encouraged him not to come back into the game.

After rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins was carted to the locker room early in the third quarter of the Washington Redskins’ game against the New York Giants on Sunday, it appears that he was encouraged not to return to the game.

Haskins, who walked back onto the field with his helmet in hand after getting his ankle checked out, was told to listen to the medical trainer’s advice and not return to the game, according to NBC Sports JP Finlay. 

“A Redskins spokesperson said that owner Dan Snyder told Dwayne Haskins to listen to the medical advice from Dr. Robin West and her advice was Haskins should not go back in,” Finlay said on Twitter.

Haskins sat out the rest of the game, and backup QB Case Keenum was able to lead the team on a 14-point comeback, sending the game to overtime where they eventually lost 41-35.

Haskins dealt with an ankle injury in weeks past but refused to let it sideline him. However, when the owner of the team tells you to rest and look towards the future, you’d probably better listen.

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The Redskins’ foundation is quite literally dysfunctional and deteriorating

The Redskins’ struggles on the field are well-known, but a new report details dysfunction all the way down to the core.

December football is largely equated with playoff runs and nail-biter games that have a chance to swing the postseason while several upper-echelon teams duke it out on their hopeful road to the Super Bowl.

However, that viewpoint disregards approximately half of the teams in the league, many of which are left struggling at the bottom, waking up every morning to a note on their bedside table that reads ‘There’s always next year.’

While the NFL’s array of fanbases are divided at this time of year — some with hopes for January and the playoffs; others with dreams of April and the NFL Draft — a reporter from ESPN took a trip to Dumpsville and profiled some of the most incompetent teams in the league. What he found was disturbing.

What David Fleming witnessed in Washington had little to do with the Redskins, but more the environment they inhabited. The scene-setting graf panned away from rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins to detail the vibe of a cluttered garage out of the show ‘Hoarders.’

Just out of frame to the left are boxes of sports drinks stacked halfway up the wall, next to a row of steel dead-lift bars, burgundy laundry carts, random piles of electronic equipment and postal boxes. To the right is a blue floor-cleaning machine the size of a pony parked between red metal dollies, another tangle of electric cords and several restaurant-size soda canisters.

The piece goes on to question what Haskins may think of his surroundings, after having spent time in the state-of-the-art facilities at Ohio State before seeing his dream of playing the NFL realized, only to walk through the front doors and see a locker room that likely closer-resembles the one he occupied in high school, rather than college.

The dysfunction in Washington has never been a secret, but at least before getting a mental image of the facilities, fans could trick themselves into believing that it was an on-field issue, and not a brick-and-mortar issue.

Through all of this, though, we found ourselves asking one question: Does any of this come as a surprise?

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Redskins can double their cap-space and attract coaches with a few simple moves

There’s a way that the Redskins can become a contender in the NFC East as soon as 2020, and all it takes is ridding the roster of some aging and expensive talent.

After it was announced this month that the NFL’s 2020 Salary Cap was likely to increase to somewhere between $196 and $201 million next season, it probably caused many fans of the Washington Redskins to do some research and find that the team will have approximately $48 million of cap space this coming offseason.

However, there are several moves that could make that number grow even higher for the Redskins, and that increased flexibility might behoove them in other areas this offseason, as they look to find an elite coaching candidate to fill their vacancy at the top stop.

According to NBC Sports JP Finlay, if Washington were to make these five roster moves this offseason, it could potentially clear up $50 million in extra cap-space, giving the Redskins more than $90 million to work with. As it stands now, that would be the third-most in the NFL. Here’s what Washington would need to do:

  • Cut CB Josh Norman | Saves $12.5 million in 2020
  • Cut WR Paul Richardson | Saves $6.5 million in 2020
  • Cut or reach an injury settlement with TE Jordan Reed | Saves $8.5 million in 2020
  • Trade LB Ryan Kerrigan | Saves $11.7 million in 2020
  • Trade LT Trent Williams | Saves $12.75 million in 2020

All of those roster decisions seem highly possible, and any logical franchise would likely pull the trigger instantly. However….well, I don’t need to say it.

Not only would this freed-up cap-space allow the Redskins to be highly active in free agency, but the added flexibility could be a huge selling point for any coaching candidate who may be wary of stepping into a difficult position in Washington. As it stands now, the Redskins have a stubborn owner, an incompetent general manager, and a whole host of players who are either injured or refusing to play taking up more than half of their cap space. You’d have to be a fool to willingly take on that job.

However, with a few of the moves we mentioned earlier, the Redskins could rid their roster of aging and expensive talent, spend on committed players who are in their prime and surround their talented young core with playmakers who are coming into their own. You pair that with the right coach, and suddenly you have a contender in the NFC East on your hands.

All of this can be done with a few roster decisions and a commitment to the future. Any logical franchise would do it…

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Searching for the logic in Bruce Allen’s continued employment with the Redskins

All signs point towards an expected dismissal of team president Bruce Allen, but Daniel Snyder has refused to pull the trigger as of yet.

Many fans of the Washington Redskins are probably scrolling through their newsfeed today and reading about the Jacksonville Jaguars’ firing of Tom Coughlin — the team’s top executive — with envy, and a hint of resentment.

It’s THAT easy to rid of a front office decision-maker? All you have to do is recognize that the team didn’t improve under his watch and has failed to build a solid foundation for the future, and then you can just fire him? Why haven’t we done that?

Why is Bruce Allen still employed by the Redskins?!

The answer is unclear. After 10 years in Washington, with a 62-98-1 regular-season record, Bruce Allen is still the Team President of the Redskins. Why has owner Daniel Snyder not moved on from him yet? The team is in disarray, the fanbase is dwindling, ticket-sales are plummeting, and a new head coach needs to be hired this offseason — one who is unlikely to take the job should Allen remain, unless they are desperate to get back into the coaching game. What’s the rationale there?

This may seem like an abundance of questions right off the top, but when you don’t have any answers, all you can do is keep asking questions until something starts to make sense. So far, we’re still searching for the logic in all of this.

In 2009, Snyder fired front office leader Vinny Cerrato, who had failed to right the ship in Washington and had caused multitudes of unrest in the fan base. Sound familiar? With just a couple of weeks left in the regular season, Allen was dubbed the savior of the Redskins, and the fanbase rejoiced. Many were optimistic at the prospect of a new general manager coming in and repairing the locker room while focussing on the roster talent in a much-needed way.

Deja Vu? If I were to take the last paragraph and make slight edits to the date and the name, it could easily be pasted into an article that might come out in a few weeks, should Snyder decide to give Allen the ax. Look at this quote that The Athletic‘s Ben Standig dug up from SB Nation on the day that Cerrato was fired, and tell me it doesn’t sound familiar.

“Redskins fans across the country are waking up to the greatest news they could’ve possible (sic) heard about their disappointing team: VP Vinny Cerrato, the man in charge of making the horrid personnel decisions for the franchise, has resigned. For many Skins fans… the dismissal of Cerrato was the only good that could’ve come from this season. Now that it’s really happening, it makes the 3-win year feel like a winning season.”

This isn’t a new spot for the Washington Redskins to be in, they’ve had to make this type of decision before. But for some reason, this time around, Snyder seems reluctant to pull the trigger, and both Allen and the fanbase as a whole are waiting with bated breath.

Will it happen before the regular season ends, or the 2020 season begins? Who knows, we don’t have the answers; we’re still searching for the logic in all of this, and coming up short.

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Report: Bruce Allen ‘in exile’ from Dan Snyder, Redskins

Allen has rarely been seen with the owner in the past few weeks, and some believe it points toward an upcoming exit for the team president.

Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of speculation in Washington that Dan Snyder, the owner of the Redskins, could finally consider moving on from Bruce Allen, the team president and general manager who has overseen roster moves for a decade now.

According to a report from The Washington Post‘s Les Carpenter, that speculation is starting to take shape inside the Redskins’ facilities, as it’s grown more apparent over the last week that Snyder could be preparing for Allen’s exit. Whereas the two were once described to be “connected at the hip,” it seems that some distance has grown between the two.

Here is what Carpenter had to say:

But in recent weeks, they have not been spotted together nearly as much. Snyder no longer goes onto the field before games, leaving Allen to stand alone on the sideline. The fact that Allen was not in the suite with Snyder and Smith on Sunday only fueled speculation that Allen will soon be out as the team’s president.

“Bruce not being [in the postgame suite] is a big thing,” one person who knows Snyder’s and Allen’s habits said, later adding it’s a sign that “Bruce is in exile.”

The report came out after Snyder left his owner’s suite with injured quarterback Alex Smith hours after the loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Washington’s 11th defeat of the season. The hours-long meeting that Snyder had with Smith is usually the type of contact he would have with Allen, back when they were on better terms.

According to Carpenter’s source, Snyder has not made any decisions about Allen as of yet, but he is planning to take a close look at the personnel at the top of the franchise once the season comes to a close.

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There’s one serious issue with the rumors surrounding the Washington Redskins

Rumors in Washington are aplenty when it comes to GM’s and coaching candidates, but many of the floated possibilities contradict each other.

Many rumors have swirled around the Washington Redskins organization in the past couple of weeks, a majority of which have to do with a major upheaval in the team and its ownership group.

Team President Bruce Allen is rumored to be out of a job soon, and multiple candidates have been “floated” for the head coaching position in Washington, like Kansas City Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy, Stanford’s David Shaw, or most recently, Urban Meyer, the former coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes.

While it is nice to daydream about future coaching or managerial changes for many Redskins who are experiencing yet another disappointing year from their favorite team, The Athletic‘s Ben Standig points out that there’s one major problem with all of these rumors that are everpresent in Redskins’ circles: They can’t both be true at the same time.

If the organization is eyeing certain individuals, then Allen is part of the evaluation process since his role involves making such hires. Therefore he’s either staying, or none of these rumors hold weight considering Allen’s replacement, if given freedom of thought, would offer suggestions.

As the president and GM of the team, obviously, Allen’s words would carry some weight with the organization when it comes to major coaching decisions. So the rumors around the team give us two options that we can believe: these candidates that have been floated are actually true, and the Redskins are pursuing them, but that means Allen is likely staying on. Or Allen is on his way out, but the rumored coaches that he is interested in hold no weight.

Standig brings up a scenario where it’s possible that team owner Dan Snyder is the one floating these potential coaching interests, but that seems highly unlikely, as if he were to believe that Allen is on his way out, it would make very little sense to target a coach before hiring a general manager.

So which rumors, in particular, are true if any? That’s impossible to say at this point because it is all based on who you believe. Until something concrete happens with the program, it’s going to be more ‘he said, she said’ in Washington, which is usually fun for water cooler talk, but not typically a great way to run an NFL franchise.

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What’s one overarching reason for the Redskins struggles in 2019?

If you took all of Washington’s problems this year and boil them down to one thing, the inability to play up to expectations is the culprit.

While they sit with a 3-10 record and have been officially eliminated from the playoffs, the Washington Redskins are coming in danger of matching their lowest win total in 25 years. Looking back on the last year, where did it all go wrong?

Sure, a coach was fired after Week 5, and a rookie quarterback has been subjected to some bumps and bruises as he starts to gain his footing in the NFL landscape. Still, those two factors can’t be solely responsible for the incompetence that is the 2019 season for the Redskins. However, there is one reason that is currently the leader in the clubhouse for ‘Things That Went Wrong in 2019’ and it’s just so appalling that quite possibly zero NFL teams would be able to overcome it:

The players who are paid top-dollar on the team have looked like anything but top-dollar players.

Of the eight most expensive contracts on the team, six of those players have either been benched due to lack of production (Josh Norman — $75 million); been lost due to injury (Alex Smith — $94 million); or refused to play for the team (Trent Williams — $68 million). Check out this breakdown of the top eight contracts in Washington, and see if you can spot the two players who have arguable played up to their wages.

  • Alex Smith — $94 Million
  • Landon Collins — $84 Million
  • Josh Norman — $75 Million
  • Trent Williams — $68 Million
  • Ryan Kerrigan — $57.5 Million
  • Jordan Reed — $46.75 Million
  • Paul Richardson — $40 Million
  • Morgan Moses — $38.5 Million

Of those eight players, you can really only say that Collins has lived up to the billing, and even then it’s tough to say that his play has been worth every penny of that $84 million contract he signed this offseason. Kerrigan has also played decently this season, but it is nowhere near the level of production that Washington expected when making him one of the 15 highest-paid edge rushers in the NFL — he currently ranks as the 74th best edge-rusher in the league, according to PFF, and his recent move to the injured reserve adds injury to insult.

“The guys who you have big money invested in, those guys have got to be key contributors,” former Redskins salary cap analyst J.I. Halsell said, via The Washington Post. “And when they’re not and if there’s a bunch of them, there’s a threshold where it becomes insurmountable and you just can’t navigate it.”

Many Redskins fans are quick to blame the ineptitude in Washington on the front office and coaching, and there is a lot of truth in doing so. Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen put this team together, and they should be held responsible for the roster that takes the field each Sunday during the season. However, any roster decision can look good on paper, but it’s all for not if the player doesn’t pan out on the field.

So what do you get when a historically inept front office puts together a roster, and those players don’t live up to the billing? You get the Washington Redskins, and it’s not a pretty sight.

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