Tag: Rob Rogers

Commanders announce several moves, including promotions

Doug Williams has a new role, too.

It’s been a busy offseason for the Washington Commanders. It all began on Jan. 8, when owner Josh Harris fired head coach Ron Rivera. Within a week, Harris hired general manager Adam Peters to start a new era.

Next came the hiring of head coach Dan Quinn, who hired an impressive coaching staff. Peters essentially left the front office intact, except for hiring Lance Newmark away from the Detroit Lions as his new assistant general manager.

The lack of front-office movement was no surprise, considering every NFL team was in the middle of draft preparation. Scouts and executives usually have contracts that run through the NFL draft, meaning that type of movement is reserved for after the draft.

Once the draft ended and the calendar turned to May, Peters began making moves to shape the front office in his vision. Several former executives and scouts were allowed to depart, and Peters replaced them with qualified and respected candidates from across the NFL.

On Tuesday, the most newsworthy item was Washington and vice president of football strategy Eugene Shen parting ways. Shen was hired in October to lead Washington’s analytics program under Harris. However, Peters hired Brandon Sosna away from Detroit last month as the new senior vice president of football operations. Sosna will lead the analytics department.

The Commanders and Shen parted on amicable terms and it appears as if he could be moving into another role for Harris Blitzer Sports Entertainment.

Several in the organization received promotions, including Sean DeBarbieri to vice president of football communications. Rob Rogers, who was Washington’s chief contract negotiator, goes from senior vice president of football administration to VP of football administration. Rogers will likely report to Sosna and, of course, Peters.

Also, team legend Doug Williams, who has held several different roles in the organization since his return to the front office in 2014, is now a senior advisor to Peters and not team president Jason Wright. Peters mentioned Williams specifically after the draft

Under former coach Ron Rivera, Williams was removed from the personnel department in 2020, a move Peters reversed.

Here’s a look at the new moves the Commanders announced on Tuesday.

Washington Commanders

Who will remain with the Commanders in their football operations?

Adam Peters has a lot of decisions to make regarding the current front office. Who remains?

Adam Peters being hired Friday by owner Josh Harris, takes on the responsibility to structure the front office of the football operations.

The second major concern for Peters (behind his hiring a head coach) will be those in the front office personnel. Of those currently present, whom will Peters retain and whom will he not keep, only one is a certainty. Eugene Shen (Senior VP of Football Strategy), recently hired by Harris, will remain.

Thus, the future is uncertain for Jason Wright (Team President), Martin Mayhew (General Manager), Marty Hurney (Vice President of Player Personnel), and Rob Rogers (Senior Vice President of Football Administration).

Doug Williams is certainly a question mark. Williams, during the Bruce Allen administration, possessed a couple of titles, yet even Williams talked of how he was not even involved in something as major as the 2018 trade that brought quarterback Alex Smith to Washington.

Williams was given a vague title of a personnel executive, which was the first red flag. Then Williams, in 2017, was promoted to the position of Senior Vice President of Player Personnel. But again Williams often provided vague answers when before the press, which sometimes were more revealing than informative.

When Ron Rivera became the coach-centric administrator of football operations, Williams was moved out of player personnel entirely into player development. After one season, he then became a “senior advisor to Jason Wright.”

The entire player personnel department might be in question. 11 scouts and a player personnel assistant are currently employed, while the department is headed by Eric Stokes (Senior Director of Player Personnel), Chris Polian (Director of Pro Personnel) and Tim Gribble (Director of College Personnel).

Matt Ioannidis’ agent is not happy with Washington

Washington released Matt Ioannidis Wednesday after telling his agent at the NFL combine he was in the team’s plans.

Defensive tackle Matt Ioannidis had been with the Washington Commanders since being drafted in the fifth round of the 2016 NFL draft. Ioannidis’ time in Washington ended Wednesday when the team released him, along with guard Ereck Flowers in a pair of surprising cuts.

While the release of Flowers was a big surprise, considering Washington lost Brandon Scherff to free agency. Flowers, 27, played well in his return to Washington last season and was scheduled to count almost $10 million against the 2022 salary cap. However, Flowers seemed more of a candidate for an extension rather than an outright release.

The release of Ioannidis wasn’t a total shock, as we’d discussed him as a possible cut when discussing ways the Commanders could create more cap room. However, the timing was curious. Why release Ioannidis just hours before the new NFL league year? Why not release him before, allowing him a better chance at finding a new team before the start of free agency?

Ioannidis’ agent, Alan Herman, and fellow agent Jared Fox said they met with Washington senior vice president of football administration Rob Rogers at the NFL combine and asked if Ioannidis was in the team’s plans for 2022. Herman insisted Rogers told him Ioannidis was indeed in Washington’s plans.

He wasn’t happy. Here is his full response, per Stephen Whyno of The Associated Press:

They looked us straight in the eye, Rob Rogers, and Rob basically said to Jared and myself: ‘Absolutely not. We have no thoughts of releasing Matt Ioannidis.’ We don’t particularly care to be lied to to our face. I don’t like when someone lies to my face. They took him out of the free-agent market now for two days. That puts us now at a disadvantage because other teams have paid other defensive linemen contracts, and (Ioannidis) hasn’t been able to take advantage of that. That’s not the way you conduct business in the National Football League.

It’s an understandable point of view from Ioannidis’ representatives. There are multiple reasons as to why Washington should’ve made this move before Wednesday. Yes, things change, but the Commanders should have known this was a possibility as soon as they traded for quarterback Carson Wentz.

Still, this is not a good look for Washington.

Breaking down the Redskins power dynamic heading into 2020

With Bruce Allen out of the picture, the pyramid of power has shifted greatly in Washington, with Ron Rivera calling the shots.

Incremental change is what the Washington Redskins needed after a fourth-consecutive season without a playoff berth, and incremental change is what they got.

Bruce Allen is gone. Ron Rivera is in. Larry Hess is gone. Ryan Vermillion and Larry Wilk are in. Eric Schaffer is gone. Doug Williams is in a new role. Any which way you look at it, the power dynamic in Washington has changed, and according to NBC Sports Washington, this is now how it looks.

Dan Snyder — Team Owner
Aug 29, 2019; Landover, MD, USA; Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder on the field before the game against the Baltimore Ravens at FedExField. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Of course, as the owner of the team, Snyder remains at the top of the power pyramid. Though he may endlessly say that head coach Ron Rivera is the only voice that matters in the organization, it is still his final stamp of approval that is needed on every major decision that happens. As long as Snyder is the owner of the team, it will be his word that goes.

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