Washington has not attracted a general manager type since Scot McCloughan in 2015.
Then, the franchise aired McCloughan’s dirty laundry and got rid of him. It was the final straw across the league. Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen would not be able to hire those in high demand.
Following Joe Gibbs’ retirement after the 2007 season, Snyder couldn’t get any candidate to take the job. The previous owner had already gone out and foolishly hired Jim Zorn as his offensive coordinator on Jan. 26, 2008. This meant whoever would be the head coach could not hire his own coordinator. What was Snyder thinking?!
After a couple of weeks of rejections and making no progress, the former owner gave up and proceeded on Feb. 9 to promote Zorn (who had never been an NFL coordinator) to be the Redskins head coach.
One foolish move by the former owner was followed by another foolish move by the former owner.
When the former owner fired Jay Gruden, he hired Ron Rivera, who, while with the Carolina Panthers, had actually only achieved three winning seasons. Yet, one of them brought an NFC Championship. The former owner hired Rivera to be not only his coach but his head of player personnel as well.
“Coach-centric” became the oft-used term in Washington.
Was anyone else going to hire Rivera and give him complete control? Even later, the last two seasons witnessed Rivera offering far more for Carson Wentz than anyone else. Then, he not only hired Eric Bieniemy but also handed over the offense to him and gave him the role of Assistant Head Coach. All while, Bieniemy had no one else pursuing his services.
Ah, it is a new era in Washington with the current owner, Josh Harris. The franchise received all sorts of applicants for the general manager job and was also able to hire the guy they wanted, Adam Peters.
Next week, Peters, Harris and his advisors group will embark on hiring the next Washington Commanders head coach.
Things are trending upward, as the franchise will have several top head coaching candidates hoping to be hired by Washington.
There is an old saying, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”
Josh Harris and his leadership group have suddenly transformed the perception around the league of what it means to work for the Washington Commanders.