http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/03/10/washington-redskins-scot-mccloughan-nfl-free-agency
There’s Another Mess in D.C.
The Redskins have spent much of this century redefining dysfunction, and now they’re at it again. Here’s a look at the firing of Scot McCloughan
by Albert Breer
Photo: Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post via Getty Images
The first day of the 2017 league year started with news on the fortunes of big-name players breaking left and right.
It ended with the ouster of one of the best in the business when it comes to picking those guys.
That the Redskins would part ways with general manager Scot McCloughan became inevitable as one day rolled into the next without him at last week’s scouting combine. The company line was that a death in his family (his grandmother passed away Feb. 6) was keeping him away. The rumors of his past battles with alcohol resurfacing were more sinister.
The truth? Well, the truth is that at least a part of this is the Redskins reverting once more to being the dysfunctional organization we’ve all gotten to know over the past decade-and-a-half.
And so here we at the start of the league year, when so many teams are celebrating new beginnings, with one of the NFL’s flagship franchises blowing things up yet again. Only this time it’s not at the beginning of January or even late in the season, when these things are happening all over the place. This time the Redskins are losing their top talent evaluator smack in the heart of talent-evaluation season.
Power struggles are nothing new in D.C., nor is the concept of disagreement metastasizing into disaster. It happened when Vinny Cerrato was the GM working with Jim Zorn. It happened when the Robert Griffin III era was initially derailed by a knee injury, then sent into a ditch by his uneven play. It was obvious when the tension between ex-coach Mike Shanahan and owner Dan Snyder came to a head.
Before that, there was the circus of Steve Spurrier’s two years. Before that, there was Marty Schottenheimer’s one-year stop-in between longer tenures in Kansas City and San Diego.
So this one went wrong the way things usually do in Washington. It started with arguments over roles and duties within the organization—and that led to power plays over decisions. One involved whether or not to use the franchise tag on quarterback Kirk Cousins. Another centered on allocating resources to fix the defense over the course of the 2017 offseason.
And there came a point where team president Bruce Allen took over. The reasoning will be the subject of debate, but that shift in power is ultimately, as I understand it, a major reason why McCloughan wound up sitting out the combine, which is as central to his job as any event on the NFL calendar. This time it wasn’t about ownership. It became McCloughan vs. Allen.
While McCloughan hasn’t been involved in any Redskins decision over the past two weeks, the team has followed his board early in free agency—safety DJ Swearinger and defensive tackles Terrell McClain and Stacy McGee were high on his list as he emphasized rebuilding the defense up the middle. Washington landed all three of those guys. And the draft board, while subject to change, also was set before he left.
Was there one thing that might have been done differently had all of this not happened? My sense is the Redskins may have made a stronger effort to keep Pierre Garçon, although even that is questionable based on how the Niners valued him.
What McCloughan’s rivals will tell you is that he leaves behind a roster that’s much more competitive at the bottom, stronger in the middle class, and sturdier overall than perhaps any during Snyder’s ownership of the team.
But all the optimism and goodwill, and the public trust that was restored over the past two years—the first consecutive winning seasons since Snyder bought the team—has vanished overnight. Now, the future of the franchise looks as murky as it did in that chaotic final season of Zorn.
Maybe Allen and Jay Gruden—who has proven to be a very good head coach—can steady the ship over the coming months. Maybe they can weather coordinator changes on each side of the ball, navigate a stormy situation with Kirk Cousins and manage the attrition at the skill positions.
All I know is that as strange as the last week in Washington may seem on the surface, a closer looks at the actual issues shows many of them to be awfully familiar.
