Washington Redskins: Plans for general manager unsurprising

The NFL Draft is over and teams around the NFL are shaking up their front offices. Will the Washington Redskins hire a new general manager to replace Scot McCloughan?

The Washington Redskins fired general manager Scot McCloughan on March 9 after just two seasons with the club. It was an ugly mess that began after the season and culminated with McCloughan’s dismissal at the start of free agency. After McCloughan’s messy exit, the team said a new general manager would be hired after the NFL Draft, per Bleacher Report.

Well, the NFL Draft is over and apparently, Washington will fill its vacancy from within, according to a report from Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole.

This news isn’t surprising, and honestly, it was expected. After all, the team never wanted to hire McCloughan in 2015, but was embarrassed after back-to-back losing seasons with a combined seven wins. That embarrassment led team president Bruce Allen to hire McCloughan to appease a frustrated fan base.

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So, all the news back in March that Washington was seriously considering hiring Mike Mayock of the NFL Network as its new general manager was a neatly-timed distraction to keep the media from discussing McCloughan’s ouster. After all, the Mayock news came out one day after McCloughan was dismissed.

Last week’s NFL Draft was a good one for the Redskins. Most observers pegged it as one of the league’s best. And it’s important to note that McCloughan set the draft board back in February, per ESPN. While Washington’s scouts and front-office personnel likely made tweaks to the draft boards, it’s clear the Redskins followed McCloughan’s plan of selecting highly-productive college players with a passion for the game and taking chances on higher-upside players later in the draft.

Washington’s draft success likely confirmed the team’s plans to just promote from within or re-assign some folks already in the front office. Doug Williams, Alex Santos and Scott Campbell could all find their roles increased in this new front office structure. Campbell is the team’s longtime director of college scouting and is respected around the league.

For Allen, he gets what he wants. He stays in power and has no one from the outside to challenge him in Washington’s power structure. In the meantime, he could probably be heard around Redskins’ Park beating his chest over the selection of Alabama’s Jonathan Allen in the first round, who surprisingly fell into Washington’s lap after an early run on offensive players.

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Now comes the challenging part for Washington’s front office: Sign Kirk Cousins to a long-term deal. The time for talking is over, and you have just over two months to get it done. If a deal doesn’t get done, Cousins is likely gone after the season and this organization is back in quarterback purgatory.