Comments from Washington president Bruce Allen at the league meetings suggested that the team may not replace G.M. Scot McCloughan. Now that the draft has ended, it’s looking more and more likely that the team won’t have a General Manager.
Via Mark Maske of the Washington Post, Allen is indeed considering not hiring a G.M. Instead, Allen would spread the duties among the current employees of the front office.
Since the firing of McCloughan in March, director of college scouting Scott Campbell, director of pro personnel Alex Santos, and senior personnel executive Doug Williams have received bigger roles.
On Thursday, John Wooten of the Fritz Pollard Alliance told Jason Cole of Bleacher Report that Washington had submitted a plan to reorganize the front office without replacing the G.M. position. Maske, citing a league official, says a plan has not been submitted.
“We haven’t seen the plan,” Wooten told Maske. “We don’t know what the plan is. We’ve been given information that they are planning to divide the duties of the job. We’ll wait and see what they do. We’ll wait to see if their plan complies with the rules.”
The Rooney Rule requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for the General Manager position. It’s unclear how the rule would apply where a G.M. is fired, no new G.M. is hired, and the duties are absorbed by employees currently employed by the team.
Here’s what is clear: With no new G.M., Allen has more power. With that power comes greater accountability. So if this new model doesn’t work, Allen becomes more likely to be fired than if he were tucked away from the day-to-day realities of the football operations.