by Mike Jones
After three months of deliberations over the direction of their front office following the nasty divorce from general manager Scot McCloughan, the Washington Redskins turned to one of their most beloved former players, Super Bowl XXII MVP Doug Williams, to oversee their talent evaluation department.
Williams, who had worked the last four seasons as a senior executive with the Redskins, helping with talent evaluation while working under team President Bruce Allen and McCloughan the past two years, now assumes the leadership role of Washington’s front office, elevated to senior vice president of player personnel.
“Standing here today, I’m a real humble individual and I’m going to say something my college coach used to always say to me,” Williams said shortly after his introduction. “He ‘had to be the luckiest man in the world,’ and that’s how I feel this morning to be in this position, proudly. I’m humbled this morning. But it’s my job to lead the personnel department, and we’re going to do that with all the continuity that we have back here. So, I want to say thank you to Bruce again, thanks to Mr. [Daniel] Snyder for giving me this opportunity, and thanks to all of the fans in Washington, D.C.”
Williams’s first act was to expand Washington’s scouting department and strengthen the front office, and the Redskins wasted no time during that. Also on Tuesday, they announced they have elevated Eric Schaffer to vice president of football operations while also expanding his duties, while promoting area scout Kyle Smith to director of college scouting, area scout Tim Gribble to a national scouting position and pro scout Richard Mann to assistant director of pro personnel under director Alex Santos. Former director of college scouting Scott Campbell now holds the title of senior executive, but will continue to scout NFL draft prospects.
Allen said that he interviewed “over a dozen” candidates for the general manager opening. However, it was long expected that the Redskins would wind up promoting from within. Allen and Coach Jay Gruden both said they liked how the free agency and draft planning and execution proceeded in McCloughan’s absence.
Allen said he interviewed a number of internal candidates. But it was Williams’s plan – which entailed his promotion to director of the front office and the expansion of roles for some of his coworkers and promotions for others, along with the impending additions to the scouting department – that impressed Allen the most.
“This was Doug’s plan,” Allen said when asked why no one was awarded the official title of general manager. “People interviewed with different titles and all of that, but this was Doug’s plan of wanting to develop and lead the personnel department.”
