Front Office Thoughts
August 2, 2018
by Alex Zeese
Rick Snider, longtime Redskins beat writer, dropped an interesting nugget towards the end of our interview with him on this week’s episode of The Hog Sty. He thinks Bruce Allen will no longer be with the Redskins in a year’s time. One could easily read the tea leaves, between the hiring of Brian Lafemina to the team’s front office, and last year’s promotion of Doug Williams to General “we aren’t calling him a GM” Manager, not to mention Bruce’s purchase of a very nice, very expensive home on a California beach 2,700 miles away from his office in Ashburn. It sure looks to me like Rick is onto something, and that the writing is on the wall.
So what would a Redskins front office start to look like with out Bruce Allen? If the last few years have truly been about him putting a succession plan in place, the team’s really not in too bad shape, but a few questions still remain.
The first, and probably easiest, question is who replaces Bruce as President. In my mind this comes down to two names. First is the aforementioned Lafemina. Lafemina has a long history in the world of sports business, having been a senior manager in The Madison Square Garden Group in New York and having worked for the NFL’s league office. The other name is one that Redskins fans know well: Eric Schaffer, who’s been working his way up the corporate food chain at Redskins Park for the last 16 years. Schaffer’s been known to fans for years as the Redskins’ salary cap guru . Personally I’d prefer to see Schafffer as the team president, because few have more familiarity with the organization.
However, there are two bigger issues that will need to be figured out beyond just the corporate structure. Someone like Lafemina may get the title of President, but the question of who’s really in charge of the team is a different story and something that will remain to be seen. Will this be Doug Williams’ team, or Gruden’s, or will the new President be the one to take charge and shape the identity of this team? Who that person is could determine much about the direction of this franchise for the next decade, not just off the field, but the makeup of the roster.
Lastly, there is one job at which Bruce has done great over the last decade: keeping Daniel Snyder away from the decision-making as far as the roster. Without the son of the legendary George Allen here, who distracts the owner? Allen has a big advantage thanks to his family name, as did Joe Gibbs before he got here. Based on Snyder’s historic love of nostalgia, the most likely person is probably Doug Williams. If that becomes part of Doug’s “job”, we should worry. Williams needs to be able to focus on scouting and building a roster, and you have to wonder whether Snyder will start trying to influence those decisions if he spends too much time with Williams. The last thing this team needs would be Snyder pushing the buttons on this roster.