Washington’s new leadership structure
January 29, 2021
by Steve Thomas
Washington made a big announcement last week, which was the hiring of Martin Mayhew as the team’s new general manager and Marty Hurney as the Executive Vice President of Football/Player Personnel, with both reporting to head coach Ron Rivera.
This represents a significant change for Washington’s football operations over last season. Washington has had a coach-centric setup a few times – Marty Schottenheimer, Joe Gibbs’ second tenure, and Mike Shanahan, but never before has the team formally split up leadership of the football operations team in the manner that Ron Rivera did last week. Under this structure, it appears as though Hurney, as the Executive Vice President of Football/Player Personnel, will oversee the college and pro scouting operations, with Mayhew as general manager leading all of the other football functions. The result of this new structure will most likely be that at least some current scouts leave, with new ones coming into the organization.
After Mayhew retired from the NFL as a player in 1996, he got his law degree from Georgetown University in 2000 and was hired by the Detroit Lions as senior director of football administration in 2001. He stayed with the Lions through 2015, serving as Senior Vice President and Assistant General Manager from 2004 – 08, then as General Manager from 2008 – 15. He then moved to the New York Giants, where he served as General Manager for the 2016 season. Mayhew was hired by the San Francisco 49ers in 2017 to be a senior personnel executive. He became the 49ers Vice President of Player Personnel in 2019 and remained in that capacity until last week. In looking at his employment history, Mayhew has been continuously involved in player evaluation in some capacity since 2004. In that role, he was involved to one extent or the other in draft successes such as Calvin Johnson, Matthew Stafford, Ndamukong Suh, Darius Slay, and Taylor Decker, and possibly T.J. Hockenson. However, the Lions also had their share of high profile busts during Mayhew’s time with the team, including wide receiver Mike Williams in 2005, Nick Fairley, and to a certain extent Ezekiel Ansah. That’s not an abnormally terrible draft record, but it isn’t great either, but Mayhew is mostly guilty of failing to extract the Lions out of the Giant Black Hole of Suck in which the franchise has been trapped for decades. None of this may matter, though, if Mayhew is not involved in player evaluation as a result of Hurney being onboard. The quotes from Ron Rivera in the team’s press conference seemed to confirm the role Mayhew will play:
He will be an integral part of running the daily football operations and will allow me the opportunity focus more on coaching.
The fact that Mayhew has a law degree should be a big help in his role as being in charge of all things football other than for player evaluation.
Marty Hurney was originally a Washington Redskins beat writer who was hired by former team owner Jack Kent Cooke to serve in the team’s public relations department. He moved with former Redskins general manager Bobby Beathard to the San Diego Chargers in 1990, where he served as the coordinator of football operations until 1997. Hurney then moved to the Carolina Panthers in 1998, where he stayed until 2012 as the director of football operations, the director of player operations, and general manager. He was fired in 2012, but was re-hired in the same capacity in 2017 and stayed until he was fired again this past December. Like Mayhew, the Panthers had their share of both hits and misses under Hurney’s leadership, such as Julius Peppers, Cam Newton, Luke Kuechly, and Thomas Davis, and on the other end of the spectrum, corner Rashard Anderson in 2001 and second round quarterback Jimmy Clausen in 2010. It’s likely that Hurney is going to bring in at least some scouts who he’s worked with in the past, so I expect some turnover in both the college and pro scouting rooms. Here’s what Rivera said about Hurney in the team’s press release:
Marty Hurney is an excellent evaluator of talent and someone whom I trust and have worked with in the past . . . He knows the amount of hard work it takes to operate a successful personnel department. Marty has a proven track record as a successful scout and general manager and will be a vital part of shaping our roster.
I’m fine with both Mayhew and Hurney, but it doesn’t seem likely that either one of them will make a huge difference to the overall direction and success of the franchise. This is the Ron Rivera show; he was in charge before Mayhew and Hurney, and he’s still in charge now that they are here. Both report to Rivera, meaning that the organization, and in particular the team’s player selection strategies, will remain in his image. The role of Mayhew and Hurney is primarily to make life easier for Rivera – and let’s face it, they are also a hedge against Rivera’s health, should it take an unfortunate downturn. The biggest impact as a result of these two hirings is likely going to be significant changes to the college and pro scouting rooms. Many of Washington’s current scouts have been with the franchise for quite a long time, through multiple leadership teams, but the idea that Hurney would want to bring in his own people isn’t such a wild thought.
I don’t think we’ll be talking about either Hurney or Mayhew on a regular basis once we get past this introductory period, even during draft time. I’m happy they are here, but I’m not jumping for joy in belief that the franchise’s troubles are now over. Washington made progress last year, mainly as a result of Rivera’s leadership. That will hopefully continue, but the arrival of the Mayhew – Hurney tandem will mostly be behind the scenes improvements. I’m in favor of both of these hires, but the end result may be more behind-the-scenes improvements in efficiency and to ease Rivera’s workload than they will make huge, obvious differences visible to fans.