The Washington Redskins remain without a general manager, but they came close to hiring one before adding Ron Rivera as the head coach. According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, Washington nearly hired former Houston Texans GM Rick Smith as president and is expected to wait until after the draft to hire a GM.
Redskins now are planning to wait until after the draft to hire a general manager, per league sources. The team’s thinking is that it still has people in place for now, though anyone in the front office is in jeopardy after the draft and there will be more changes.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 5, 2020
Smith was the general manager of the Texans from 2006-17. Therefore, he has plenty of experience at the position and did a formidable job building a winning roster in Houston.
The Redskins spent some time contemplating ways to shift the culture in Washington. There was the belief around the league that Dan Snyder, the owner of the Redskins, was going to hand over the football operations to Smith.
Instead, Snyder chose to side with Rivera and gave him some control of the future of the franchise. However, the team still plans on adding an official general manager after the 2020 NFL Draft in April.
In the NFL, it isn't uncommon for a team to wait until after the draft to make decisions within the front office. As a result, some of the people that help make choices in the draft could be let go by the organization right after.
Just last year, the New York Jets fired Mike Maccagnan as the team's GM after the draft. Of course, they chose to replace him with Joe Douglas, who was a vital piece of the Philadelphia Eagles' Super Bowl team in 2017.
As of this moment, there haven't been many names mentioned as candidates for Washington's GM position. But with Rivera leading the team, the position definitely becomes more enticing.
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