Washington Redskins has decided to postpone hiring new GM until 2017 NFL Draft. The team president Bruce Allen fired general manager Scot McCloughan on March 9, the start of of NFL 2017 season calendar.
Allen said in an interview with Washington Post, that firing McCloughan is for the best interest of the team. During an annual meeting of NFL owners at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, he said that the situation in the team was not what he had envisioned when he signed McCloughan.
“I thought it was the right thing to do for where we were at the time,” Allen said explaining his decision to fire McCloughan halfway of his four-year contract. “We wanted to give clarity to our free agents and to our staff of where we were going."
The Washington Redskins owner also stated that he will not hire a new general manager until next month, after 2017 NFL Draft as reported by ESPN. Allen did not indicate whether the new general manager will come from the internal organization or from the outsider. He also emphasized that the firing of McCloughan was not caused by power struggle within the organization.
Currently, there are several candidates to replace McCloughan from the internal Washington Redskins organization. Four of the strong in-house candidates as the general manager are the the personnel executive Doug Williams, director of pro personnel Alex Santos, director of player personnel Scott Campbell and vice president of football administration Eric Schaffer.
Washington Redskins is one of the most valuable franchise in the NFL with Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots. In 2016, the value of Redskins is estimated to be $2.85 billion. The Washington Redskins played in the National Football Conference and has won three Super Bowl in 1982, 1987 and 1991. The team has also won five conference championship.
Watch the ESPN "First Take" talk show about the firing of McCloughan and the the Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins below:
