Washington Football Team owner Daniel Snyder is often blamed for the franchise’s lack of success, even by some of his former employees.
Former Washington coach Jay Gruden offered an anecdote that goes a long way toward explaining the franchise’s struggles, stating that the owner would parachute in to make draft picks, sometimes overruling the efforts of the front office.
“When it came our time to pick, we’d always talk about the picks, where we’d like to go, what happens if [the player] is gone, and did all our scenarios,” Gruden said, via Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post. “And then [Snyder] would come in off his yacht and make the pick.”
That, it seems, is how Washington wound up with Dwayne Haskins, who didn’t even last two seasons with the team before being cut for bad performance and repeated off-field issues. It’s why the hiring of Ron Rivera was such a key moment for Washington, as Snyder empowered him to make personnel decisions. So far, at least, the owner appears to be keeping his word on that.
Snyder has dealt with plenty of other major issues in the past year or so. It’s easy to see why so many want him to sell the team — he certainly seems to have held them back over the years, even according to people who were in the building.
