Big doings today at Redskins Park, as de facto general manager Vinny Cerrato has resigned and the team has hired an actual GM in Bruce Allen.

ESPN is reporting that Allen’s hire complies with the Rooney Rule, as the team has interviewed at least two minority candidates for the position.

Where to begin?

The Timing

Perhaps the most shocking part of this entire thing is the speed and efficiency with which this transaction was handled. Let’s not forget, the last time the Redskins hired a head coach, they spent several weeks interviewing a variety of candidates before landing on Zorn, who by then was virtually the only one left.

This time, the change at the top occurs with three games left in the regular season, the timing of which might come under some fire. However, if you’re going to make a change in the front office and you’re going to do it before the draft, then the sooner, the better.

It gives the new executive, in this case Allen, time to see how the team runs when it’s actually playing games. Allen will be able to sit in during meetings, watch the coaches, trainers, and staff do their thing, and allow him to make much more informed decisions.

The timing also allows Allen to begin to re-set draft priorities that much earlier. The Redskins may not have a top-five pick in the draft, but the scouts have been out there for several months doing their evaluations. While these will not change as a result of Allen’s presence, what it does give them is a new focus before the team begins the cross checks of their top 200 or so candidates in the draft.

Generally, the higher the potential draft choice, the more cross checks they will have. With Allen getting in the mix now, he has over a month until the Senior Bowl to get his philosophies in place.

Cerrato Really Done?

In the last couple of years, the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview minority candidates, was also extended from head coaching positions to front office hires.

Obviously, this move was highly coordinated. The news of Cerrato’s resignation broke early this morning. It only took a couple of hours for the team to announce Allen’s hire. The team has also interviewed at least two minority candidates.

Obviously, this move has been in the works for weeks.

Rumors had begun to surface after the bye week that Cerrato’s fate was inexorably tied to Zorn’s, and that if Zorn was to lose his job, Cerrato would be right behind him.

This means not only was this decision made several days, if not weeks, ago, but that the team has managed to do its interviews and entire selection process while keeping it out of the news.

This also likely means the group of people on the inside was small, and that Cerrato himself may have actually participated in the hiring process, given his part in the orchestration.

Given that Cerrato has been a confidant of Snyder’s for the last several years, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him back with the team in another capacity at some point, perhaps as team president, similar to Rich McKay in Atlanta.

Cerrato’s Downfall

No matter his future, it was clear a change needed to be made.

Cerrato’s record on first-round draft choices is relatively good, though it is hard to tell whether the choices were actually his during the Joe Gibbs years. However, it’s not his actual draft choices that led to his downfall.

Cerrato fell on his sword today because of his overall roster management, which has been atrocious.

The prime example of this was his handling of the offensive line in the last several years. The team had four solid but aging starters, but they lacked a viable starter at right tackle, and none of the backups even played in an NFL game last season.

To top that off, the team had only selected two offensive linemen in the draft in the last five years, and only one (guard Chad Rinehart) remains on the roster.

Other than signing Derrick Dockery to replace Pete Kendall at left guard this season, the team has not made a major signing on the offensive line since luring center Casey Rabach away from the Baltimore Ravens in 2005.

The team’s pro personnel department has routinely failed, as well.

Much has been made about the team’s propensity for signing virtually every high-priced free agent that isn’t nailed down. However, pro personnel departments serve another, possibly more important, function. Pro scouts keep track of upcoming free agents, those who might fall under the radar of coaches and team big wigs, but who might do better on a new team.

One of the prime examples of this is the 2004 San Diego Chargers. In 2003, the team went 4-12 and looked quite terrible doing it. However, the team’s pro personnel staff went out and signed several under-the-radar free agents, eschewed any high-priced signings, and managed to turn the next season into a 12-4 success with virtually the same coaching staff and same nucleus of stars.

Cerrato never learned this lesson; the team was always one high-priced savior away from success.

What Redskins Nation Can Expect from Allen

Allen’s name, of course, hearkens back to the old days of George Allen and the colorful Over the Hill Gang. Allen led the team to the Super Bowl in the early '70s, and, led in part by quarterback Sonny Jurgensen, began the glory years of football in Washington.

The first thing that Allen the younger brings is instant credibility. He has an AFC championship ring and has been to the Super Bowl and has been a reasonable success everywhere he’s been. It’s never quite come to light what happened in Tampa to inspire his ouster, but we all know how things have gone since he’s left.

Expect a virtual overhaul of the team’s front office, but probably not until after April’s draft. Allen is coming into the middle of the evaluation season and draft preparations are already underway. If some of Allen’s compatriots are on the street like he was, he might bring some in immediately to get things going, but, by and large, anyone he might want is probably under contract elsewhere until May.

A traditional general manager has power over the coaching staff, including the hiring and firing of the head coach. It’s assumed that Allen, who is the first person to actually hold the GM title under Snyder, will have this power as well, and that he wouldn’t have taken the job without it given Snyder’s reputation for interference.

Allen has no ties to Zorn, so it’s even more likely Zorn will be shown the door as soon as the team lands after their final game at San Diego. Therefore, the team will be looking for another head coach, just two years after their last search.

The team is currently running a variety of the west coast offense, similar to what Mike Holmgren ran as head coach in Green Bay and Seattle. While it’s certainly no lock that the team will keep this offense, the most likely head coaching candidate also comes off this coaching tree.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen: the eyes of Redskins Nation immediately fall on Jon Gruden.

Gruden signed what was termed an “exclusive” contract with ESPN, but the network has consistently evaded questions as to whether or not the coach could return to the NFL ranks should an offer present itself.

Allen and Gruden were together in Oakland and after Gruden was “traded” to Tampa Bay in 2002, Allen almost immediately followed. Unless the two have had some sort of falling out that never became public, you have to assume that Gruden will go right to the top of the head coaching list.

Snyder and the Big Picture

No matter what happens, the eyes of Redskins Nation will be trained on Snyder throughout this entire process.

Snyder, of course, has the reputation for sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong when it comes to football operations and letting the coaches do their jobs.

It’s too early to say whether the hiring of someone of Allen’s ilk and handing over the GM reigns means that Snyder has finally learned his lesson after a decade of folly. He could be storming into draft meetings; he could demand the team take Tim Tebow with its top choice; he could do a number of different things.

But one thing is clear: So far, this is a good first step toward some sanity in Washington.