Is Scot McCloughan Really the Master Evaluator the Redskins Are Hoping For?
The Washington Redskins are about to embark on a bright new era. What do you mean you don't believe me?
OK, the team has won just seven games in two seasons. There's also major doubts about the so-called franchise quarterback who cost three first-round picks and a second-rounder.
Don't worry, though. The good times are just around the corner. That's because Scot McCloughan is now here to drag perhaps the NFL's most dysfunctional franchise, presumably kicking and screaming, into an era that will put Joe Gibbs' three Super Bowl wins to shame.
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That's the party line at least. But what if, just if, McCloughan doesn't turn out to be the master talent evaluator the Redskins hope for?
This isn't a hipster attempt to be the lone dissenting voice. Rather, it's the time-worn, battle-scarred cynicism of someone who's seen many a brave new era elude Washington.
It's rare for a team coming off 3-13 and 4-12 seasons to exude so much optimism. But the Redskins have created that feeling with a series of moves in the few days since the 2015 NFL season ended.
The franchise has overhauled its coaching staff at key positions, including defensive coordinator, secondary, quarterbacks and offensive line. Those hires have apparently added "gravitas" to a coaching staff sorely needing that quality, per Real Redskins blogger Rich Tandler.
A more experienced coaching staff will even get to run the rule over one of the league's youngest rosters. In a CSN Washington report, Tandler surmised Washington could open the 2015 season with as few as three players aged 30 or over.
It's the dream NFL scenario: Young, potential-filled players receiving expert guidance from veteran coaches who know the game inside out. All the while, the roster is built and rebuilt by a master evaluator overseeing the whole process.
That's how Super Bowl winners are created. Well, for some anyway.
For every shrewd general manager working with experienced coaches helping young prospects reach their potential together, there are more franchises who remained stuck in the mud.
Usually, the malaise stays prolonged because the men charged with constructing the roster aren't as good as advertised. You'd never believe that about McCloughan considering the litany of glowing endorsements he's received since arriving in Washington.
NFL people have virtually been forming a queue and earnestly awaiting the chance to tell all Redskins fans how McCloughan will finally fix the franchise. Not might, but will.
MMQB writer Andrew Brandt, a former Green Bay Packers executive, couldn't wait to give the McCloughan hiring a major seal of approval:
"By hiring Scot McCloughan to be their general manager, the Redskins, at long last, may be transforming themselves into a team that builds for sustained success rather than always searching for a quick fix. McCloughan is a seasoned scout who has been given autonomy and authority to implement his skill set, and he’s always been energized by the search to find players. The future of player acquisition and retention bodes well for a team that has been challenged in that area.
"
Here's the thing though, the charge Washington always looks for a quick fix doesn't stick as well as it used to. How could it when the team gave Shanahan autonomy to complete a so-called five-year plan?
How could it when the franchise replaced him with Jay Gruden, a young, rising star (at the time) in the coaching ranks and gave him a guaranteed five-year deal?
Even trading the farm for Griffin in 2012, on the surface an attempt at instant gratification, was done with the future in mind. Teams that draft a supposed "franchise quarterback" do so hoping the passer will spend his career with the team, winning a few Super Bowls along the way. Sustained success. Not a quick fix.
Apparently, those moves weren't enough to shed the memories of the quick-fix culture most embodied by failed free-agency forays for players such as Bruce Smith, Deion Sanders, Adam Archuleta and Albert Haynesworth.
Not to worry though, McCloughan's arrival will banish those memories forever. He's even received an endorsement from Bobby Beathard, the master team-builder who lived up to that reputation when he built Super Bowl rosters for Washington in the '80s.
Beathard all but guaranteed McCloughan will be a success in D.C. He gave his view during an interview with ESPN 980's The Sports Fix (h/t Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post):
"This young guy’s really good. I mean, I think he has a real feel for [the job]. He’ll bring some real — I’m not gonna say sense — [but] he’ll do it the right way. I’m a real fan of his, I really am. I think he’s terrific.
Scot will do the same thing, and it’ll all work well. I think it’s a great hire.
"
Any time you hear the phrase "the right way," it's a good idea to quickly duck for cover, even when it comes from an authority as justifiably respected as Beathard. The so-called "right way" often seems two steps short of moralizing, or at the very least, needlessly applying fixed standards to processes that are naturally fluid.
There may be plenty of wrong ways to build a winner in the NFL. But there's certainly no one right way.
Washington won its last Super Bowl in 1991 with a team largely populated by veteran castoffs. Players such as defensive tackles Eric Williams and Tim Johnson, end Fred Stokes and running backs Earnest Byner and Gerald Riggs, had all long since established themselves elsewhere.
This was a time when those representing the burgundy and gold didn't view veteran and experience as dirty words. Washington didn't always have an Amour Fou with free agency (or at least its predecessor).
Of course, what many fans and pundits would love to see is a fruitful relationship between Washington and the draft. Never fear, Scot is here, presumably complete with cape and the first initial of his name emblazoned across his chest.
He's flying into town armed with a plan to tie the fortunes of this franchise inextricably to the draft, per ESPN Redskins reporter John Keim:
"The thing I liked about what we did in San Fran, what we did in Seattle: We drafted our own, molded our own and re-signed the ones we wanted to re-sign. So all of a sudden now, you train them how you want to train them. See, in Washington, we’re going to draft these guys and we are going to draft them and mold them as Redskins. We’re not going to have to go out to other organizations and bring in 32- and 33-year-olds who have different plans.
"
Sounds great, right? It should. There's no quicker, easier way to get an NFL fanbase onside than promising to build a winner via the draft.
Fans fall for it every time, but you can hardly blame them. The draft is all about potential, all about the promise of a brighter future. It's the one kind of unknown you're not afraid of.
The only problem is just saying you're going to build through the draft, even putting it into practice, doesn't always work. It just isn't that simple.
Remember when Shanahan was promising to do things the "right way?" To recruit young players and so-called "character guys" (another phrase that ought to make you nervous).
All that got was three losing seasons out of four and just one playoff appearance that lasted a single game.
But what's that I hear you say? McCloughan's draft record is beyond excellent?
That's a view not entirely without merit. Yet the record still needs a closer look.
When ESPN writer Seth Wickersham profiled McCloughan shortly after Washington gave him the job, he noted McCloughan's role in drafting six particular prospects-turned-stars: Russell Wilson, Vernon Davis, Patrick Willis, Frank Gore, Richard Sherman and Joe Staley.
To many, those players are ample proof of McCloughan's genius. But if you can still hear your inner skeptic, it's possibly uttering the phrase a history of no-brainers.
Take Sherman out of the mix for a moment. A fifth-rounder who converted from wide receiver to cornerback before becoming the NFL's best at the latter position is a great find by any standards.
But Davis, Willis and Staley were as close to "can't miss" as it gets. All three were first-rounders expected to make immediate impacts at the pro level.
Then there's the rest of McCloughan's record in Round 1. In another Real Redskins post, Tandler adds Alex Smith, Manny Lawson and Kentwan Balmer to the list of first-rounders taken by McCloughan.
In terms of rip-roaring success, he hit big on three, while Smith is at least a solid starting pro quarterback. But Lawson and Balmer in Round 1 are blots on any general manager's copybook.
Still three out of six, or four depending on your view of Smith, who found success outside San Francisco, is a pretty good average. Especially in a far-from-exact science where nobody gets it right every time.
But again, the successes were hardly masterful selections. In fact, taking Smith first overall in 2005 meant passing on Aaron Rodgers. Even Gore wasn't a major reach.
His stock only fell because he'd undergone ACL surgery on both knees. He was drafted after rushing for 945 yards during his final season at Miami, per Sports-Reference.com.
McCloughan may have gambled on Gore, but it was a calculated risk.
As for Wilson, anyone who saw him play as far back as his days at North Carolina State could see a quarterback capable of making all the throws needed to succeed in the NFL.
Only his diminutive size was going to hold him back. But the athletic talent was perfectly evident.
Again, McCloughan earns credit in this case for taking a risk, albeit only a mild one, where others didn't. That can be a valuable trait in any team builder. It's proof of an evaluator who asks the right question: What can X player become?
Risk taking aside though, many of the picks McCloughan is credited for are ones most general managers would make given the chance. Where McCloughan, or any general manager for that matter, can justify his reputation is by unearthing gems late on.
There may be a certain throwing-darts-at-a-board approach to the late rounds. But those who consistently find quality contributors at that stage aren't just coasting by on luck.
McCloughan's record here is one reason why fans can justify being enthusiastic about his arrival. There's his part in drafting Sherman of course. But McCloughan's time in Seattle also netted Super Bowl XLVIII MVP Malcolm Smith in the seventh round in 2011.
Speaking of Round 7, Wickersham recounted how McCloughan earned his stripes in Green Bay by finding Pro Bowl guard Adam Timmerman as the draft wound down in 1995.
Finding starters in the late round isn't just a bonus for a team. It's how sustained winners are built. Because if the top and bottom ends of a draft class produce, the overall roster is deep and talented.
It seems like the Redskins have entered every season since 2007 with rosters lacking quality depth at the key positions. That's where McCloughan can really make a difference.
But will he be the master evaluator so many have congratulated Washington for landing? Naturally, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
There are reasons to be skeptical. But then there's McCloughan's late-round magic and willingness to look at more than what a prospect is, and take a risk on what he might be.
They provide equal justification to remain cautiously optimistic Washington may have finally found someone who can build the foundation for sustained success.
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