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In rare appearance, Bruce Allen discusses state of the Redskins after another trying season

By Kareem Copeland and
Adam Kilgore January 22 at 7:59 PM

“Our season was a bit of a roller coaster,” he said. “We had great hopes early in the year. Halfway through the season, we were in good shape. We didn’t finish strong. We’re not going to use injuries as an excuse because we had opportunities to win some games at the end that we didn’t. It’s that determination that we need and that desire we need in order to get into the playoffs this year. We will have some new players, and obviously some new coaches will be on the staff. We’re looking forward to the season.”

“We were 7-9,” he said. “It wasn’t the players' 7-9. It wasn’t the coaches' 7-9. It was everybody was 7-9. [Vice president of player personnel Doug Williams] and his staff, we have to find some better players. We have to find some healthy, better players to come in, and the coaches have to put them in the right position to win. We’re in the middle of the pack, and we’ve been in the middle of the pack the last three seasons. It means you’re close. It means you’re close to being better. We have to find the right ingredients and right chemistry to do that.”

Washington Redskins
In rare appearance, Bruce Allen discusses state of the Redskins after another trying season

Redskins team president Bruce Allen held a news conference Tuesday for the first time since 2017. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
By Kareem Copeland and
Adam Kilgore January 22 at 7:59 PM
MOBILE, Ala. — Bruce Allen stood at the top of an empty stairwell in Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Tuesday, wearing a black jacket and a gray hooded sweatshirt. The wind whipped scattered raindrops on a brisk afternoon as the team president of the Washington Redskins held his first news conference since the summer of 2017. “How about this setup?” he joked as he settled down in front of the microphones.

The backdrop — a Senior Bowl practice under ashen skies nearly 1,000 miles from the team’s practice facility — seemed fitting for a man who has endured calls for his firing from fans after posting a 59-84-1 record in nine years of leading a proud organization. Allen offered smiles, a few of which were forced, but often stared coldly as he responded to questions about being brought back for a 10th season despite a litany of issues consuming the franchise, which has made just five playoff appearances since 1992.

“Our season was a bit of a roller coaster,” he said. “We had great hopes early in the year. Halfway through the season, we were in good shape. We didn’t finish strong. We’re not going to use injuries as an excuse because we had opportunities to win some games at the end that we didn’t. It’s that determination that we need and that desire we need in order to get into the playoffs this year. We will have some new players, and obviously some new coaches will be on the staff. We’re looking forward to the season.”

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[Defensive backs coach Torrian Gray leaves Redskins for University of Florida]

Fan frustration boiled over this season, and much of the ire was directed at Allen. Attendance dwindled and was at peak embarrassment levels in the season finale, when huge swaths of FedEx Field were empty and the seats that were filled mostly contained fans of NFC East rival Philadelphia. The team brought in a new business staff last offseason — led by Brian Lafemina, who was named president of business operations and chief operating officer — to allow Allen to direct his energy toward football. But Lafemina and two other executives were let go after the season, and a fourth resigned.

Allen declined to discuss the personnel decisions, which shifted some of the team’s business responsibilities back under his purview, before he was asked about his own accountability for the squad’s lack of success.


“We were 7-9,” he said. “It wasn’t the players' 7-9. It wasn’t the coaches' 7-9. It was everybody was 7-9. [Vice president of player personnel Doug Williams] and his staff, we have to find some better players. We have to find some healthy, better players to come in, and the coaches have to put them in the right position to win. We’re in the middle of the pack, and we’ve been in the middle of the pack the last three seasons. It means you’re close. It means you’re close to being better. We have to find the right ingredients and right chemistry to do that.”

[Redskins hire Nate Kaczor as special teams coach, lose ILB coach Kirk Olivadotti to Green Bay]

The team had a league-high 24 players on injured reserve in 2018 and 23 in 2017. One of those injuries was a broken fibula and tibia to the right leg of quarterback Alex Smith, whose career is now up in the air. Allen expressed uncertainty about him playing during the 2019 season, further clouding Washington’s outlook at the most important — and perhaps most expensive — position on their roster. A four-year, $94 million pact with $71 million guaranteed, signed before last season, will count $20.4 million against Washington’s 2019 salary cap. Allen was noncommittal when asked whether a quarterback is now a priority in the draft or free agency.


Still, “frustrated” might not be a strong enough word to sum up fans’ feelings toward Allen, team owner Daniel Snyder and the organization as a whole. The hashtag #FireBruceAllen trended on Twitter, and an online petition calling for his ouster has surpassed 13,000 signatures.

Allen was asked about the disconnect between the fans’ feeling of futility and his optimism for the future.

“Well, you see our standards,” Allen said. “We’re 7-9. We went through some heartbreaking injuries for the players, and we kept our team together. I think they saw a good football team. I know where we were for 10 games, and we have to learn how to finish the season. ...

So why is he the right person for that job?

“I share their passion for this franchise,” Allen said. “I share their passion for the things that we can accomplish, and we're going to get this whole organization believing in us.”

The franchise seemingly has decided to run the season back in 2019 with a similar staff. Gruden was brought back despite a 35-44-1 record and one playoff appearance in five seasons. Defensive coordinator Greg Manusky was retained despite discussions with former Jets coach Todd Bowles and former interim Browns coach Gregg Williams. Allen said Manusky was involved in those interviews as they try “to find the winning combination.” He added that they will be talking with several coaches over the next month to glean ideas, and that Gruden will probably talk with 20 to 30 more coaches in the near future.

“We looked at the program,” Allen said in explaining the decision to keep Gruden. “We felt the direction of the team was good. We didn’t get over that hurdle this year. [We’re] giving him the opportunity to build a staff and hopefully have a healthy team for the 2019 season.”

Burgundy&GoldForever wrote:He's the same lying sack of *sh$t* he's always been.

But the thing that stood out was his take on his football team, which got off to a strong start this season, was handcuffed by impossible quarterback injuries, and struggled to a 7-9 finish for the second straight year. Allen argued “the direction of the team was good,” that fans “saw a good football team” before the injuries took over, that everyone owns the 7-9 record, that Doug Williams and his staff need to find some better players, and coaches need to put them in position to win.

“We’re in the middle of the pack, and we’ve been in the middle of the pack the last three seasons,” he said. “It means you’re close. It means you’re close to being better. We have to find the right ingredients and right chemistry to do that.”

Close?

“We were two games out of the playoffs,” he said. “And no matter how you want to look at the season, we were two games out of it. And the year before we were one game out of it, and the year before we were one game out of it. So we have to find the right ingredients to get over that hump.”

Uh. I’m not sure about that. Even if they were close to competing for a playoff spot, were they close to competing for something grander than that? In an era of explosive offense, did Washington’s early-season success feel predictive of greatness? The four conference finalists this season had 13, 13, 12 and 11 wins; Washington had 7. The four conference finalists last season had 13, 13, 13 and 10 wins; Washington had 7. (And the Redskins were not a game out of it last year, as Allen said; they finished three games behind the final NFC playoff team.) The four finalists in 2016 had 14, 11, 11 and 10 wins; Washington had 8.

So 10 of the last 12 semifinalists won at least 11 games. Washington hasn’t won 11 games in 27 years. Close? Close to what? A first-round playoff loss?

It’s worth pointing out — and it has been pointed out, over and over — that Allen’s record since he arrived in Washington is 59-84-1. That’s garbage, a winning percentage of .413, and it’s remarkable he will be given a 10th full season, still seeking his first playoff victory.

But Snyder has owned the team for 20 seasons. His winning percentage as an owner: .436, a full 41 games below .500, with all of two playoff wins over that time. Only Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit have fewer. That’s your company, Washington. Look to the leader.

Snyder, though, is the bacteria that long ago caused the foundation to crumble. He is the constant. There is no one else.

“I’ve learned,” he said in 2003, four years after he bought the franchise.


“I think I’ve got incredible patience and understand things now that I didn’t have when I first came into the league,” he told a television station a year later.

“I feel like I’m finally coming into my own,” he told the Associated Press five years after that.

Those declarations all came before he hired Allen. And yet here is his franchise, on perpetual spin cycle, the results getting worse, not better.

What Allen either will not acknowledge, or is too self-regarding and oblivious to realize, is that the hostility to him is not really so much about losing. It’s about how he takes people for such saps. The Redskins have had low cycles and even bad decades before, without alienating their season ticket base and incurring such anger. The current regime’s fakery and the cheap flimflam — the notion that people will buy anything — is what’s so riling. Because what lies underneath it all, at the bottom of Allen’s jabber, is contempt for the customer.

And you know what? That’s by design. As long as there’s a #FireBruceAllen social media campaign, there isn’t a corresponding #SnyderSellOurSkins. The blame is placed somewhere other than at the feet of the owner, Daniel Snyder.

DEHog wrote:And Snyder wouldn't have it any other way...

And you know what? That’s by design. As long as there’s a #FireBruceAllen social media campaign, there isn’t a corresponding #SnyderSellOurSkins. The blame is placed somewhere other than at the feet of the owner, Daniel Snyder.

The NFL is a copycat league, for the life of me I can't understand why Snyder thinks, after 20 years of failure, he can do it differently?

welch wrote:Sally Jenkins adds a column on Bruce Allen (it was a big Allen-Snyder day in the Post):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/r ... 1322a99c1a

What Allen either will not acknowledge, or is too self-regarding and oblivious to realize, is that the hostility to him is not really so much about losing. It’s about how he takes people for such saps. The Redskins have had low cycles and even bad decades before, without alienating their season ticket base and incurring such anger. The current regime’s fakery and the cheap flimflam — the notion that people will buy anything — is what’s so riling. Because what lies underneath it all, at the bottom of Allen’s jabber, is contempt for the customer.

Burgundy&GoldForever wrote:Because he's an egomaniac and a Narcissist. He has a lot in common with someone else whose name shall not be mentioned here. He dove headlong into a position for which he was entirely unqualified and then lacked the motivation to become qualified or to take advice from people more qualified. He's a "my way or no way" kind of guy. Unfortunately for us his way sucks.

riggofan wrote:

welch wrote:Sally Jenkins adds a column on Bruce Allen (it was a big Allen-Snyder day in the Post):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/r ... 1322a99c1a

What Allen either will not acknowledge, or is too self-regarding and oblivious to realize, is that the hostility to him is not really so much about losing. It’s about how he takes people for such saps. The Redskins have had low cycles and even bad decades before, without alienating their season ticket base and incurring such anger. The current regime’s fakery and the cheap flimflam — the notion that people will buy anything — is what’s so riling. Because what lies underneath it all, at the bottom of Allen’s jabber, is contempt for the customer.

Wow I missed that Jenkins article, but she is TOTALLY on point with that. Thanks for pointing it out, welch.

Coaches, executives, players all have failures in the NFL. Even good ones have losing seasons. He's just such a smug, entitled creep about his position. I would have a lot more respect for a guy who had some humility and took responsibility when things didn't work out. Instead every spring we have these two who are so sure they can distract us all with some off season move and making dumb comments about "winning off the field".

He professed a smiling confidence in vice president of player personnel Doug Williams, yet it was reasonable to hear a distinct note of setting him up as a fall guy, using him as a human shield. Williams and his staff “have to find some better players. We have to find some healthy, better players to come in,” Allen said. This is the man he left totally out of the decision to trade for quarterback Alex Smith, thus making Williams a bagholder for decisions he is not even empowered to make.

He simpered with support for Coach Jay Gruden, even as he opened a trapdoor under him. Good young position coaches are fleeing the Redskins in droves, and no quality coordinators want to come near the place. But . . .

“We have given him the opportunity to build a staff and hopefully have a healthy team for 2019,” Allen said.