Yeah--Bruce was a real GM, in the way that he wasn't Cerrato, but McCloughan is legit. Look up his record--he is personnel and scouting based. Now, none of us would be surprised if they completely ****ed this all up, this is the Commanders we are talking about, but he is on par with Ozzie Newsome, he was John Schnieder's right-hand man in Seattle. He lined up the excellent drafts under Baalke in SF.
Just heard on the radio, the deal is not done just yet. They are finalizing the details. However, it's 99% done and McCloughan will have total control over personnel. Now, of course, this comes with the caveat that Snyder and et al gets the hell out of the way and lets him do his job.
I have zero concern about McCloughan.
As I have debated here many times with regards to the Cowboys, I believe that the GM position is the most overrated position in all of football. It's not unimportant, but it is vastly overrated. It's really about the coaching, starting with the head coach and then the assistants.
The Skins are a good example with Bobby Beatherd. He was the boy genius of the NFL and then went to San Diego. He turned San Diego into a winner, then they got rid of Bobby Ross and they became a doormat of the NFL. Did Beatherd lose his 'eye for talent' or were Kevin Gilbride and Mike Riley a massive step down from Ross as a head coach?
Speaking of San Diego (and the Skins)...they finally got resurrected when Marty Schottenheimer became the HC. This was also the same time that AJ Smith became the GM for the Chargers. Then they fire Schotteheimer after going 14-2 and hired Norv. Eventually they became a terrible team again under Norv. Did Smith lose his evaluation skills or was Schottenheimer a far better coach than Norv?
Speaking of Marty, he was the HC for the Chiefs with GM Carl Peterson. Marty turned the Chiefs into winners until he stepped down and Gunther Cunningham became the HC and turned them into losers. Then Dick Vermeil took over, turned them into winners with a great offense and a weak defense (common in Vermeil's teams). Then Herm Edwards took over and they went 6-26 in Herm's last 2 seasons. Did Peterson have an 'eye for talent' during the great years and lost that 'eye for talent' in the lean years? Did he suddenly become an offensive personnel wizard when Vermeil became the coach? Or was it that Schottenheimer and Vermeil were far superior coaches and Vermeil's teams had a tendency to be very good on offense and struggle on defense whether he was in Philadelphia, St. Louis or Kansas City?
Speaking of the Chiefs, they later hired the head of personnel in New England in Scott Pioli. We all know the record that the Patriots have had over the years. Pioli was supposed to turn the AFC West on its ear. Except they went 23-41 under Pioli because his coaches were Todd Haley and Romeo Crennel. Eventually Andy Reid took over without Pioli and they have gone 20-12 in two seasons.
The concern will start when the Skins actually hire a quality coach and don't do anything to screw it up like throwing away draft picks in favor of FA's or signing older FA's to long term deals.
The problem with Dallas over the years hasn't been Jerry Jones' inability to find talent. We've brought in enough talent. But, the issue has been subpar coaching and then panicking to make up for that subpar coaching by throwing away picks to fill needs and desperately hanging onto veteran players who then get injured.
It's the same thing with Skins fans every year...it's they *now* have found the secret piece to the puzzle. And forget about them being wrong all of those times before when they told you until they were blue in the face that they were right...you should believe them *now* because 'things are different!' Just like Bruce Allen was supposed to be a 'real GM.'
I'll be concerned when the Skins find a good HC and a good young, franchise QB. Until then, they'll be the same ole laughingstock of the NFC East.
YR
