Shaking up the Front Office

Player moves may have been at a minimum this off-season, but the Redskins have still been wheeling and dealing reshaping a coaching staff and now shaking up the front-office structure.   News came down a few weeks back that the team had retained capologist Eric Schaffer, but the existing scouting staff wasn’t so lucky.

Louis Riddick, formerly the Redskins’ Pro Personnel Director, was informed that his contract will not renewed when it expires this summer.  Riddick has been with the team for seven seasons and was mainly dealing with pro scouting (i.e. providing scouting reports on future opponents).  The move had been anticipated as Scott Campbell had been promoted above Riddick earlier this offseason.  Campbell, formerly the Director of College Scouting, ascended to the position of Director of Player Personnel.  The move put Campbell just behind Vinny Cerrato in the organization’s power chart a spot formerly held by Riddick.

Today JLC reported that the Redskins have promoted Alex Santos to a pro scouting role, but the team still has various openings in the scouting ranks.  It’s nearly impossible for fans to evaluate these front office guys.  If the team falters, all the blame is going to be laid at the feet of Dan Snyder, Cerrato and Jim Zorn.  It can be argued that the college scouting unit has done a solid job in the last few years uncovering late round and undrafted players who’ve been able to contribute, so it isn’t a huge side that someone from that side would be promoted. 

Losing a job is part of life for someone who follows a career in sports.  Whenever there is a change at the top of an organization, in this case from Gibbs to Cerrato and from Gibbs to Zorn, they are going to want to bring in their own people.  Being a pro football scout or holding a position in the front office of an NFL team sounds like a glamorous job but the lack of stability must be taxing.  As fans of the Redskins all we can hope for is that the departing scouts land on their feet and these new guys can return the team to promised land.