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Joe Gibbs: Scout staff shake up just a rumor

This March it was rumored that the Redskins were going to clean house. And then multiple sources produced possible GM candidates for the Redskins: Tom Modrak and Bobby DePaul. Either joining the team would have entailed some shift in the current decision making structure as team President Joe Gibbs would have to defer some personnel power to the newcomers. Vinny Cerrato, if not fired, would also have to take on a more limited role. To many Redskins fans this would be a welcome change.

Coach put the quietus on such speculation in yesterday's Post (scroll to bottom):

There have been repeated rumors among NFL scouts and execs that the Redskins might shake up their scouts and personnel department, all the way up to vice president of football operations Vinny Cerrato after the draft, but Gibbs quashed the notion. "I felt like it's been a pretty smooth operation, so I don't know where the rumors come from."
Although the current decision making structure did produce a competitive post season team in 2005, holistically it's been average. If we judge the "smooth"ness of an "operation" based merely on the results, you'd have to conclude that this current operation is either unsmooth (21-27 over 3 years) or, at best, unproven.

I felt that the Redskins previous structure of the 1980s was better, with Coach Gibbs as Coach, with GM Bobby Beathard as GM, and with Owner Jack Kent Cooke as Owner. Especially with their football related duties concurrent with their titles -- Joe Gibbs coached, Bobby Beathard GMed, and Jack Kent Cooke pwned (beyotches!). I could be a minority in that, though.

I'm willing to trust Joe Gibbs but there must be a logical limit to what this team can fail to do under the current organizational structure and for those involved to assure us all is well. For many fans that logical limit has already been reached. I'm not there yet, but one winning season sandwiched between two very disappointing ones doesn't instill in me a great deal of confidence, either.

For most of us the shakeup rumors didn't pass the Too-Good-To-Be-True test anyways, so its official death is of little consequence surprise.