Building the New Redskins Front Office: Part 2

In Part 1, we discussed the scout's Black Monday and explained why the Redskins front office will likely have a new look in the very near future.  We also compared the structure of Washington's personnel department to the other personnel shops around the league.

We'll wrap things up today by looking at the makeup of every front office that McCloughan has worked in and the colleagues that he worked with at each stop.  This will help to give us of an idea of how many people he will hire and what roles he'll put them in.

Most importantly, we may even be able to determine exactly who McCloughan will hire as he attempts to create a new and improved version of the Washington Redskins' player personnel department.  And we already saw him bring in three of his "guys" in free agency (Jean-Francois, Johnson and Goldson), so it only stands to reason that he would do it again with the front office.

Before we discuss all of that, we need to look backwards.  For each of McCloughan's former teams I'll provide a few brief thoughts and then we'll go back to the future to tie everything together.  Time for our first stop.

Set the dial on your DeLorean's to 1994.  A simpler time when NFL murderers were found not guilty, the only Kardashian we knew was a lawyer, Dumb and Dumber movies were funny and we were still on our first Bush and Clinton.  A time when a bright-eyed baseball burnout and football-film nerd named Scot McCloughan got his first job with an iconic NFL franchise: the Green Bay Packers.

Great Scot! Going Back In Time With McCloughan

Green Bay Packers (1994-2000):

Position/Title	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000 Pre Draft
General Manager	Ron Wolf	Ron Wolf	Ron Wolf	Ron Wolf	Ron Wolf	Ron Wolf	Ron Wolf
VP of Player Personnel						Ken Herock	Ken Herock
Director of Player Personnel				Ted Thompson	Ted Thompson	Ted Thompson
Director of Pro Personnel	Ted Thompson	Ted Thompson	Ted Thompson	Reggie McKenzie	Reggie McKenzie	Reggie McKenzie	Reggie McKenzie
Pro Personnel Assistant	Reggie McKenzie	Reggie McKenzie	Reggie McKenzie	Matt Boockmeier	Will Lewis	Vince Workman	Vince Workman
Pro Personnel Assistant	John Schneider	John Schneider	John Schneider
Director of College Scouting	John Math (West)	John Math (West)	John Math (West)	John Dorsey (SE)	John Dorsey (SE)
College Scout COORD/Admin	Bryan Broaddus	Bryan Broaddus	Bryan Broaddus	Danny Mock	Danny Mock	Danny Mock	Danny Mock
College Scout	Red Cochran (North)	Red Cochran (North)	Red Cochran (North)	Red Cochran (North)	Red Cochran (North)	Red Cochran	Red Cochran
College Scout	Shaun Herock (SW)	Shaun Herock (East)	Shaun Herock (MW)	Shaun Herock (MW)	Shaun Herock (MW)	Shaun Herock	Shaun Herock
College Scout	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan (RM)	Scot McCloughan (RM)	Scot McCloughan (RM)	Scot McCloughan (RM)	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan
College Scout	John Dorsey (Rockies)	John Dorsey (SE)	John Dorsey (SE)	Johnny Meads (SW)	Johnny Meads (SW)	Alonzo Highsmith	Alonzo Highsmith
College Scout	George Steeter (MW)	George Steeter (MW)	Sam Seale (SW)	Sam Seale (West)	Sam Seale (West)	Sam Seale	Sam Seale
College Scout	Dave Hanner (SE)	Dave Hanner (SW)	Todd Bowles (East)	Will Lewis (East)	Matt Boockmeier (East)	Brian Gutekunst	Brian Gutekunst
College Scout	Ray Wietecha (East)				Lee Gissendaner (NFS)	Lee Gissendaner	Lee Gissendaner
College Scout							Lenny McGill

• This is where McCloughan first met Ted Thompson, Jon Schneider and Alonzo Highsmith.

• Those three weren't the only big names that Scot McCloughan rubbed shoulders with in the frozen tundra.  His GM was the legendary Ron Wolf and he was colleagues with several other future executives in John Dorsey (Chiefs GM), Will Lewis (Chiefs director), Reggie McKenzie (Raiders GM), Shaun Herock (Raiders director) and Brian Gutekunst (Packers director).

• Gutenkunst, Sam Seale, Lee Gissendaner and Alonzo Highsmith are still with the Packers to this day.  It could be hard to pry these potential cheese-head lifers from Green Bay and "King in the North", Ted Thompson.

• Green Bay's personnel staff never exceeded 13 people, but they did have nearly seven college scouts per year during McCloughan's tenure there.
  

Seattle Seahawks (2000-2004):

Position/Title	2000 Post Draft	2001	2002	2003	2004
General Manager	Mike Holmgren	Mike Holmgren	Mike Holmgren	Bob Ferguson	Bob Ferguson
Executive VP				Mike Holmgren	Mike Holmgren
VP of Football Operations	Ted Thompson	Ted Thompson	Ted Thompson	Ted Thompson	Ted Thompson
Director of Player Personnel	John Schneider
Director of Pro Personnel	Will Lewis	Will Lewis	Will Lewis	Will Lewis	Will Lewis
Asst. Director of Pro Personnel	Tag Ribary
Pro Personnel Assistant	John Jamison	John Jamison	John Jamison	John Jamison	John Jamison
Pro Personnel Assistant		Eric Stokes	Eric Stokes	Eric Stokes	Eric Stokes
Pro Personnel Assistant		Lake Dawson	Lake Dawson	Lake Dawson	Lake Dawson
Director of College Scouting	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan
College Scout COORD/Admin	Kirk Parrish	Kirk Parrish	Kirk Parrish	Kirk Parrish	Kirk Parrish
College Scout	Derrick Jensen (SE)	Derrick Jensen (SE)	Derrick Jensen (SE)	Derrick Jensen (SW)	Derrick Jensen (SW)
College Scout	Matt Malaspina (NE)	Matt Malaspina (NE)	Matt Malaspina (NE)	Matt Malaspina (SE)	Matt Malaspina (SE)
College Scout	John Peterson (SW)	John Peterson (SW)	John Peterson (SW)	John Peterson (NE)	John Peterson (ML)
College Scout	Mike Murphy (NW)	Mike Murphy (MW)	Mike Murphy (MW)	Mike Murphy (MW)	Mike Murphy (MW)
College Scout	Bucky Brooks (West)	Bucky Brooks (West)	Bucky Brooks (West)	Charlie Fisher (ML)	Charlie Fisher (NE)
College Scout	Eric Stokes (ML)	Scott Fitterer (ML)	Scott Fitterer (ML)	Scott Fitterer (West)	Scott Fitterer (West)
Scouting/Personnel Assistant	Mike Peterson	Mike Peterson	Mike Peterson	Mike Peterson	Mike Peterson
Scouting/Personnel Assistant	Joe Whitesel	Chris Culmer	Chris Culmer	Chris Culmer	Chris Culmer

• Seattle became Green Bay West with Holmgren, Thompson, Schneider (briefly), Lewis and McCloughan running the show.
  

• Scot McCloughan was on a much bigger staff this time, as the Seahawks averaged over 16 total player personnel members, almost five executives and two assistants per year.
  

San Francisco 49ers (2005-2010):

Position/Title	2005 Pre Draft	2005 Post Draft	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010 Pre Draft
General Manager					Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan
VP of Player Personnel	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan
Director of Player Personnel					Trent Baalke	Trent Baalke	Trent Baalke
Director of Pro Personnel		Tom Gamble	Tom Gamble	Tom Gamble	Tom Gamble	Tom Gamble	Tom Gamble
Asst. Director of Pro Personnel			Mike Williams	Mike Williams	Mike Williams
Pro Scout				Quentus Cumby	Quentus Cumby	Quentus Cumby	Quentus Cumby
Pro Scout						Ryan Meyers	Ryan Meyers
Pro Personnel Assistant	Mike Williams	Mike Williams	Quentus Cumby
Director of College Scouting		David McCloughan	David McCloughan	David McCloughan	David McCloughan	David McCloughan	David McCloughan
College Scout COORD/Admin	Ethan Waugh	Ethan Waugh	Ethan Waugh	Ethan Waugh
College Scout	Todd Brunner	Todd Brunner	Todd Brunner	Todd Brunner	Todd Brunner	Todd Brunner	Todd Brunner
College Scout	Justin Chabot	Justin Chabot	Justin Chabot	Justin Chabot	Justin Chabot (SW)	Justin Chabot (SW)	Justin Chabot (SE)
College Scout	Oscar Lofton	Oscar Lofton	Oscar Lofton (SE/SC)	Kent Kahl (ML)	Kent Kahl (ML)	Kent Kahl (ML)	Kent Kahl (ML)
College Scout	Brian Gardner	Matt Malaspina	Matt Malaspina	Matt Malaspina (NW)	Matt Malaspina (SE)	Matt Malaspina (SE)	Matt Malaspina (Nation)
College Scout	Jim Abrams	Roylin Bradley (ML)	Roylin Bradley (ML)	Roylin Bradley (West)	Roylin Bradley (West)	Reggie Cobb (West)	Reggie Cobb (West)
College Scout	Jim Zeches	Trent Baalke (West)	Trent Baalke (West)	Trent Baalke (SW)	Ethan Waugh (MW)	Ethan Waugh (MW)	Ethan Waugh (MW)
Scouting/Personnel Assistant					Kyle Strongin	William Homer	William Homer
Personnel Consultant	John Brunner

• Scot McCloughan finally made his nut when he got the big corner office by the bay with the San Francisco 49ers.

• He opted to go with a leaner approach that only saw the department staff a maximum of 13 people.
  

• All indications are that McCloughan worked with 49ers' scouts Brian Gardner, Jim Abrams and current Redskins' scout Jim Zeches prior to the 2005 draft and then fired them soon afterwards.  There's a fair chance that unless McCloughan feels sorry for Zeches because of last time, that he'll shit-can the old scout again.  It was less clear as to when consultant John Brunner left the organization.

• The front office was pretty bare when McCloughan first arrived in San Francisco, but he essentially turned over half of the staff within less than two months after the draft by firing the aforementioned men and bringing in his brother David McCloughan, one of his scouts from Seattle in Matt Malaspina, Trent Baalke, Tom Gamble and Roylin Bradley.  He also added Quentus Cumby to the pro personnel team in early 2006.  In the writing game, all of this is what we like to call "foreshadowing".
  

Seattle Seahawks (2010-2014):

Position/Title	2010 Post Draft	2011	2012	2013	2014 Pre Draft
General Manager	John Schneider	John Schneider	John Schneider	John Schneider	John Schneider
Senior Personnel Executive	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan
Executive VP of Football Ops	Pete Carroll	Pete Carroll	Pete Carroll	Pete Carroll	Pete Carroll
VP of Football Operations	Will Lewis	Will Lewis
Director of Pro Personnel	Tag Ribary	Tag Ribary	Tag Ribary	Trent Kirchner	Trent Kirchner
Asst. Director Pro Personnel	Trent Kirchner	Trent Kirchner	Trent Kirchner	Dan Morgan	Dan Morgan
Pro Scout	Dale Thompson	Dan Morgan	Dan Morgan		Nolan Teasley
Director of College Scouting	Scott Fitterer	Scott Fitterer	Scott Fitterer	Scott Fitterer	Scott Fitterer
Asst. Director College Scouting	Eric Stokes	Eric Stokes
College Scout COORD/Admin	Kirk Parrish	Kirk Parrish	Kirk Parrish	Kirk Parrish	Kirk Parrish
College Scout	Jason Barnes (MW)	Jason Barnes (MW)	Jason Barnes (MW)	Jason Barnes (MW)	Jason Barnes (MW)
College Scout	Matt Berry (SW)	Matt Berry (SW)	Matt Berry (SW)	Matt Berry (SW)	Matt Berry (Nation)
College Scout	Ed Dodds (SC)	Ed Dodds (SC)	Ed Dodds (SC)	Ed Dodds (SC)	Ed Dodds (Nation)
College Scout	Aaron Hineline (ML)	Aaron Hineline (ML)	Aaron Hineline (ML)	Aaron Hineline (ML)	Aaron Hineline (ML)
College Scout	Derrick Jensen (SE)	Derrick Jensen (SE)	Derrick Jensen (SE)	Jim Nagy (SE)	Jim Nagy (SE)
College Scout	Charlie Jackson (NE)	Charlie Jackson (NE)	Todd Brunner (NE)	Todd Brunner (NE)	Todd Brunner (NE)
College Scout			Tyler Ramsey (West)	Tyler Ramsey (West)	Tyler Ramsey (West)
College Scout				Josh Graff (NFS)	Josh Graff (NFS)

• In his second tour in the great Northwest, Scot McCloughan was reunited with John Schneider, Scott Fitterer, Will Lewis, Tag Ribary, Kirk Parrish and Eric Stokes.

• Former 49ers' scout Todd Brunner followed McCloughan to Seattle two years later in 2012.

• Once again Seattle went with a "bigger is better" approach with their front office.  They average 15.6 total personnel, nearly seven executives (includes assistant execs), over nine total college personnel and nearly seven college scouts.
  

Before we are able to compare the environments that McCloughan has worked in with other teams to the one he's in now we need to take one more quick look back.

Washington Redskins (2012-2014):

Position/Title	2012	2013	2014	2015 Pre Draft
General Manager	Bruce Allen	Bruce Allen	Bruce Allen	Scot McCloughan
Executive VP	Mike Shanahan	Mike Shanahan
Senior Executive		A.J. Smith	A.J. Smith
Personnel Executive			Doug Williams	Doug Williams
Director of Player Personnel	Scott Campbell	Scott Campbell	Scott Campbell	Scott Campbell
Director of Pro Personnel	Morocco Brown	Morocco Brown	Alex Santos	Alex Santos
Pro Scout	Alex Santos	Alex Santos	Jeff Scott	Jeff Scott
Pro Scout	Richard Mann II	Richard Mann II	Richard Mann II	Richard Mann II
Pro Scout			Josh Washburn	Josh Washburn
College Scout	Kyle Smith (SE)	Kyle Smith (SE)	Kyle Smith (SE)	Kyle Smith (SE)
College Scout	Tim Gribble (MW)	Tim Gribble (MW)	Tim Gribble (MW)	Tim Gribble (MW)
College Scout	Cole Spencer (NE)	Cole Spencer (NE)	Cole Spencer (NE)	Cole Spencer (NE)
College Scout	David Whittington (SW)	David Whittington (SW)	David Whittington (SW)	David Whittington (SW)
College Scout	Jim Zeches (West)	Jim Zeches (West)	Jim Zeches (West)	Jim Zeches (West)
College Scout	Darryl Franklin (NE/BLESTO)	Darryl Franklin (NE/BLESTO)	Darryl Franklin (BLESTO)	Darryl Franklin (NE/BLESTO)
Scouting/Personnel Assistant		Jeff Scott	Matt Evans	Matt Evans
Scouting/Personnel Assistant		Josh Washburn

• We already discussed the Redskins scouting department in Part 1, but if there's anything positive that you can say about this operation is that it has seen a fair amount of continuity.  However, they've also had continuity with their lack of success.
• To learn more about the Redskins current staff click the links on their names under the 2015 column.
  

The Typical Scot McCloughan Front Office vs. The Washington Redskins

Position	McClougan Average	2015 Redskins	Difference
Total Player Personnel	14.0	14	0.0
Total Executives	4.6	4	-0.6
Total Pro Personnel	2.9	4	1.1
Total College Personnel	8.3	6	-2.3
College Scouts	6.3	5	-1.3
Scouting Assistants	0.6	1	0.4
NFS/BLESTO Scouts	0.1	1	0.9

Once again we see that there is a very strong likelihood that the Redskins will look to buttress their college staff with more scouts while also letting go of at least one member of their pro scouting wing.  They will also likely add another executive and discontinue their use of a BLESTO scout.  Here are some more fast facts about McCloughan's former teams.

• There were one or fewer pro scouts on 61% of the staffs that McCloughan was a part of and three or fewer members of the pro personnel team on 83% of them.  There was also an assistant director of pro personnel on nearly 40% of his teams.
  

• I would bet good money that a director of college scouting and a college scouting coordinator will be hired or appointed.  The Redskins have neither and there has been one on 91% and 87% of McCloughan's team's respectively.

• The college football focus doesn't stop there either.  There have been at least six college scouts (not including BLESTO or NFS) in 100% of the personnel departments that Scot McCloughan has worked in.  Twenty-six percent of those departments had more than six of them.  The Redskins currently have five college scouts on staff.

• It's the same story when you look at the entire college personnel department (includes scouts, BLESTO, coordinators, directors, etc.).  The Redskins only employ six college personnel men, while there was eight or more of them on a whopping 87% of the new GM's former teams.
  

All Player Personnel Staff Worked With (1994-2014)

Now let's figure out who Scot McCloughan is going to build his new Washington Redskins team with.  Below you will see a list of quite possibly every person that has worked alongside him in a full-time scouting role.

The table is sorted by the number of years that the personnel man worked with McCloughan.  You can also use the search bar to filter the results by name, team, calendar years and position.

This information should definitely put us on the right track.  Logic tells us a few things here.  First, McCloughan would probably prefer to bring in people he knows and trusts and that is more likely to be the case with those that he's worked with for a while.

We also shouldn't expect another GM to take a demotion just to work with his old buddy Scot again; and likewise, it would be surprising for McCloughan to reach by attempting to resurrect the NFL careers of current realtor Mike Murphy and State Farm insurance agent Matt Boockheimer.

As you can see Scot McCloughan has worked with Matt Malaspina longer than anyone.  He may be eager to leave what looks like a sinking ship in San Francisco.  Malaspina followed McCloughan once, so perhaps he'll be willing to do it again.

Kirk Parrish, Scott Fitterer, Todd Brunner and Will Lewis are all right behind Malaspina in terms of experience with McCloughan.  However, it could be tougher to get them to leave the cushier confines of Seattle and Kansas City.  Perhaps giving better titles and more money to experienced scouts like Ethan Waugh, Ed Dodds, Matt Berry or Reggie Cobb is the answer.

Potential New-Look Front Office

Based on the information from the preceding table I've created something of a rough wish list for the team's new front office.  Most of these decisions were based on the amount of time that McCloughan worked with the individual and their current positions and titles with other teams.

Position/Title	Option 1	Option 2	Option 3
General Manager	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan	Scot McCloughan
Director of Player Personnel	Matt Malspina	Alonzo Highsmith	Scott Fitterer
VP of Football Ops	Alonzo Highsmith	Lake Dawson
Director of Pro Personnel	Quentus Cumby	Ryan Meyers	Alex Santos
Asst. Director Pro Personnel	Ryan Meyers	Don Warren	Richard Mann II
Pro Scout	Richard Mann II		Josh Washburn
Director of College Scouting	Justin Chabot	David McCloughan	Matt Berry
College Scout 1	Todd Brunner	Todd Brunner	Reggie Cobb
College Scout 2	David McCloughan	John Peterson	Jason Barnes
College Scout 3	John Peterson	Jeff Beathard	Tim Gribble
College Scout 4	Jeff Beathard	Tim Gribble	David Whttington
College Scout 5	Tim Gribble	Josh Graff	Kyle Smith
College Scout 6	Josh Graff	A.J. Highsmith	Dale Thompson
College Scout 7	A.J. Highsmith		Cole Spencer
Scouting Coordinator/Admin	Teddy Atlas	Matt Evans	Kirk Parrish
Scouting Assistant	Matt Evans	New Hire	Matt Evans

Highsmith, Malaspina and Fitterer were already discussed, so no need for further explanation there.  David McCloughan is Scot's older brother and was his director of college scouting with the 49ers.  Chabot is a very experienced and well-regarded scout, Lake Dawson is looking for work and Cumby and Meyers would both gladly accept their first job as a top-level pro scouting executive.

Option one would probably be my ideal scenario.  Giving the team two new experienced lieutenants and an almost completely new staff.  Option three is probably the most realistic scenario, as there is a virtually an even split between current Redskins personnel staffers and scouts from McCloughan's most recent stop in Seattle.

I admittedly got a little cute with Beathard, Don Warren and A.J. Highsmith, but the Redskins are huge fans of nepotism and bringing in big names that might have more style than substance, so I thought, why not?  Beathard and Warren are both from Virginia and hiring the young Highsmith might entice Dad to head south for a little on-the-job father-son bonding.

Bottom Line

Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen have insisted on employing an antiquated approach that prioritizes free agency over the draft as a primary means of roster construction.  Come to think of it, when has that approach ever worked?  It certainly hasn't ever produced the desired results here.

Luckily for the Redskins, Scot McCloughan does not subscribe to this philosophy.  He is an ardent believer that teams must be built through the NFL draft.  And for that reason, it is clear that there will be change and there will be casualties.  He will likely make many of the aforementioned moves that we discussed, but my question is: why stop there?

The Redskins will likely hire more scouts, a college scouting coordinator and a director of college scouting among others, but if McCloughan truly believes that the draft is the lifeline of an organization and if Dan Snyder is really fully committed to helping McCloughan, then they should be using everything at their disposal to improve the player personnel department.

Snyder needs to realize that teams are built on the backs of their scouting staffs.  There is no salary cap for the player personnel department of teams and the Redskins are worth an estimated $2.4 billion (third most in the NFL).  If you're going to throw your money somewhere, then this is where you should do it.  Especially, since based on everything that I've seen personnel staffers are severely underpaid relative to their importance.

The Redskins could hire a scouting coordinator, three additional college scouts and three more executives, and it would likely cost them less than $1 million a year.  That's a drop in the bucket for this team and the value that a move like that would create would be immense.

The Washington Redskins finally have found the right personnel man to lead this team out of the dark ages, and they should give him more than what he needs to just succeed.  They should provide him with the tools and the support that will allow him to thrive.

*All front office information courtesy of official team media guides and websites*