Skins Name AJ Smith As Senior Executive

Fwiw Mike I am in the same boat as you about this move. I sure hope I'm wrong and it does no damage whatsoever, but I have a hard time believing a personality as caustic as his will have no negative effects whatsoever. He seems to piss just about everyone off he works with. Maybe folks are right and his power will be significantly limited and consequently his asshattishness will be mitigated. HOPEFULLY.

CounterTrey said:

Fwiw Mike I am in the same boat as you about this move. I sure hope I'm wrong and it does no damage whatsoever, but I have a hard time believing a personality as caustic as his will have no negative effects whatsoever. He seems to piss just about everyone off he works with. Maybe folks are right and his power will be significantly limited and consequently his asshattishness will be mitigated. HOPEFULLY.

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Well, maybe this is an ideal scenario, because he's working with the one guy he hasn't managed to piss off. He worked with the Allens before, and here is Bruce wanting to work with him again.

I hope so Lanky! God knows we are in desperate need of upgrading that department (them trying to now is at the very least encouraging), I just hope we don't make boneheaded moves based on friendship.

The way I see it, there are three ways to view the AJ Smith hire, and consequently 3 ways the move will play out:

1. AJ's hire as the "back scratch" move - AJ has a history with Bruce's father; and his son currently works for the team. AJ just lost his job, needs to polish up his image, what better way than to get a job with a team on the rise? He stays here for a year or two on a team that is on the rise, and re-builds his image. He leaves for another GM position in a couple years, without really ever having done anything on the Skins. This makes the most sense to me, because why mess with a good thing?

2. AJ's hire as the Snyder is unhappy move - Let's face it; Dan is known as an owner that isn't afraid to throw a wrench into the gears if he's unhappy with how things are going. Maybe he's not 100% happy with how the team is being run and the players being drafted, so he overstepped his bounds to bring in "help." This option does not strike me as being particularly feasible, because for one thing, the team is doing well! First NFC East title in almost 15 years! Snyder could be unhappy with the cap-penalty and possibly blames Allen for it, but really, the fault for that should be laid right at his and Vinny's feet, as they signed the contract in the first place. If this is the way it happened, this will lead to Bruce's firing and AJ taking over. Not gonna happen.

3. AJ's hire as legitimately looking for draft assistance - no first round pick and hamstrung by cap penalties; the Redskins have 7 draft picks in April, and IMO they need to "hit" on at least 4 of 7 if they don't get any cap space back. As much as AJ is blamed for the downfall in San Diego, he's hit on some late-round draft picks (Shaun Phillips) & UDFAs (Antonio Gates) in the past; so maybe Bruce & Mike brought him in truly to consult. Its not so far-fetched to believe a guy with his experience could be asked to evaluate certain players. If this is the case, we may never know. Hopefully it just pans out in April.

A combination of 1 & 3 is also an option; but 1 kind of goes hand in hand with 3 anyway. Bottom line: I don't think any scenario involves AJ doing the same things he did in San Diego to run the team into the ground, and only the "good" things he did. I'm personally excited about the move, and am excited to see how it pans out in April!

FWIW, San Diego FA OG Louis Vasquez has signed with the Broncos. Guess it wasn't AJ's fault that players kept leaving?

MikeSr619 said:

one guy? lets compare that to Sproles, LT, Brees, Vincent Jackson, etc, etc, etc.

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Maybe the owner doesn't like to spend money?

MikeSr619 said:

tell that to david boston...lol

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Maybe that's why? Who have they paid well in the 10 yrs since the Boston debacle?

MikeSr619 said:

Rivers - Contract: 7 yr(s) / $98,250,000 - 19.5mil signing bonus
Quentin Jammer - Contract: 7 yr(s) / $31,825,000 - 2mil signing bonus
Malcom Floyd - Contract: 4 yr(s) / $13,000,000 - 1mil signing bonus
Eric Weddle - Contract: 5 yr(s) / $40,000,000 - 13mil signing bonus

the weddle one just happened, too. and that pretty much helps my point. but i dont want to keep rehashing this. im not even sure why it was resurrected to begin with.

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I was just curious... my bad

Dead Money said:

Maybe the owner doesn't like to spend money?

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Yep...Chargers are one of many smaller-market teams that don't like to spend a ton of money. They gave Rivers a big contract, but outside of him, there hasn't been much. AJ Smith was not the guy signing the checks.

Pretty funny that a lot of people laugh and say that Weddle is overpaid and forget that the Redskins gave Arch Deluxe a very similar contract 7-8 years ago when it was common knowledge that he wasn't very good.

I am not a San Diego fan or watcher per se, but the talent Smith was able to pull in the middle to late rounds of the draft was fairly impressive.

The diaspora of talented ex-Chargers starting on other teams shows how much talent SD had put on their team through the 2000's but always seemed to come up a bit short.

Sounds a lot like the Capitals to Washington fans I suppose.

But Smith's downfall was his stern and nasty tone in negotiating player contracts and pissing off almost every registered players' agent that has clients in the NFL.

At one point, agents just didn't want to do business with him. And in today's NFL as we have seen agents are key to getting guys signed or helping them to leave.

As long as Smith is behind Allen and is here for strictly the talent evaluation, we should be in good hands.

Good cop, bad cop?

yep. Allen had the same system in Oakland where he fronted the contracts and Mike Lombardi handled the draft.

It worked and the Raiders actually were drafting and signing talented players for a time.

Then everyone left and Al Davis decided in his mid-70's to do all three jobs and the team went to hell.

Found this little gem on twitter this morning... Haha keeping him out of DC.
Sounds like I was right about the title....

Zac Boyer (@ZacBoyer) tweeted at 1:56 PM on Tue, Mar 19, 2013:
According to @Rich_Campbell, former Chargers GM A.J. Smith will serve as a San Diego-based talent evaluation consultant for the #Redskins.
(https://twitter.com/ZacBoyer/status/314118111773196288)

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I TOLD YOU!
Ok... maybe not exactly but him being in San Diego has got to calm down the pitchfork and torch crowd a little right?




EDIT: I'm guessing he's referring to the following article:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog...ns-gm-bruce-allen-senior-executive-j-smith-s/

Redskins GM Bruce Allen: Senior executive A.J. Smith is a San Diego-based consultant

PHOENIX | Newly-hired senior executive A.J. Smith will serve the Redskins as a San Diego-based consultant, general manager Bruce Allen said Tuesday.
Allen hired Smith, his longtime friend, last month. He was the San Diego Chargers’ general manager for the last 10 seasons, a span that included five AFC West division titles.
Smith’s role with the Redskins will center on internal evaluations. His responsibilities had not been publicized by the team.
“More just looking at us, giving us an evaluation of our players,” Allen said in an interview with the Washington Times.
Coach Mike Shanahan has final say over roster decisions.
Allen and Smith’s friendship dates from the early 1980s when they worked together with the Chicago Blitz of the USFL. Smith tried out for the Redskins as a player in 1974 when Bruce’s father, George, was the head coach. He served as a scout for the Blitz from 1982-83. Also, Smith’s son, Kyle, is an area scout for the Redskins.
San Diego fired Smith, 64, and head coach Norv Turner on New Year’s Day after the Chargers missed the playoffs for the third straight season.
The upcoming season will be Smith’s 29th in the NFL.
“He started out as a college scout, became a pro scout and did have a good run as a general manager,” Allen said. “I imagine he’s going to get another opportunity sooner than later. For the time being, if he wants to help us out evaluate players on our team, I think that’s a positive.”


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog...len-senior-executive-j-smith-s/#ixzz2O56a7FVp
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

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Sounds like exactly what many of us were predicting: he will simply be evaluating college players from now until April, creating a draft board for Allen & Shanahan to consult & compare with their own. Hopefully he can find some gems in the later rounds for us.