The Atlanta Falcons hired former Washington Football Team vice president of player personnel Kyle Smith to the same role, but one in which he may not be handcuffed as much by ownership.
According to former Washington Football Team head coach Jay Gruden, Smith was excellent in his role at evaluating talent and working with scouts and coaching staffs, but when it came time to the draft, he was often overruled by owner Dan Snyder.
“Every year that I was there, we had a pretty good draft class with a couple exceptions,” Gruden told Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post. “[Smith] was really good about listening to the coaches because the coaches also did evaluations. … When it came our time to pick, we’d always talk about the picks, where we’d like to go, what happens if [the player] is gone, and did all our scenarios. And then [owner Daniel Snyder] would come in off his yacht and make the pick.”
It is no secret Gruden was referring to the team’s first-round draft pick in 2019, when Washington selected quarterback Dwayne Haskins with their first-round pick against the wishes of the team’s personnel department.
Haskins was cut by Washington at the end of this past season after failing to show much on and off the field.
Smith’s departure from Washington also comes after the team did not consider him for the vacant general manager position, leading to speculation about his relationship with new head coach Ron Rivera.
Per the Washington Post, there is no belief that there was any rift between Rivera and Smith, but the writing was on the wall after he was passed over for the GM position.
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