On a day where the Commanders’ assistant coaches were available to the media in Ashburn, Grant & Danny got an extra-special treat: Rick Spielman, who was a big part of the Commanders’ search committee for the new GM, popped by to give a little insight into the process that led to Adam Peters!
“It was an honor and privilege that I was able to be a part of that process, just because it's such a historic and iconic franchise,” Spielman said. “Under the new leadership of Josh Harris, the Washington Cpmmanders fans should be very excited. To get an opportunity to go through all the general manager interviews that we had set up, we had a lot of very qualified candidates, and I think Josh made a great decision in hiring Adam Peters, who is not only respected as a great personnel man and talent evaluator, but was ready to take that next step to oversee all the football operations.”
Spielman admitted the process was long and at times tedious, but he was ‘taken aback’ by how many qualified candidates the Commanders met with, especially for the coaching gig.
“A lot of those guys will be head coaches in the near future, but no question in my mind that Josh put the right two together with Dan (Quinn) and Adam,” Spielman said. “Josh wanted someone that can lead the entire football operation and be very strong in personnel, and be collaborative in working within the organization and across the football operations department, and Adam checked all those boxes. You look at his background, and it speaks for itself to see what success looks like in that many different places.”
Peters was the choice at the end of a ‘very efficient’ process where Spielman spent 2 ½ hours alone with each candidate before powwowing with Bob Myers and Harris, who had their own hours-long interviews, to compare notes on their specific areas of expertise and rank the candidates.
The coaching interviews were similar, just with Peters and Martin Mayhew added, and as you might expect, the impact of Myers was less about the job qualities and more about the human building a winner.
“Bob was very instrumental, and I learned a lot from Bob; it may not be in the weeds with personnel and schematics, but he had a very insightful perspective on head coach-GM relationship and leadership,” Spielman said. “I think that translates across any sport; you're either a leader or you're not, and with the relationships you build, you still are working to one common goal. So, some of the perspectives that he brought from his experience in the NBA I thought were different, but also very interesting. He gave kind of a different opinion, some of the successes and mistakes he had, and I learned a lot from his totally different perspective, but it still comes down to trying to pick the right leaders, the people that are gonna be able to work collaboratively together to try to get the best outcome.”
So why in the end was it Peters?
“I spoke on Adam’s qualifications, but he has no ego,” Spielman said. “Adam is a person that knows that this is not an ego business, and we have to work collaboratively as a team – and if he doesn't know the answer, he's sure as heck going to find it or go to someone who may give him some guidance, and he's gonna grow as that general manager. And the reason he's gonna grow is because he's not a guy that thinks he has all the answers. He’s very talented on the personnel side, but you're gonna have to grow into that position.”
And why Quinn?
“I worked with DQ when he was a D-line coach when I was down in Miami, and to me, there is no question when you talk to the players that he has coached about his leadership,” Spielman said. “He got Atlanta to a Super Bowl, and after h got let go, he did a bunch of self-scouting to look at his blind spots, and how to go out and seek advice from experts in those areas to improve them. So, you have two guys that are going to work collaboratively that have no egos, and are working for one common go. I told Adam that I can give you my opinion on all of these head coaches, I know most of them personally, but I don't have to work with them – you have to pick the guy that's gonna work best for you.”
Take a listen above to Spielman’s entire segment, which also has some thoughts on the draft (including his love for Caleb Williams) and more!