Adam Peters is an old soul that may help the Washington Commanders return to the good old days.
Don't be fooled by the Hollywood good looks, humble attitude and intelligent answers. Inside the 44-year-old new general manager is an old-school approach to building a team. The best part is his foundation of being a scout and personnel man while being young enough to blend in the new wave of analytics.
This is someone who is relentless, that has a long-term vision and enough leash by owner Josh Harris to build through the draft rather than quick fixes. The best teams do it that way.
I'd almost say Peters reminds me of Bobby Beathard, who was a personnel man too when he cam to Washington at age 41. However, Beathard dealt draft picks nearly as fast as predecessor George Allen.
The similarity, though, is they're scouts with an eye for talent. The one time Beathard relied on the draft, in 1981, was a master class that netted not only Mark May, Russ Grimm, and Dexter Manley in the first six rounds, but also Charley Brown, Darryl Grant, and Clint Didier over rounds 8 to 12 - an area that today would be undrafted free agents. And, Beathard signed an undrafted free agent named Joe Jacoby, who should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The eye for talent is everything for a GM who sees free agency as simply filling gaps. Ironically, that was free agency's original design before free-spenders like former Washington owner Dan Snyder blew up the system.
Peters has that eye. Teams will always dispute who picked winners in the draft while blaming others for the losers, but Peters clearly found some gems over the years with the San Francisco 49ers, including Mr. Irrelevant Brock Purdy.
That's what's so exciting over Peters' hire – he's a real football man this team has lacked in the front office since Charley Casserly's 1999 firing in the opening moments of the Snyder era. Beathard and Casserly joined with coach Joe Gibbs to win three Super Bowls during their joint 1978-99 era. Since then, Washington may have well thrown darts on a spinning wheel of names.
Former GMs (or whatever title they liked to use) Vinny Cerrato and Bruce Allen were awful. Cerrato knew something about scouting, but was powerless to stop Snyder's impulses, which included quarterbacks Patrick Ramsey and Dwayne Haskins. Allen was nicknamed "The Punter" by players on his father's 1970s powerhouses, showing how little they regarded someone who indeed was a college punter. It was the Hogs and Co.'s way of dismissing him.
Casserly worked under Beathard before succeeding him. The two didn't always agree with coaches, but they often worked together with Gibbs and succeeding coaches to follow a common vision. The biggest exception was Jacoby, whom Gibbs didn't initially want. But it was Beathard and Casserly's job to find talent and Gibbs' to turn them into winners. The 1987 championship was a result of a 3-0 strike team that Beathard and Casserly compiled.
That simple formula was recklessly abandoned until Ron Rivera's 2020 arrival. Rivera picked his own front office so they were in unison. Too bad they reached for too many top picks.
Peters' vision of a coach is someone who's smart, a leader, and good person, with an emphasis on offense or defense mattering little. Peters is looking for a partner rather than a rival in the building, a scenario that too often occurred at the training facility over past decades.
That's how the team did it when the Redskins dominated the NFL. Maybe a young man with an old-fashion approach can revive this franchise.
