Thom Loverro wrote an article in the Washington Times that absolutely unloaded on Jason Wright, whom he called the “Chief Blunder Officer” of the Commanders, about the problems with Wright’s tenure as Commanders president.
He joined Chris Russell on Friday to talk about it, and when Rooster asked how Loverro was able to balance that with anything good that Wright has done…which wasn’t much?
“The good things are in large part because there’s such a low bar. There weren’t too many places to go, and it would be hard to have less of a connection than Bruce Allen had,” Loverro said. “Bruce was so delusional, he thought he was the peoples’ guy. They were shocked their approval ratings were so dismal, and I used that to illustrate that Jason Wright might think Dan Snyder recognized at some level that the team might do better financially with him out of the way, but he might not want it spoken into existence because he’s also a little delusional, so he might not want his team president saying that. That’s not a good look, it’s the look of a guy looking for a job on the other end.”
Russell has no doubt that Ron Rivera is coaching for his and the football operations side’s futures, but is there a divided house when it comes to football operations versus business in the organization?
“I talked about two factions, where Ron Rivera declined to talk about Mike Jones for his article about Jason Wright,” Loverro said. “And, you have that whole bizarre thing out there that Wright wants to run football operations, which is really off the wall, so there’s a lot of strange stuff that needs to just be swept out the door.”
That, Loverro says, includes Wright.
“There’s no case to make that you can’t do better than hiring someone other than Jason Wright to run your business. He’s a smart, accomplished guy, and he played in the league so that gives him a better understanding of the game on a business side, but he worked for a consulting firm for six years and never really ran anything. This isn’t like running a 7-11, this is a big operation!”
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The thing about the housecleaning, especially with the fact that the Harris group won’t take over until later in the offseason, is that the football operations team can be cleared out at any time but doing so possibly negatively impacts the product – whereas the business side can be wiped out and start fresh instantly.
So, knowing that, is all Wright is trying to do a smokescreen for him being “helpful” to the new owners?
“Yeah, I think that’s him trying to convince ownership how valuable he is. I saw Jim Bowden do the same when there were different groups trying to buy the Nationals; he attached himself to the Lerners early in the process and made himself so valuable to them that they thought they couldn’t operate without him,” Loverro said. “I think Josh Harris is much more savvy about sports than the Lerners were, and I can’t imagine he doesn’t have someone already in mind to have that job – and I’d be shocked if it’s Jason Wright.”
Loverro also wonders this about both sides: what is the logic of the Sam Howell anointment, even knowing he’s an inexpensive alternative that could allow you to build the roster elsewhere, when you’re potentially now coaching and managing for your jobs?
Russell thinks Rivera may not be worried about that, if not “oblivious” to that fact, but also knows they’ve had so much spectacular failure lately, how much worse could this be?
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“There might have been a better option than Jacoby Brissett,” Loverro said, reiterating what he said on DC air last week that he thinks Brissett will be the Week 1 starter. “I don’t think Sam Howell is going to show them enough in preseason – and remember, Eric Bieniemy is fighting for his next job, too, and I don’t think he’ll sit there and say they want to give Howell a chance if he doesn’t show it!”
That led to a debate about whether or not Bieniemy would’ve taken the job in a different situation, and how he ‘had to know’ Howell was QB1 coming in, but Loverro thinks Bieniemy will make his case no matter what.
But with all that said, how much can one forgive Wright for his mistakes, in the thought process that he made them trying to overcome tough circumstances?
“The first two or three, okay, but after that, if he was any kind of business leader, he should have had people in tow realizing there’s only one voice, and it’s his – and if you can’t follow that, we’ll get someone who can,” Loverro said. “They never operated like an organization that had any cohesion. They barely got past a week without the next accident, and that had nothing to do with anything he inherited. I put the responsibility for what happened with Jack Del Rio last summer…he never should have been on Twitter, but that’s the team president’s business decision. Everyone on that football side should’ve heard from Jason Wright to tell them to keep their mouths shut, we’re trying to get a stadium here.”
Follow Chris Russell on Twitter: @Russellmania621
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