Redskins: 7 moves that must be made to fully change the team’s culture

1. Restructure front office and part with Bruce Allen

Dan Snyder has to come to a realization that the team cannot function with Bruce Allen as a lead executive. As the past few seasons have unfolded, Allen has been a constant for the team. And part of the constant with him is chaos and dysfunction, as evidenced by the departures of Scot McCloughan and Brian Lafemina.

Allen seems to have a spot next to Snyder, and he has dodged being fired on numerous occasions. But frankly speaking, it’s time for new leadership in Washington. They need to restructure their front office — without Allen in the fold.

Ideally, the team would have kept Lafemina to help run the business side of things while Eric Schaffer, Kyle Smith, and Doug Williams take over things on the football operations side. Schaffer and Williams have been getting more involved in the past season, but the team might be in danger of losing one or both if they aren’t elevated or given better titles. Both could be desirable on the open market, and the team has to realize that these guys might be the future. Elevating the trio and creating a new structure would absolutely be the way to go. But right now, it seems doubtful that will happen.

Culture change starts at the top down. And while Snyder isn’t going anywhere, making changes to the front office could do enough to make this a somewhat functional organization that can start to operate efficiently and effectively. At the very least, fixing the football operations side of things and adding extra clarity to all roles would help the coaching staff and personnel evaluators to work together more effectively. That would be a big positive.

This seven-step plan is ambitious, but here’s hoping that the Redskins follow it. If they don’t, the 2019 season will definitely be another difficult one.