Bruce Allen cost the Redskins big-time in the Trent Williams trade

In case you needed a reason to remember why the departure of Bruce Allen was a good thing, just read this quote about what the team could’ve gotten in exchange for Trent Williams at the 2019 NFL trade deadline.

During the 2020 NFL Draft, the Washington Redskins elected to trade their long-term left tackle Trent Williams away in exchange for a 2020 fifth-round pick and a 2021 third-round pick. Williams is heading to the San Francisco 49ers to replace the now-retired Joe Staley.

All told, the return for Williams was fine. It was as solid as they were going to get at this point.

But Ron Rivera confirmed something on Wednesday that was already a relatively well-known fact: The Redskins had a first-round pick on the table in exchange for Williams at the 2019 NFL trade deadline. And Bruce Allen declined the opportunity to trade Williams away.

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Here’s what Rivera said on the The Kevin Sheehan Show, per NBC Sports Washington’s JP Finlay.

"There was an opportunity, from what I was told, that last year just before the trade deadline he was worth a first-round pick. But, for whatever reason, the deal was never done."

There had been rumblings around the deadline that Williams was a top trade target. And teams desperate to win, like the Cleveland Browns and Minnesota Vikings, surely could’ve considered making a move for him. And maybe the Browns would’ve ponied up and given that first-round pick for him given that they needed to win with Freddie Kitchens and John Dorsey‘s seats growing hot as the team continued to underperform.

Alas, that never happened. And it was likely because of one main figure in the Redskins’ front office: Bruce Allen.

Allen never seemed to want to trade Williams amid his holdout. He repeatedly said that Williams was off the table as he had two years left on his deal, and Allen essentially tried to force Williams’ hand to get him to return to the team. That ended up backfiring.

Williams didn’t play a game for the Redskins in 2019. And they didn’t get a top-tier asset for him. Instead, Williams did return to the squad, detailed that his “medical scare” from the offseason was related to a cancer misdiagnosis for which he blamed the organization, and proceeded not to play the rest of the year. That left a mess for Ron Rivera and the new staff to clean up, which they did by finally trading him during the draft.

But missing out on a first-round pick in exchange for Williams was an asinine move on Allen’s part. If that offer was truly on the table, he should’ve taken it right away. There was so much already stacked against the Redskins. Williams had vowed never to play for them again. He had turned 31 before the season began. And he had dealt with some knee issues that cost him time in the past couple of seasons.

In short, Williams had all the leverage on the ‘Skins. And the team’s only leverage came with teams desperate to win now being pushed up against the deadline. Allen could’ve capitalized on that. Instead, he decided to stick it to Williams for holding out. And that ended up being a big mistake.

During the offseason, the demand for Williams went down. He’s set to turn 32 before the start of the season and needs a new contract. He has one affordable year left on his deal, but no team would give up a first for a rental tackle that hadn’t played since 2018. There was some chatter about the Redskins landing a Day 2 pick, but that was complicated by the fact that the 2020 NFL Draft was loaded at the tackle position. So, once the Browns, Vikings, and New York Jets landed top tackles, there were few landing spots for Williams.

The team was actually lucky that the 49ers opened up as a destination because of Staley’s retirement. If they hadn’t, a deal may have been harder to pull off given the lack of suitors. And then, the squad may have really had to sell low on the veteran or keep him around until a team got desperate.

But there was no chance that the team would land a first-round pick after the 2019 trade deadline passed. And that was either a massive miscalculation by Allen or a big middle-finger on his way out the door after a decade with the team.

The Williams situation is in the rearview mirror, and fans are surely ready to move on after that dragged on for 10 months. But man, if only Allen hadn’t gotten in the way of a trade for a first-round pick. Then, the ‘Skins may have been able to land one of the “Big Four” tackles to replace him during the 2020 NFL Draft. And even if not, they would’ve gotten proper value in exchange for a player who was never going to play for them again anyway.

Next. Redskins way-too-early roster projection. dark

So, chalk this up as one of the biggest mistakes of the Bruce Allen era. And that is saying something.

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