Simulating the Washington Football Team’s entire 2021 offseason

General Manager pick

Last season, the No. 1 priority for the Washington Football Team was bringing in a head coach. Now, they need to bring in a general manager.

While Ron Rivera served as the de facto GM for most of last season, he wants to add some more depth to the front office to take a bit off his plate in that area. That way, he can focus on coaching while dabbling in roster construction as opposed to taking on everything as the head honcho.

It seems that Washington is looking to add an experienced personnel man to lead the charge, and they have cast a wide net in their interviews. That said, the best of the external options they have interviewed would be Titans VP of Player Personnel, Ryan Cowden.

Cowden has the perfect mix of experience (21 years) and a relationship with Rivera from their time together with the Panthers. Here’s a brief summary of Cowden’s achievements in recent years.

"Cowden has helped to build some very solid teams during his career. As part of the Panthers’ college scouting department, he helped make decisions to pick stars like Cam Newton and Luke Kuechly as first-rounders, but also built an impressive resume of finding gems including Josh Norman, Kawann Short, A.J. Klein, Trai Turner, and Tre Boston. He wasn’t solely responsible for these successes, but he was part of the team that got the Panthers to Super Bowl 50. With the Titans, Cowden has overseen some solid drafts that have built the foundation for the current team, which won the AFC South this year after making the AFC Championship during the 2020 playoffs. The Titans have selected the likes of Jack Conklin, Derrick Henry, A.J. Brown, and Corey Davis to build their offense during Cowden’s tenure as VP of Player Personnel. They have also made some astute moves in free agency and trade, most notably acquiring Ryan Tannehill and giving him a massive extension. That buy-low move turned out to be a good one, so Cowden and the Titans’ brain trust deserves credit for this."

The nice thing about Cowden’s resume is that he has built both a defensive juggernaut (Panthers) and a more offensive-minded contender (Titans), so he can clearly adapt his strategy based on personnel. That would certainly be beneficial to Washington’s cause.

Many fans will want to see Vice President of Player Personnel, Kyle Smith, get an internal promotion to GM, but it doesn’t seem that the team thinks he’s quite ready for that role. However, given his performance in the draft during recent campaigns, Cowden should think about promoting him to Assistant GM if he does get hired. That would be a nice move to keep some continuity in Washington’s front office.

If Smith is promoted, Eric Stokes, who has interviewed for the team’s GM spot, could also see a promotion and take over Smith’s role. Washington has a lot of options, but of the external ones, Cowden would certainly seem like the best and allow them the most flexibility to build a robust, talented front office, especially considering they already have the framework of one.

Once the new GM is in place, that’s when the real fun can begin and the 90-man roster for Washington will start to take shape.