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Kyle Smith became Atlanta’s vice president of player staff on Monday after previously holding that title in Washington, where he has spent the past 11 years. Washington’s player staff has not been good for the past 11 years, but former head coach Jay Gruden said it was not Smith’s fault – and then said it was Dan Snyder’s fault.
Gruden has Nicki Jhabvala from the Washington Post that Smith did an excellent job of working with the scouting and coaching staff and putting Washington in good shape to have a good concept. The only problem was when Snyder, according to Gruden, would disregard that hard work and choose who he wanted.
“Every year I was there, we had a pretty good concept class, with a few exceptions,” Gruden said. ‘[Smith] was really good at listening to the coaches because the coaches also did evaluations. . . . When it came time to choose, we always talked about the choice, where we want to go, what happens when [the player] is gone, and has done all our scenarios. And then [owner Daniel Snyder] would come in from his hunt and make the choice. ‘
Snyder is excited about the failures of the first round Dwayne Haskins in 2020, of whom Snyder apparently liked much better than his football people did. Gruden’s remarks seem to suggest that he views Snyder’s interference as a constant problem in Washington, and a problem that Smith can escape by moving to Atlanta.