Josh Harris will officially become the Commanders owner later this month. While Daniel Snyder‘s sale of the team will surely have a long-lasting impact on the organization, the new owner isn’t expected to make any immediate changes.
[RELATED: Date Set For Vote On Commanders Sale Ratification]
According to Ben Standig of The Athletic, Harris isn’t expected to “make major staff changes” when he officially takes over the organization. This includes the job status of team president Jason Wright, with a source telling Nicki Jhabvala and Mark Maske of the Washington Post that Wright will “absolutely have the opportunity to perform in his role.”
Wright was hired by the Commanders in 2020, becoming the first Black team president in NFL history. As Jhabvala and Maske write, the executive was hired to “improve the workplace culture of a franchise embroiled in controversy,” and Wright did help navigate the organization through multiple investigations and eventual “senior business personnel” overhauls.
The team president has also faced criticism, mostly when it comes to near-league-bottom ticket sales over the past two years. Wright also drew some ire when it came to the Commanders’ “missteps in honoring the late Sean Taylor, a bounced raffle check and the tepid public response to its new name.”
Harris isn’t expected to shake things up, at least right away. Per Standig, the owner intends to “take his time to evaluate current staff before considering changes.” This buys executives like Wright some extra time to build a rapport with their new boss, but as Standig points out, Harris surely has “a list of potential executives to join him in Washington.”
It sounds like Harris also won’t make any rash decisions when it comes to the coaching staff and front office, including head coach Ron Rivera and general manager Martin Mayhew. Of course, considering the timing of the sale, it seemed extremely unlikely that Harris would shake up those two areas of the operation with training camp rapidly approaching.
A league meeting has been scheduled for July 20 to ratify the Commanders sale. As the Washington Post notes, Harris and his group aren’t allowed to “to speak with employees of the team about future changes” until that time.
“Harris isn’t expected to shake things up, at least right away”.
He’ll spend the first few days shaking his head and thinking “OMG! what have I got myself into here?”
Change the name
Redskins has a nice ring to it. Washington Redskins
But should have gone with Hogs. Browns ever change their name it should be Dogs.
Dogs don’t deserve that form of abuse. The way Cleveland fans and the organization disrespected Art Modell upon his death was one of the lowest class things I’ve seen in sports.
I always liked Redskins – still have / wear a Redskin t-shirt
Never a Redskins fan but George Allen will always be my favorite coach. He was one of those unique individuals who are able to make the craziest of ideas work.
No reason to make changes with the season 2 months away. Get his feet wet, if you will, this year. Then next offseason bring in ‘his people’. I bet him and Dan had some of agreement not to draft QB in the first and go with the 5th rounder. New coach, GM, & QB (should be a high 1st round pick in April) is what I expect next offseason.
Haven’t they been on that track since kicking Cousins out?
Apparently Harris didn’t do much homework on his new team’s front office staff, as Wright is a complete foul-up. As a new owner I would think getting off to a fresh start with the fan base would be paramount, which is an impossibility with the clown show currently in place.
He’s a self made billionaire. He did his homework. But why change everything now in mid July?
Trying to get anything done (especially in Washington) is almost impossible in July and August because most people take their vacations then.
Is he planning on moving their stadium downtown?
There’s only 2 option for the name:
1) Washington Football Team. It’s actually cool to have that European soccer name and to be honest I kind of got used to it.
2) Washington Senators. The DC baseball team’s twice former name. It fits.
*3) Caveat: Anything but Red. Don’t need to have Red in the name anymore. Those days are over. No Skins. No red tails. No red wolves. Just leave that part in the history books along with Dan Snyder and the other previous owners.