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Eugene Shen

Commanders Move Doug Williams Back To Personnel Role, Part Ways With Eugene Shen

June 25th, 2024 at 3:47pm CST by Sam Robinson

Best known for his late-1980s run as Washington’s starting quarterback, Doug Williams remains with the organization. Though, the former Super Bowl XXII MVP’s role has changed a few times in recent years. Another adjustment will take place moving forward.

Moved out of the personnel picture early in Ron Rivera‘s tenure with the franchise, Williams is now back in the front office mix. The Commanders announced Tuesday the veteran exec will work as a senior advisor to GM Adam Peters. This will not be a foreign role for Williams, who was receiving Fritz Pollard Alliance recommendations for GM gigs in the late 2010s.

The first Black quarterback to start a Super Bowl — a Washington romp over Denver that ended with the QB throwing four touchdown passes — Williams previously worked as Washington’s senior VP of player personnel during a three-year stretch from 2017-19. Days into his tenure atop the club’s personnel hierarchy, Rivera shifted Williams to the title of senior VP of player development. The Bruce Allen-era staple, despite multiple GM changes since the team president’s exit, remains and will join Rivera-era hires Martin Mayhew and Marty Hurney as Peters lieutenants moving forward.

The Commanders also hired Texans director of player development Dylan Thompson, per KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson. Thompson, a former Lions character coach who spent three-plus years with Nick Caserio in Houston, to work as their senior director of team support and advancement. A former 49ers UDFA quarterback, Thompson did not overlap with Peters in San Francisco. But he will be part of the new Washington GM’s staff.

Washington is also moving on from senior VP of football strategy Eugene Shen, ESPN.com’s Seth Walder and John Keim report. Shen’s tenure lasted less than eight months, with Josh Harris having hired him in November. Coming to Washington after stints in Jacksonville, Baltimore and Miami, Shen was in place to provide more of an assessment rather than serve in a long-term capacity, per NBC Sports Bay Area’s JP Finlay.

Hurney remains in place after following Rivera to Washington, and fellow Rivera hire Rob Rogers will as well. Reported to be staying on at least through the draft, the ex-Panthers exec — hired in 2020 — is still with the club as VP of football administration. Carrying extensive negotiating experience, Rogers held this title for 11 years with the Panthers as well.

Additionally, the Commanders hired Doug Drewry as their manager of football research and development. Connor Nickel and Travis Ho are coming aboard as coaching analysts, while Matt Peterson is on the staff roster as the team’s football operations coordinator. Cyrus Daniels is in place as a football ops assistant. Dustin Regan is also now with the team as a college scout, being among the new scouting hires the now-Peters-led team has made this offseason. Charles Brensinger, Alberto de la Guardia, Mitch Sterner and Miles Turner are now scouting assistants with the NFC East team.

Commanders Could Part Ways With GM Martin Mayhew

November 26th, 2023 at 10:05pm CST by Rory Parks

It appears to be a foregone conclusion that the Commanders will fire head coach Ron Rivera at season’s end. Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports echoes that sentiment and adds that general manager Martin Mayhew could also be on the chopping block.

That is hardly surprising. While it made sense for new owner Josh Harris, who purchased the club in July, to give the power brokers that he inherited a fair evaluation period and to avoid a major shakeup less than two months before the start of the 2023 regular season, it likewise stands to reason that Harris would want to start afresh with his own choices at the HC and GM positions (especially in the wake of what is shaping up to be a sub-.500 campaign).

Our own Sam Robinson recently suggested as much, and a source told Tony Pauline of Sportskeeda.com that Harris wants to “get rid of the Daniel Snyder stench,” which would entail a total purge of both the front office and coaching staff. Harris, who is also the managing partner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, has reportedly expressed an interest in structuring the Commanders like an NBA team and has consulted with Sixers GM Elton Brand on the matter. Such a setup would apparently include, among other things, the possibility of giving the players a say in decision-making.

Mayhew, 58, enjoyed a long stint as the Lions’ general manager from 2008-15 and subsequently held high-level executive positions with the Giants and 49ers before joining Washington in 2021 (one year after Rivera). Despite Mayhew’s GM title, Rivera has always had final say over personnel matters, and Jones suggests that if Mayhew is relieved of his duties after the season, Harris may opt for a hierarchy wherein the head coach reports to the general manager, who in turn reports to ownership.

The good news for Commanders fans is that the presence of Harris, along with a healthy salary cap situation and an ample supply of draft capital, have made the team’s HC and GM posts very desirable. As one executive told Jones, “everyone’s shooting for Washington,” and that should allow Harris to choose from the best available talent in the upcoming hiring cycle. Although Jones does not say so, it could also mean that Washington’s faith in second-year quarterback Sam Howell is shared by top head coach and general manager candidates.

There are several additional notes from the above reports worth passing along. We already knew that Harris drove the recent deadline trades of defensive ends Montez Sweat and Chase Young, and that the club dropped its asking price on Young before sending him to the 49ers. According to Pauline, the team was especially motivated to move Young because it had grown weary of his propensity to improvise and freelance rather than operate within the defensive scheme.

With respect to the Commanders’ possible GM search, Jones says that an analytically-minded candidate could be particularly appealing to Harris. Indeed, as ESPN’s Seth Walder writes in a thread on X, it had been speculated that Harris would want more of a quantitative approach to personnel decisions, and to that end, the team has hired Eugene Shen as its Senior VP of Football Strategy.

Shen, who has previously worked for the Ravens and Dolphins and who served as the Jaguars’ VP of Football Analytics before leaving the team in 2022 to work in finance, will oversee all analytics and software development on the football side of the operation.