The Washington Redskins are a mess (but what’s new)

Remember how I recently theorized Washington gave Jay Gruden a contract extension to distract from their ongoing dysfunction? Washington Post reporter Mike Jones had some interesting thing to say about that possibility in an interview with 106.7 The Fan in D.C. on Monday. Via Rotoworld:

Appearing on 106.7 The Fan in D.C., the Washington Post's Mike Jones stated the Redskins and GM Scot McCloughan are "headed to a divorce." Jones essentially stated that Jay Gruden's two-year extension was a P.R. move amid organizational chaos. "And that's the sad thing, because Scot is such a good dude," said Jones. "Loves football. Eats, drinks, sleeps it. You talk to guys who've worked with him in the league, and all he does is watch football and unfortunately drink. There's frictions that are going on there between him and (team president) Bruce Allen ... some type of blowup. This thing is headed to a divorce." Jones guessed McCloughan's exit will be made official after April's draft.

I wrote about the bizarre McCloughan situation on Sunday. Despite him showing some promise as a general manager, it seems like he’s being kicked out the door.

As it turns out, though, the Gruden extension wasn’t the only attempt by Washington to distract from the McCloughan situation. Remember that weird and crazy three-way trade rumor that emerged last week? The one that involved sending Tony Romo to Washington? The one that no one thought was believable? Yeah, it seems like that may have been completely made up by Washington.

Appearing on 106.7 The Fan in D.C., the Washington Post's Mike Jones referred to NFL Network's "report" of a three-way trade involving Kirk Cousins, Tony Romo, and the 49ers as "fake." Jones seems to believe Redskins president Bruce Allen used NFL Network's Ian Rapoport as a mouthpiece to spread the rumor as a misinformation tactic with the Redskins embroiled in front-office drama. Ultimately, the Redskins decided giving Jay Gruden a two-year extension would be better P.R. "Bruce was like, alright we gotta do something because my fake Ian Rapoport Redskins three-way trade thing didn't work to change the story." Jones suggested the Redskins are now seen as so dysfunctional NFL agents are wary of their players signing with Washington because they're unaware of who's in charge. GM Scot McCloughan did not attend the Combine and is expected to be let go after April's draft.

With free agency coming up, Washington certainly isn’t looking like an attractive destination. They’re a mess.

The general manager isn’t present and he could be getting fired this offseason. The quarterback, Kirk Cousins, reportedly doesn’t even want to be in Washington. And that’s due to the fact the team doesn’t believe in him enough to pay him the money he wants. Washington reportedly believes they can win with Colt McCoy if the Cousins situation doesn’t work out for them. McCoy is 7-18 in his career as a starter and exactly one (1) of those wins was with Washington.

If you think Washington is really fine and I’m just being a hater (shoutout to all the Washington fans in my Twitter mentions), think again. Even Washington wide receiver Pierre Garçon, who is expected to leave in free agency, recently took to Twitter to laugh at the team.

The fact that Washington is a mess really isn’t news, though. This dysfunction is par for the course under Dan Snyder’s ownership. I’m not going to sit here and act like the Eagles are always the most functional bunch, but Washington always manages to have their own special level of discord.

It’s just funny because it looked like Washington might be turning over a new leaf under McCloughan. And it looked like they finally might have a franchise passer in Cousins. But now it seems like they’re going to get rid of one of their best general managers in recent history and they’ve completely managed to alienate their quarterback.

Lolskins.