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Kyle Smith became vice president of the Atlanta players’ team yesterday after winning that title in Washington, where he spent the last 11 years. The players in Washington have not been good for the past 11 years, but former coach Jay Gruden said it was not Smith’s fault – and then said it was Dan Snyder’s fault.
Gruden told Nicki Jhabvala about the Washington Post that Smith did an excellent job working with teams of scouts and coaches and putting Washington in good shape to have a good recruiting. The only problem came when, according to Gruden, Snyder would disregard that hard work and choose who he wanted.
“Every year I was there, we had a very good recruiting class, with a few exceptions,” said Gruden. “[Smith] he was very good at listening to the coaches because the coaches also did evaluations. . . . When it was time for us to choose, we always talked about the choices, where we would like to go, what would happen if [the player] gone, and did all of our scenarios. And then [owner Daniel Snyder] he would get off his yacht and make the choice. “
Snyder was criticized for Dwayne Haskins’ failures in the draft of the first round of 2020, which Snyder liked much more than his football folks. Gruden’s comments seem to suggest that he saw Snyder’s interference as a consistent problem in Washington, and one that Smith is escaping by going to Atlanta.