It looks like Washington may be zeroing in on its new general manager. Team brass, including head coach Ron Rivera, are meeting with former Panthers GM Marty Hurney on Monday, sources told Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link).
Rapoport adds “Hurney is the top candidate to be their new GM, a hire that could be official this week,” so it sounds like this is close to being a done deal. That’s not too surprising, since Rivera and Hurney worked closely together for a while during their days with Carolina. Hurney was originally the Panthers’ GM from 2002-12, and hired Rivera in 2011. He was then fired, was brought back in 2017, and then was fired again back in December.
Rivera, who operated as Washington’s GM for the 2020 season, had final say on personnel decisions. It’s unclear whether he’ll retain that authority in this new arrangement, but whatever the case, Rivera will certainly still have a lot of power and will report directly to ownership and not to Hurney.
We heard Hurney was connected to this opening very shortly after he was fired by Panthers owner David Tepper, and it seems like he was always the top target. Washington is coming off an improbable NFC East title, and whoever the new GM is will have an excellent young defensive core with which to work.
Also, no matter who the new GM is, Washington will need to figure out what to do at quarterback. It’s unclear if Alex Smith plans on playing beyond this season and is 36 anyway, Dwayne Haskins has been cut, and Kyle Allen doesn’t inspire much confidence as a quarterback of the future. It’ll be very interesting to see what Washington does this offseason.
