vinny cerrato

Vinny Cerrato resigns, Bruce Allen to take over as Redskins' top football executive

Vinny Cerrato has resigned as the Redskins' executive vice president of football operations, the team announced Thursday morning, and Bruce Allen, the son of former Redskins coach George Allen, will take over as the team's top executive.

Allen served as a senior executive with the Oakland Raiders from 1996-2003. He then was general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2004-08, when he and Coach Jon Gruden were ousted in a sweeping, season-ending change.

Allen has strong ties to both the area and the Redskins. He grew up in McLean, and his father is still considered a legend in the area. George Allen coached the Redskins from 1971-77. Bruce Allen went to the University of Richmond, and his brother, George, is a former U.S. Senator from Virginia.

Cerrato has served two stints with the team, and assumed the title of executive vice president of a football operations on Jan. 22, 2008, following the resignation of Joe Gibbs. He played a central role in the team's hiring of Coach Jim Zorn and has effectively served as the team's general manager since that time, charged with building a roster that might snap the franchise's 17-year Super Bowl drought.

"We agreed that the franchise needs someone different in this position," Cerrato said in a statement released by the Redskins this morning. "I'm thankful to Dan Snyder and other members of this ownership team for the opportunities I've been given over the years."

"Of course I am disappointed with this year's results, but I strongly believe that with outstanding picks and encouraging performance by our younger players, we have laid a strong foundation for the franchise."

Asked Oct. 27 if he felt he had given the Redskins' coaching staff a roster of players capable of making the playoffs, Cerrato said, "Yes."

But with a 4-9 record entering Monday night's game against the New York Giants, any postseason hopes are deferred at least one more year.

Cerrato hasn't spoken publicly with local reporters since that Oct. 27 meeting. He acknowledged at the time that accountability would be a prevalent theme around Redskins Park.

"I got to look at myself, we got to look at everybody and we got to just go out now and you know what you got to do -- you got to get to better day to day, week to week," he said. "And that's what it's about, it's about improving each game. It's one game at a time, one day at a time."

Hiring Allen gives Redskins' owner Daniel Snyder both a tie to the franchise's more glorious path and a proven personnel man who led a team to a Super Bowl.

It will also lead to speculation that Gruden would serve as the Redskins' next coach. Gruden is working as an analyst for ESPN's "Monday Night Football," and on Nov. 16 he agreed to a multiyear deal to remain with the program. That, it appeared, took him out of consideration to be Jim Zorn's replacement -- should the second-year coach be fired at the end of the season. But Allen's hiring will bring Gruden's name directly into the mix.