Jason Wright, new Washington president, accepts not having say in football decisions

Jason Wright has NFL experience. The new Washington team president played seven years in the league before transitioning to business — spending time with the San Francisco 49ers, Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns and the Arizona Cardinals. For his last stop, Wright was even a team captain and was the team’s player representative during the 2011 lockout. 

So, it might come as a surprise, then, that Wright will have no say in football matters for his new job with Washington.

But speaking to The Washington Times, Wright said that he is perfectly OK sticking only to business.

“No, not one bit,” Wright said when asked if having influence over football decisions mattered to him. “It’s actually a really good way to carve up the responsibilities. The two aspects of the club operations both require a chief executive, a senior highly capable chief executive to lead them. Because they are both challenging in nature. They are both very complex. There’s a ton of variables you need to consider on either side.

“So it makes sense to have senior leaders in those roles.”

That differs vastly from Bruce Allen, Washington’s former team president who had the final say in football and business matters. Allen was fired in December after 10 years in which he posted a 62-100-1 record. 

Coach Ron Rivera is believed to have that personnel say for Washington’s front office, though he works closely with vice president of player personnel Kyle Smith.