RICHMOND, Va. – Bruce Allen made his only appearance in the Redskins media room Friday, the final day of training camp.
The team’s general manager discussed the Redskins first year in Richmond and what he expects from this season.
Allen said that the organization could not be more pleased with the City of Richmond and training camp could not have gone better. The team was able to do a lot in this first year and he expects things to only get better.
A few of the fun facts he mentioned when talking about this camp are:
- the Redskins booked 4,400 room nights
- served 15,000 meals
- drank 34,000 water bottles and 18,000 Gatorade bottles
That’s just for the team. That’s a lot of water.
Quarterback controversy?
As far as seeing a controversy between his head coach and quarterback, Allen said he does not see any controversy at all.
“I know somehow Billy (Kilmer) and Sonny (Jurgenson) are laughing that we created a quarterback controversy with Robert Griffin,” Allen said. “We have a very competitive player who is dying to play football and we have a very experienced coach that is doing the right thing.”
Kilmer and Jurgenson were both quarterbacks for the team in 1970s and were famous for battling every season to be named the starting QB. A divided fan-base declared their allegiance to either Jurgenson or Kilmer with bumper stickers.
As far as Allen’s confidence in how Griffin’s camp has been going, he said that the quarterback is ahead of his rehabilitation schedule.
“He’s getting his work in. If coach wants to progress him over the next couple weeks, he will. We’ve had no setbacks so far, the goal is for him to play in week one. Don’t know if it will happen.”
This goes along with what Mike Shanahan has been saying all along.
New stadium
Allen also addressed the stadium situation moving forward for this team. He said the lease is not up until 2027 with FedEx Field and knows that it’s a 10-year process to build a new stadium these days. So where are they looking?
“Prince George’s County loves us, the District would like to have us and we love our home in Ashburn too,” Allen said.
It sounds like this topic will become more popular in the near future.
George Allen
Knowing the history that the Allen family has with the Redskins organization, what would Bruce Allen’s dad, the late George Allen, say about this team now?
“My dad would be amazed that we have all these cameras here for training camp. He’d be surprised that ESPN and NFL Network are breaking in live because Robert completed three passes. He’d be proud of this team and what we represent.”
The party scene in Richmond
Throughout training camp, Bruce Allen and Dan Snyder would walk from the team hotel to the training facility and back. During those walks, Allen said he would teach Snyder about the history of Richmond and they would discuss current events.
However, on Thursday night, the final night in Richmond, “fortunately there weren’t cameras following us, it was very memorable.”
“We walked down Robinson Street and somehow they were all having parties at the different restaurants,” Allen said. “We really had en enjoyable time talking with the fans.”
Any karaoke?
“We didn’t do any karaoke…that I remember.”
Sounds like a good time. Needless to say, the media room enjoyed that one.
Contract Extensions
Allen concluded the press conference talking about contract extensions for Brian Orakpo and Mike Shanahan. But Allen said he would not discuss Orakpo’s contract negotiations now.
“We want to make sure we have cap room available for guys that are on this team.”
He said they were focused on the final 53-man roster right now.
Regarding Shanahan, who is entering year four of a five-year deal, he said that the head coach is too focused on the season and the first game to talk about contract extensions.
We’ll see what happens with the coach’s future with the team. A lot can happen depending on how this team does this year and how well the quarterback situation is handled moving forward.
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