Allen’s hiring signals change for Redskins

Business already has changed for the man running the Washington Redskins’ football operations.

In his first full day as general manager, Bruce Allen did not have a two-hour Friday morning radio show and did not watch practice, both departures from the custom of former front office chief Vinny Cerrato.

The Redskins continued preparations for Monday night’s game against the New York Giants knowing owner Dan Snyder already is planning for 2010, starting with the hiring of Allen and reported negotiations with former Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan.

Snyder’s stunning decision to part ways with his closest lieutenant should send a message to the organization that anybody is expendable at this point and that the owner finally has acknowledged that his model for winning is broken.

“In this business, nobody is bulletproof,” defensive end Renaldo Wynn said. “Some might have longer tenures than others. It’s about winning, and because of that anybody can be compromised.”

Several veterans view Snyder in the same light but gave him a figurative tip of the cap for being proactive and changing a situation that wasn’t effective.

“I don’t doubt his commitment to winning,” Wynn said. “I’m sure everyone here can vouch for him. Not everybody might agree all the time on how he handles everything, but he wants to win and bring a championship here.”

Said cornerback Fred Smoot: “[Snyder] realized he needed to get somebody in here with more football savvy, and that’s when you bring in a Bruce Allen. I want to be here when [Snyder] gets everything together because he’ll do anything to get it done.”

But to be a consistent winner, Allen will have to avoid the salary cap-crippling blunders that helped define the Cerrato era.

“Vinny did some good things and did some bad things,” defensive end Phillip Daniels said. “The things that hurt him the most were people like Brandon Lloyd and Adam Archuleta - those decisions hurt a lot. He did some good things, just not enough.”

Not counting Lloyd and Archuleta, who were signed in 2006, when Joe Gibbs was team president and had final say on personnel, Cerrato was responsible for acquiring 40 players currently on the roster or injured reserve.

Snyder supported Cerrato through times such as 2008, when the Redskins were quiet in free agency and drafted 10 players, and during the team’s return to its free-spending ways in February, when DeAngelo Hall was re-signed and Albert Haynesworth and Derrick Dockery received big contracts.

Since Snyder bought the Redskins in 1999, their approach has been to win the offseason Super Bowl in pursuit of winning the real thing, even if that meant keeping veterans a year too long, overpaying for star players and trading draft picks.

But what the Redskins’ approach will now be is unclear - Allen spoke of having an urgency to win right away. Former NFL executive and current National Football Post columnist Michael Lombardi said Allen needs to start with the offensive line.

“It’s hard to win on the road, and it’s hard to make up things when you can’t block,” said Lombardi, who worked with Allen for six years. “Football is a basic game, and you’ve got to be able to execute on the offensive line.”

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