Free agency started with a bang everywhere but in Washington, where the Redskins parted ways with their general manager on the first day of the new league year.
Scot McCloughan's departure served as the beginning of a new, albeit clunky era in personnel decision-making in Washington. It also came with rumors of internal conflict between he and Bruce Allen and general dislike for the former.
Current 49ers receiver and former Redskin Pierre Garcon said that wasn't the case.
"I know all the players did love Scot," Garcon said while on Pro Football Talk's PFT Live. "Scot was a great guy, a football guy, all the players loved Scot and definitely (are) going to miss him. Hopefully, he'll still be around football because he was a great guy. He was all about football. It didn't matter who you were, where you were from, he was just happy that you were playing football for him and he was happy that he scouted you and for him to bring you to D.C."
McCloughan's work largely built a Redskins team that was in playoff contention until the final week of the season, and is set up with a foundation for future success, even if he isn't regarded as highly inside the wall's of the team's Ashburn, Virginia, headquarters. Garcon enjoyed his second-best season with the Redskins in 2016, catching 79 passes for 1,041 yards and three touchdowns.
He left for a pay day in San Francisco, while McCloughan is left in the dark in NFL circles for now. With the endorsement of a player such as Garcon, though, one wonders if and when McCloughan will again be working in an NFL front office.