A Look Back – Washington in Transition Part 2

May 20, 2025

By Noonefromtampa

Last week, we looked at the transition from George Preston Marshall to Edgar Bennett Williams. In case you missed Part 1, you can find it here/

Transition from Edgar Bennett Williams to Jack Kent Cooke

After selling the Los Angeles NBA and NHL franchises in 1979, Jack Kent Cooke took over daily operations of the team from Williams.  Williams had hired general manager Bobby Beathard in 1978. Head coach Jack Pardee was the 1979 NFL Coach of the Year but was fired in 1980 after going 6-10.  The foundation was the success of the 1980s and into the 1990’s was laid in three consecutive years via the draft. Overall, Beathard drafted or acquired the following:

1979	1980	1981	1983	1984
4th Don Warren TE 7th Rich Milot LB 11th Monte Coleman LB	1st Art Monk WR* Undrafted Joe Bostic	1st Mark May G/T 3rd Russ Grimm G* 5th Dexter Manley DE 8th Charlie Brown WR 9th Darryl Grant DT 12th Clint Didier TE Undrafted Joe Jacoby	1st Darrell Green CB* 3rd Charles Mann DE 7th Kelvin Bryant RB	3rd Jay Schroeder, QB Supplemental Draft 2nd Gary Clark WR Trade Ricky Sanders, WR

* = Hall of Fame Player

In 1981, Beathard pushed for hiring a relatively unknown offensive coordinator from the San Diego Chargers named Joe Gibbs. Gibbs was seen a great leader and teacher, plus was skilled in the powerful “Air Coryell” offense. Most of the fans, including this writer, were expecting the team to hire a more well-known coach to follow George Allen and Jack Pardee as coaches.

One of Gibbs’ first moves was to travel to Kansas to convince John Riggins to return to the team after he had sat out the 1980 season in a contract dispute. Riggins returned to the team with the famous quote of “I’m bored, I’m broke and I’m back.”

Gibbs relationship with the fans got off to a rocky start with the fanbase by losing the first five games, the first four of which were NFC East opponents, Cowboys, Giants, Cardinals and Eagles. The team finished strong however, winning seven of their last nine games. The team found its identity not as a passing team but as a run-first team with a physical defense.

Three defensive players of this era ended up ranked 1-2-3 for franchise career sacks, with Dexter Manley getting 91 in his eight-year career in Washington, Charles Mann getting 82 over 11 seasons, and Monte Coleman finishing with 43.5 sacks over 16 seasons.

1982 was a strike-shortened season in which the team went 8-1 and made the playoffs for the first time since 1976. Riggins had one of the most incredible playoffs runs a player has ever had in the history of the NFL playoffs. In four playoff games, Riggins rushed for 610 yards and scored 5 touchdowns. This included a then record 166 yards rushing in Super Bowl XVII and the famous 43-yard go-ahead touchdown scamper on the “70 Chip” play. Mark Moseley was the first and only kicker to win the NFL MVP award for the 1982 season.

Washington would go on to win two additional Super Bowls, XXII and XXVI, against the Broncos and Bills in the 1987 and 1991 seasons, respectively. Gibbs’ tenure was marked with quarterback instability after Lawrence Taylor broke Joe Theismann’s leg in 1985. Jay Schroeder quarterbacked the team in 1986, leading to a 12-4 season, but Washington suffered a heartbreaking defeat against the Giants in the NFC Championship game, losing 17-0. Schroder’s 4,109 passing yards was a franchise record until Kirk Cousins broke it in 2015 with 4,166 yards. Schroeder was traded to the Raiders for tackle Jim Lachey, clearing the way for Doug Williams to be the starter. Mark Rypien took over from Williams in 1989, after Williams won the 1987 Super Bowl and was the MVP, but hurt his back in 1989.

Nicknames were a trademark of the Gibbs era:

• “The Fun Bunch” for receivers Art Monk, Virgil Seay, Alvin Garrett, Charlie Brown, Rick Walker, and Don Warren.
• “The Smurfs”, a subset of the Fun Bunch for the diminutive receivers of Virgil Seay, Alvin Garrett and Charlie Brown
• “The Hogs” for lineman George Starke, Jeff Bostic, Russ Grimm, Mark May and Joe Jacoby, Jim Lachey and Ed Simmons and Raleigh McKenzie, plus tight end Don Warren
• “The Posse” with Monk, Gary Clark and Ricky Sanders
• “The Pearl Harbor Crew” with Mark Murphy, Curtis Jordan, Darrell Green, Vernon Dean, Ken Coffey and Anthony Washinton

The 1991 team, which went 14-2, was one of the NFL’s all-time best. They scored 485 points, over 30 points per game on average, and yielded the second fewest points at 224, or 14 points per game. Rypien was the Super Bowl MVP and during that season he threw 28 touchdowns against 11 interceptions, complete 59% of his passes for 3,564 yards.

Rypien lasted one year after Gibbs retired and long-time defensive coordinator Richie Petitbon had been promoted to head coach. He injured his knee in 1993, and the team went 4-12 as the age of players became a significant factor. After Theismann, the average lifespan of a quarterback in Washington over the past 40 years has been only 3 to 4 years. Rypien has the most games played in that time at 77, with Cousins second at 62 followed by Gus Frerotte and Jason Campbell with 52 games.

Joe Gibbs is the only coach to win 3 Super Bowls with 3 different starting quarterbacks and running backs. He is also one of three coaches to win consecutive NFL Coach of the Year honors in 1981-1982, along with Allie Sherman and Don Shula. After Gibbs resigned, Washington hired Cowboys offensive coordinator Norv Turner, hoping to repeat the success of hiring a good but not well known coach, like with Gibbs.

Cooke was one to hire good executives and let them run the show, not only in football, but also in basketball, with Jerry West, and baseball with Sparky Anderson. The tale of his period of ownership can be broken into two periods the Gibbs heyday from 1981 to 1992 when the team went 115-56, a 0.685 winning percentage, and the post-Gibbs period, 1993-1999 in which they went 36-59-1, a 0.380 winning percentage). In the 12 years with Gibbs as head coach, the team went to the playoffs eight times with four Super Bowl appearances and three victories.

The interest in the team was so high during this period that when Cooke built a new stadium, he made the capacity 90,000 seats to accommodate as many fans as possible.

When Beathard resigned in 1989, Charley Casserly was promoted to General Manager and remained in that job until 1999. During the 1987 players’ strike, Casserly was primarily responsible for identifying players that were signed to replace the striking players. That group went 3-0 which contributed greatly to the Super Bowl win that season. Casserly also drafted Champ Bailey, Jon Jansen, Brian Mitchell, Michael Westbrook, Stephen Davis, Stephen Alexander and signed free agent Brad Johnson at quarterback. He also drafted busts Heath Shuler and Andre Johnson in the first round. Unfortunately, Casserly was never able to achieve the same level of success with Turner that Beathard had with Gibbs. The result was a winning percentage under 0.500.

My next column will cover the Cooke to Dan Snyder transition in team history.

Fun Facts for this Era

Stadiums	Robert F Kennedy Memorial Stadium 1961-1996 Jack Kent Cooke Stadium 1997-1999
Best Player	John Riggins, running back, 1976-1985
Hall of Famers	Bobby Beathard, General Manager, 1978-1988 Joe Gibbs, Head Coach, 1981-1992 Darrell Green, cornerback, 1983-2002 Russ Grimm, guard, 1981-1991 Art Monk, wide receiver, 1980-1993 John Riggins, running back, 1976-79, 1981-85
Top Passer	Joe Theismann Games Played – 167 Completion % – 56.7% Yards – 25,206 (franchise record) Passing Touchdowns – 160 Interceptions – 138 Yards per Attempt – 7.0
Top Rusher	John Riggins Games Played – 114 Attempts – 1,988 Yards – 7,472 (franchise record) Touchdowns – 79 (franchise record) Fumbles – 36 Yards per Attempt – 3.8
Top Receiver	Art Monk Games Played – 205 Receptions – 888 (franchise record) Yards – 12,026 (franchise record) Touchdowns – 65 Yards per Reception – 13.5
Top Returner	Brian Mictchell Punt Returns – 317 PR Yards – 3,476 Touchdowns – 7 (franchise record) PR Average – 11.0 Kickoff Returns – 421 KO Yards – 9,586 Touchdowns – 2 (tied for franchise record) KO Average – 22.8
Kicking	Mark Mosely Games – 213 Extra Points Made/Attempts – 417/441 (franchise record) Field Goals Made/Attempts – 263/397 (franchise record) Total Points – 1,206 (franchise record)
Punting	Jeff Hayes Punts – 211 Yards – 8,232 Net Yards – 6,813 Touchbacks – 14 Inside 20 – 59 Yards per Punt – 39.0 Net Yards per Punt – 33.8
Interceptions	Darrell Green Interceptions – 54 (franchise record)
Scoring	Mark Mosley – 1,206 (franchise record) John Riggens – 510

 

Sources: pro-football-reference.com