A Look Back – Washington in Transition Part 3
June 6, 2025
By Noonefromtampa
Last time we looked at the transition from Edgar Bennett Williams to Jack Kent Cooke. In case you missed Part 2, you can find it here: Part_2_Here
Transition from Jack Kent Cooke to Dan Snyder.
On April 6, 1997, Jack Kent Cooke died from congestive heart failure at George Washington University Hospital. This event set off a series of outcomes that plagued the franchise for the next quarter century. The bulk of Cooke’s estate was designated to fund an educational foundation. This meant that Cooke’s son, John Kent Cooke, would be forced to bid for the franchise against other people who wanted to own an NFL franchise. John, who was an executive vice president, was selected to lead the franchise, with an appointed overseer representing the estate.
One outcome from this oversight was that when Trent Green, in the final year of his contract, had a breakout season in 1998, throwing for 3,441 yards, 23 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, he received a low-ball offer of $12 million over 4 years. General Manager Charley Casserly said later that the overseer did not understand the value of a starting NFL quarterback. Green signed with the Rams for $17.5 million over four years, including a $4.5 million signing bonus.
Dan Snyder made the winning bid for the Washington Redskins, with an offer of $800 million, besting the offer of John Kent Cooke’s group and the deal went through before 1999 season. People were excited because a fan of the team had bought the team, surely, he would be motivated to return the team to the former glory it had seen under Joe Gibbs.
The first year under the new ownership started well, with the team going 10-6 and making the playoffs for the first time since the 1992 season. Brad Johnson threw for 4,005 yards, 24 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Stephen Davis ran for 1,405 yards and 17 touchdowns. The team defeated the Lions 27-13 in the Wild Card round but lost to the Buccaneers 14-13 because of a botched snap by Dan Turk on a potential game winning field goal attempt.
Norv Turner would be fired during the season in 2020 while the team was still in playoff contention. This would begin cyclic changing of head coaches and quarterbacks that would be the hallmark for the next 25 years.
Marty Schottenheimer lasted one year and Steve Spurrier lasted two seasons. Snyder was able to convince Joe Gibbs to come out of retirement, but he did not have a winning record as head coach in his second stint:
| Coach | Years | Wins | Loses | Ties | Winning % |
| Schottenheimer | 1 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0.500 |
| Gibbs | 4 | 30 | 34 | 0 | 0.469 |
| Gruden (Callahan) | 6 | 38 | 57 | 1 | 0.401 |
| Rivera | 4 | 26 | 40 | 1 | 0.396 |
| Shanahan | 4 | 24 | 40 | 0 | 0.375 |
| Spurrier | 2 | 12 | 20 | 0 | 0.375 |
| Zorn | 2 | 12 | 20 | 0 | 0.375 |
Gibbs won the team’s last playoff game before the 2024 season in the 2005 season when Washington defeated Tampa Bay 17-10 in the infamous Sean Taylor spitting game. Taylor was ejected and fined $17,000 for spitting at Michael Pittman, a Buccaneer running back. Taylor also returned a fumble 51 yards for a touchdown in the game.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1031550635398781
Twenty-seven different quarterbacks started a game in the Snyder era:
| Player | Games Started | Years |
| Brad Johnson | 27 | 1999-2000 |
| Jeff George | 7 | 2000-2001 |
| Tony Banks | 14 | 2001 |
| Patrick Ramsey | 24 | 2002-2005 |
| Shane Matthews | 7 | 2002 |
| Danny Wuerffel | 4 | 2002 |
| Tim Hasselbeck | 5 | 2003 |
| Mark Brunell | 33 | 2004-2006 |
| Jason Campbell | 52 | 2006-2009 |
| Todd Collins | 3 | 2007 |
| Donovan McNabb | 13 | 2010 |
| Rex Grossman | 16 | 2010-2011 |
| John Beck | 3 | 2011 |
| Robert Griffin III | 35 | 2012-2014 |
| Kirk Cousins | 57 | 2012-2017 |
| Colt McCoy | 7 | 2014, 2018-2019 |
| Alex Smith | 16 | 2018, 2020 |
| Josh Johnson | 3 | 2018 |
| Mark Sanchez | 1 | 2018 |
| Case Keenum | 8 | 2019 |
| Dwayne Haskins | 13 | 2019-2020 |
| Kyle Allen | 4 | 2020 |
| Ryan Fitzpatrick | 1 | 2021 |
| Taylor Heinicke | 24 | 2021-2022 |
| Garrett Gilbert | 1 | 2021 |
| Carson Wentz | 7 | 2022 |
| Sam Howell | 18 | 2022-2023 |
Snyder Legacy
Snyder’s ownership of the franchise is a business school model of what not to do when you own a sports franchise. His total mismanagement of the team and back-office operations eventually led to the sale of the franchise to the Josh Harris ownership group.
Some of the antagonistic things that Snyder allegedly did include:
- Overruling the front office on many draft pick selections, i.e. Dwayne Haskins, Stephon Diggs
- Suing fans who could no longer afford their season ticket subscriptions during the recessions in the 2000’s
- Leaving ice cream on defensive coordinator Mike Nolan’s desk
- Contract disputes with players over verbal commitments
- Fighting with and suing news organizations over articles documenting the dysfunction with the franchise
- Exploiting the cheerleaders during their calendar shoots
- Banning fan signs at the stadium due to too many anti-Snyder signs
- Allowing or fostering a hostile environment in the workplace
- Trying to back out of the sale at the last moment by refusing to provide banking information to the buyers
The results of the Snyder’s ownership were that the team had a regular season record of 164–220–2, plus a post-season record of 2–6, never progressing past the Divisional Round of the NFC playoff bracket.
The season ticket waiting list evaporated, stadium seating was reduced from 90,000 to 60,000, and home games were regularly filled with opposing team fans.
Snyder also changed the nickname of the team twice from Redskins to Washington Football Team to Commanders, generally upsetting the entire fanbase.
The saddest fact about this era is that for people born after 1990, it’s the only one they have experienced in their lifetime.
This wraps up this series. I hope you enjoyed it.
Fun Facts for this Era
| Stadiums | Jack Kent Cooke Stadium 1999-present |
| Best Player | Ryan Kerrigan, edge, 2011-2020
95.5 sacks (franchise record) |
| Hall of Famers | None |
| Top Passer | Kirk Cousins, 2012-2017
Games Played – 62 Completion % – 65.5% Yards – 16,206 Passing Touchdowns – 99 Interceptions – 55 Yards per Attempt – 7.7 |
| Top Rusher | Clinton Portis, 2004-2010
Games Played – 84 Attempts – 1,667 Yards – 6,824 Touchdowns – 46 Fumbles – 18 Yards per Attempt – 4.1 |
| Top Receiver | Santana Moss
Games Played – 146 Receptions – 581 Yards – 7,867 Touchdowns – 58 Yards per Reception – 13.5 |
| Top Returner (2) | Jamison Crowder
Punt Returns – 129 PR Yards – 1,036 Touchdowns – 1 PR Average – 8.0
Kickoff Returns – 222 KO Yards – 5,332 Touchdowns – 1 KO Average – 24.0 |
| Kicking | Dustin Hopkins
Games – 93 Extra Points Made/Attempts – 179/190 Field Goals Made/Attempts – 163/194 Total Points – 668 |
| Punting | Tress Way (still active)
Punts – 776 Yards – 36,380 (franchise record) Net Yards – 32,361 (franchise record) Touchbacks – 47 Inside 20 – 296 (franchise record) Yards per Punt – 46.9 (franchise record) Net Yards per Punt – 41.5 (franchise record) |
| Interceptions | DeAngelo Hall
Interceptions – 23 |
| Scoring | Dustin Hopkins – 668 |
Sources: pro-football-reference.com