Given all that, he was remarkably upbeat and positive about the team in the Tuesday interview with 106.7 The Fan.

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“There’s good players there, and there’s good character there, there’s good chemistry there,” he told Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier, hosts of the Grant and Danny show. “And that’s what I tried to build and build and build. I wish I could have been here longer to see it come to fruition, but I can’t, so it is what it is. But still, I’m gonna pull for them. I don’t have any grudge. It is what it is. Again, it’s a marriage that didn’t work.”

McCloughan had strong words of praise for the team’s recent draft — which he helped prepare for before his dismissal — for Jay Gruden’s skills as a talent evaluator, and for quarterback Kirk Cousins, who has yet to sign a long-term deal with the club. He said the Redskins would “be fine this year,” that “I know it’s a tough division, I know they’ve got a tough schedule, but they’re going to be fine.” And he described his departure from the team as mutual.

“You know, it’s too bad what happened here, but it was mutual,” he told Paulsen and Rouhier. “And there’s a lot of good people in this organization, from the ownership down throughout he whole building. Players, coaches and Dan [Snyder] was nothing but great to us. It just didn’t work out. And as you guys are well aware, it’s a big business and it just didn’t work out. I hate leaving there because I’ve got so many close friends, not just guys that I drafted but there’s a lot of good people.”

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“And you know what, it’s going to be a good team. Kirk’s going to play his tail off like he always does, and hopefully they get something done long term, but there’s guys around him that are just as special,” he went on. “It was so good to see in the weight room, in the training room, in the equipment room, the secretaries, the front office, the coaches. It’s a good organization. It’s a really good organization. It just wasn’t meant to be.”

McCloughan never mentioned team President Bruce Allen, the man who seemed most integral to the GM’s arrival and to his departure. But he did praise the team’s front office and the people he leaves behind.

“I was lucky enough to be with organizations prior to here that had really good leaders and trained people underneath them to be the next step, and I think hopefully I did that,” he said. “You know, like I said, there’s good people in the building. And the thing about it is, it wasn’t about me, it was about everybody working together. … I had people around me to help me be successful. And my name was out there because I had the title, but a lot of good people played into it, a lot of good people.”

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McCloughan said many players and coaches and front office staffers have reached out to him since his firing, and that “it’s not a bad relationship whatsoever.” He said he hated that this was the end result, but that “I treated them fairly, they treated me fairly, and that’s what it’s about.”

“And like I said, I’m pulling for them,” he said. “I’m pulling for them.”

He also asked to interject a word about the fanbase, with whom he had perhaps a uniquely close relationship among NFL GMs.

“The fans were incredible, they were,” he said. “And I respect that and I’ll never forget it. This is a great, great, classic organization that has a lot of tradition in the past, and hopefully they get back to what they did in the past. But I just want to say to the fans, it’s awesome. It’s a great organization.”

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McCloughan said he plans to move back to Colorado later this month, and has restarted his scouting service, which is how he occupied himself between past jobs with the 49ers and Seahawks. He said running that service “is pretty cool,” and affords him the ability to take time off and go fishing.