It’s less than three weeks since Kyle Smith’s promotion. Feels longer in a good way.



With nobody holding the general manager title, Smith, now VP of Player Personnel, sits atop the front office depth chart — below Rivera in Washington’s “coach-centered” structure. Listening to the way people in the building, including the head coach, and others around the league discuss Smith’s ability, it feels almost comical anyone searched for another outcome.



Organized. Dogged. The kind of scout that looks under every rock. “We’re in good hands,” said one team source of the man who joined the organization full-time in 2011, ran the previous two drafts, and led Washington’s work at this month’s Senior Bowl.



Rivera and the coaching staff joined the scouting side in Alabama for one day before returning home for more film work on the 2019 roster. Belief in Smith’s work based on results and homework...