Wright will maintain his responsibilities as the team’s de facto president while taking on the title of senior advisor and focusing primarily on finding a site and naming rights partner for the new stadium. Harris and Tad Brown, CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, will lead the Commanders’ search for the next president.
“I feel this is the perfect time for me to explore my next leadership opportunity,” Wright said in a written statement to The Washington Post. “I am extremely grateful to my Commanders colleagues, fans and this community for all that we have accomplished these past four years, and I look forward to the start of a very successful season for the Burgundy and Gold.”
Wright, whose previous contract was set to expire next month, met with the team’s business staff on Thursday afternoon to inform them of his plans to leave, according to two people familiar with the terms of the deal. The team will support Wright’s early departure if he finds another job before the end of the season, the person familiar with the Commanders’ plans said.
“Jason has made an incredible impact since joining the Commanders four years ago,” Harris said in a statement to The Washington Post. “He joined the team at an incredibly challenging time and has led this organization through incredible transformation, laying the foundation for all that is to come. I am incredibly grateful to Jason for working with me and our entire ownership group over the past year. His guidance has been invaluable and his leadership has helped reshape our culture.”
Wright’s departure is the latest major change in a complete overhaul of the franchise’s operations under coach Harris. Purchased a team Last year, they moved on from Daniel Snyder for a record $6.05 billion, and earlier this year, the Commanders hired Adam Peters. As General Manager Dan Quinn As a coachhas revamped its front office and coaching staff and restructured its roster.
When Harris and group took over last summer, such sweeping changes were not feasible for the 2023 season. The purchase has ended With training camp just about to begin, Harris’ first year with the Commanders was largely dedicated to evaluating the franchise’s operations, making incremental improvements and rebuilding relationships with alumni and community leaders.
“I think it’s important to get to know people and give people an opportunity to be successful, so we’re going to be doing a lot of watching, listening, learning and getting up to speed over the next 12 months,” Harris told The Post shortly before NFL team owners made the announcement. The sale was approved Last July.
Nearly all employees, including Wright, have jobs. What to consider Following the ownership group’s first season.
With the Commanders’ backing — signaling a possible impending change at the top of the team’s front office — Wright interviewed for the Green Bay Packers’ chairman, president and CEO positions, but the Packers promoted from within, naming chief operating officer and general counsel Edward R. Policy last month to succeed Mark Murphy when he retires in July 2025.
Wright, a former NFL running back who later became a partner at consulting firm McKinsey & Company, was hired by the Commanders (then called the Washington Football Team) in August 2020 as a central figure in the franchise’s transformation efforts. His hiring came a month after the team named Julie Donaldson senior vice president of media and content. She First Woman (Donaldson was replaced by a team executive who moved to work full-time in the game-day radio booth for an NFL team.) last year.
Wright quickly became a respected voice within the team, but his primary task — improving the franchise’s work environment — proved difficult.
Shortly after he arrived, it became even more evident.
“I knew I was stepping into what we call a ‘transitional situation,'” Wright told The Washington Post in spring 2021. “That’s the diplomatic way of saying it. And I knew there would be a lot of challenges. I think what I discovered was that the challenges were not what I expected. Nothing was the way I expected it to be.”
The team hired new head coach Ron Rivera at the start of 2020 and dropped the controversial, 87-year-old Redskins name after pressure from sponsors. The team commissioned a workplace investigation (later taken over by the NFL) following the Post report. Detailed claim The widespread sexual harassment and assault allegations come just in time for the NFL’s 2020 season, which was thrown into disarray by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nine days after Wright’s hiring was announced, the Post The team also reportedly produced obscene videos. Snyder was accused of misconduct with the team over a decade ago during a swimsuit calendar shoot for the cheerleaders. That accusation, along with subsequent allegations of financial and sexual misconduct by Snyder (which he denies), led to multiple investigations by the NFL, Congress and the attorneys general of Washington, Maryland and Virginia. (All three states have since settled with the team over allegations that ticket buyers’ deposits were improperly withheld.)
The team’s head athletic trainer is under investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration for illegally distributing controlled substances to players. Indefinite suspension Snyder is not eligible to work with any NFL teams. Meanwhile, a bitter dispute has erupted between Snyder and his limited liability partners that has even reached court.
Amid the turmoil, Wright became a central figure in the team’s argument that the culture had changed. In a statement to The Washington Post in July 2022, a spokesperson for Snyder noted that “Dan Snyder and Tanya Snyder, along with Jason Wright and manager Ron Rivera, have implemented incredible change to the organization over the past two years.” The spokesperson said Snyder “remains focused on leading the league in the fight to bring more respect and much-needed diversity and equality to the workplace.”
In his first months on the job, Wright hired a team of executives to run the business. A team made up mostly of outsiders — executives with extensive resumes but little to no NFL experience. The results were mixed.
Wright and his management team led the rebranding to the Commanders name. Still being panned Most Washington, DC-area sports fans criticized the name as a disservice to Wright’s team. Along with the uniform change and failed attempts to honor the late Sean Taylor, some also said Wright’s team lacked organizational knowledge. However, the personnel changes did bring diversity to the organization’s leadership. In Wright’s original front office, more than 50% of the positions were held by minorities and women, but now almost all of them have been replaced.
Wright tried to restore a season-ticket-buying base that had dwindled over the years, tried to rebuild a group of corporate partners that had weakened with each new scandal that came to light and oversaw an attempt to secure a new stadium site that ultimately failed before reviving negotiations with the sale to Harris.
The Commanders’ ticket and suite sales are up more than 40% combined, and the team led the league in selling new club seats year over year, according to a person familiar with the matter. The team also announced six new corporate partners before the start of last season and has since teamed up with others to embark on $75 million in renovations to its stadium and practice facilities.
“I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished over the past four years,” Wright said in a statement to The Washington Post. “Together with a tremendous team of professionals, we have rescued and transformed this franchise through a time of great challenge and uncertainty. Under Josh’s leadership, we have laid the foundation for an incredibly bright future. … In particular, I look forward to helping the organization complete a new stadium deal.”
But while the Commanders have begun to acquire new business partners, their most important one severed ties with the team late last year: shipping giant FedEx. Stadium naming rights contract terminated By exercising an opt-out clause in the sale of the team, two years before it was set to expire in 2026, the Commanders forfeited about $15 million in revenue remaining in their contract and were forced to seek a new partner for Landover Stadium while they search for a new home in Washington, D.C., Maryland or Virginia.
The Commanders are working with Elevate, a consulting firm led by San Francisco 49ers team president Al Guido, to find their next naming rights partner, and potentially a short-term sponsor for the life of Landover Stadium. optionBut the challenge now is to find a team willing to sign and carry the name over to the next stadium.
With the Commanders’ 2023 season behind them, attention quickly shifted to revamping the team’s on-field production. Peters made changes to the front office, reshuffled the Commanders’ scouting department and, with Quinn’s help, overhauled the roster to add more than two dozen veterans and nine drafted rookies, including prized quarterback Jayden Daniels.
The plan is to go further, according to a person familiar with the owners’ thinking, as they finally turn their attention to the business side of franchising, a process that begins in earnest now.
