Commander Country

Preston Smith: Another Bruce Allen Delight!

Preston Smith, Matt LaFleur and the Green Bay Packers are on their way to the NFC Championship game in San Francisco. Another example of Bruce Allen's mismanagement over a decade of destruction.

Chris Russell

© Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

The Green Bay Packers hung on to beat the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night at Lambeau Field in the frozen tundra. 

Congrats to the entire organization but especially Matt LaFleur, Darryl Franklin, Kirk Olivadotti and Preston Smith, four former members of the Redskins for advancing against Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers. 

They are all now one win away from the Super Bowl. 

As for Smith, he's the one that just got away that the Redskins needed to keep and showed very little interest in doing. 

He had two more sacks on Sunday night, adding to his career-high 12 regular season sacks. 

He now has three career sacks, including a safety, in two playoff games in his career. 

That first sack and safety? Against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in January of 2016. 

Smith had 23 quarterback hits on the year and flourished in a more aggressive Mike Pettine designed scheme and quite honestly, with better talent around him.

Green Bay also brought in Za'Darius Smith this year, who had 13.5 sacks and 37 quarterback hits. 

Smith's run defense for his final year in Washington was graded higher by ProFootballFocus.com than his pass rush grade. Yet, so many were critical of him. 

Only fans and people that can't intelligently watch the game judge purely on sacks. That's not me (check No. 7 in link). That shouldn't be an NFL general manager. That was the Redskins. That was Bruce Allen and who knows how many others inside Redskins Park. 

It obviously was not the Packers. Olivadotti certainly played a role from their time in Washington together. The Pack knew. The Redskins didn't. 

Washington let Smith go, with barely a whimper and then traded for Montez Sweat, which I had no problem with as a secondary plan but he cost you a 2nd-round pick, which is currently the No. 34 overall selection. 

The Packers signed Smith to a four-year, $52 million deal with a 2019 cap number of only $6 million. They were rewarded and then some. His OvertheCap.com Player valuation, which combines their metrics along with PFF, shows that Smith was valued at $10.945 million this year. 

One other item: Smith has played in EVERY game of his NFL career. Every single game. Did I mention he's played in every possible game. 

Bruce Allen would scoff at the word, durability. Or availability. Just like he did with Kirk Cousins and six starting quarterbacks later, here we are. He never valued Smith for answering the bell every week. I did. 

Now - Preston and the Packers are 60 minutes away from the Super Bowl! 

Chris Russell is the Publisher of Maven & Sports Illustrated's Washington Redskins channel. He can be heard on 106.7 The FAN in the Washington D.C. area and world-wide on Radio.com. Chris also hosts the "Locked on Redskins" Podcast and can be read via subscription to Warpath Magazine. You can e-mail Chris at russellmania09@Gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @Russellmania621. 

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Chris Russell
CHRIS RUSSELL

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