The Washington Commanders enter Thursday Night Football at a crossroads. A team – and a franchise – that has found itself at an inflection point of their season, their existence, and everything in between once again faces another huge decision: If Washington loses to the Chicago Bears and falls to 1-5 on the season, does head coach Ron Rivera have to think about benching starting quarterback Carson Wentz?
"If they do happen to lose to Chicago, I happen to think there has to be some kind of discussion about making a change somewhere," former Washington head coach Jay Gruden said in his weekly appearance on Russell & Medhurst.
"This is a game they have to win, for a lot of people, for a lot of players, for their job security and all that stuff. They gotta get this win," Gruden said. "But if they do lose, then, yes, I think they would have to look at a change."
And making a change like this is one of the toughest decisions an NFL head coach has to make, Gruden said.
"You put a lot of effort and time into getting these guys ready to play and when they don't perform the way you thought they would perform it's hard to make a change, but if you think it's for the betterment of the team and the locker room, then sometimes you have to make those changes," he said. "You can't just stay stagnant and do the same thing over and over again and get beat. You have to show your team that you're gonna try anything that is necessary to win games. And sometimes making changes at critical positions is what you have to do."
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Of course, a win changes all that and a lot depends on how the team plays.
"I think Carson did look a lot better in this game [against the Titans] than he did in the previous two, so that's a good thing. And if he continues to build off that performance and they get a big win against Chicago, it'll be a moot point," Gruden said on The Team 980.
The Commanders offense "did look better this week than they did the previous two weeks," he added. "Carson Wentz was able to get the ball down the field they had some big plays to Dyami Brown and Terry McLaurin got a couple, so that was the exciting part of their offense. At least they got some chunk yardage."
But, unfortunetly, in the results-orientated business of pro football, "they didn't get the victory."
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