We’re a little more than 48 hours out from kickoff of the Commanders’ final game of the season, and probably 72 from the official end of the Ron Rivera era.
The NFL playoffs will go on another five weeks after that before the offseason begins in earnest, but if the Commanders’ rebuild process hasn’t begun already, it definitely has to come Monday. And, on Friday, BMitch, while waiting for JP Finlay to join him from Ashburn, Brian reminisced about
“About 18 weeks ago, we started the season with a lot of excitement from the sale of the team, and I understand why; we believed that new ownership is going to come in and change things around to make it better, but it’s not going to happen overnight,” Brian said. “We’re in a position whee the team has been bad for so long that everything has been blamed on one guy, and all the stuff that’s going on now is a byproduct of what we have been seeing – but starting Monday, new ownership is on he clock, and I think they understand that.”
BMitch likened it to the honeymoon period of a marriage, but now, it’s time to get to work, when you wake up one morning and everything hits you.
“This group had a whole year to figure things out; they couldn’t do much at the point they got the keys, but they did some aesthetics and business stuff – but the actual football product, that’s coaches,” Brian said. “I believe in this thing. I grew up in a military household, and it’s called a chain of command. If you don’t have that in order, you have a problem; you won’t hear an admiral or general listen to a private, and that’s how this was run for a while. So, I’m expecting them to come in and hire a GM, the GM hires a coach, and everyone comes in with the same mindset – and my hope is that the new GM can establish a ‘Washington mindset’ that doesn’t change no matter who the coach is.”
Brian doesn’t want any changes below the front office to really effect the on-field product, ideally that the ‘Commanders Way’ becomes the way for good, and you can ‘plug and play.’
“When a coach comes in and says, ‘oh, I need my players,’ that’s giving them two or three years,” Brian said. “Fans don’t want to go through that BS anymore, and if you develop a mindset and find people who avbide by it, you don’t drop off too much and you can rebound quick.”
JP Finlay’s response?
“You’re correct that you have to find the right guy, but it has to be broader than a coach; it ideally needs to be two people coming in working in unison,” JP said. “Dan got this rep early on of being reactionary and a big spender, but the last decade, he really didn’t do that, especially with coaches. He just put his head in the sand and surrounded himself with sycophants and allowed things to be status quo, and I don’t think these guys are gonna do that. If the first couple interviews have guys say it’s gonna take five years to build thing thing, I don’t think they’re in the mood for that, and will tolerate that…and they shouldn’t.”
