For the moment the Washington Football Team has a No. 1 quarterback after head coach Ron Rivera said Thursday veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick will enter training camp as the team’s top option.
But he left the door open for changes. Rivera said “there will be a competition” in training camp and left the door open to drafting a QB.
“Well, we’ll see,” Rivera told the media Thursday. “I can’t tell you how things are going to unfold once we get into the draft.
“We’re going to react to what’s gonna happen in front of us,” he said. “Picking where we’re picking, there are a lot of things that can happen. We have targets, we have ideas, we have guys that we like, but that always changes just because of the fact that everybody has a choice. And so you just never know what’s going to happen at that point.”
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But Washington’s head coach indicated he does not feel pressure to add a quarterback of the future in the upcoming draft.
“No. I say that just because of the fact that, if you put all the other pieces into place and now you start going forward, when that guy does show up, when that guy is in the right position, you can grab him,” Rivera told the media Thursday.
Rivera added when he was head coach in Carolina they drafted the quarterback of the future in No. 1 overall pick Cam Newton, but the circumstances were much different.
“At that point, we had not put all the other pieces around Cam Newton,” Rivera said. “So, I’ve always thought, wow, if you can do it the other way where you put all the other pieces around and then go out and get your quarterback, man, that might be a pretty good situation, too.'
“I’ve seen a lot of teams do that. I’ve seen a lot of teams that have had things in place then drafted their quarterback next year. This could be one of these situations where we put all the other pieces in place and then a year or two from now the right guy is there and we can make that move,” Rivera added. “But, we’ll see. Again, you just never really know until you get there.”
Rivera indicated there is less urgency to address needs in the draft because he thinks the team did well in the initial wave of free agency.
“But I think we’ve done a good enough job to put ourselves in a position where, now as we look at the draft, we’re not necessarily pressed to have to as much as we can do as we want to,” Rivera added.
What does all of this mean? It sounds like Washington could be in the market for one of the second-tier quarterbacks in the 2021 NFL Draft. Several reporters have indicated Washington may use a second or third-round pick or later on a quarterback.
Follow @BenKrimmel for the latest.
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