With the Washington Football Team's preseason finale slated for Saturday, head coach Ron Rivera feels no pressure to declare a starting quarterback for the regular season.
When Rivera joined 106.7 The Fan's Brian Mitchell and JP Finlay on Thursday, the position battle (or lack thereof) between quarterbacks Ryan Fitzpatrick and Taylor Heinicke was a point of discussion of particular intrigue.
"I'm not trying to back into an answer here, so I start it with that," Finlay prefaced to Rivera. "I don't understand why some folks think you need to declare a starting quarterback."
"No, and I agree," Rivera said. "Well, but I think a lot of it depends. If you've got a hard fought, true knock-down, drag-out battle, you've got to make that decision early."
"Like, Bill [Belichick's] gonna have to with Mac [Jones] and Cam [Newton] at some point," Finlay noted. "I don't think that's what's happening here."
"Yeah, at some point. Because you don't want it to divide," Rivera said. "I think the players know. And when the moment's appropriate, I'll let everybody know. I'll let everybody know what I think. But, you know, let's do it on our schedule, okay? I get it. I know you guys want to be able to say, 'I was the first one. I tweeted it out. I got it out.'"
"You can say it here now if you want," Finlay joked. "Feel free."
"Yeah, see," Rivera said with a laugh. "That's exactly it. So for us, let's stick to our schedule, the schedule that we have set and everything's ready to roll."
Neither quarterback has shown anything special through two preseason games, with zero touchdowns thrown between the two. But neither has given anything away, either. With only 30 points scored by Washington across both games, Fitzpatrick and Heinicke have each delivered the type of show-nothing performances a coach would hope for in the exhibition games. Keep it tame. Don't get hurt. Afford the coaching staff the opportunity to evaluate the rest of the offense.
Ryan Fitzpatrick
vs. Bengals: 7/13, 96 yards, 7.4 AVG, 0 TD, 0 INT, 1 Sack, 77.7 Rating
@ Patriots: 5/8, 58 yards, 7.3 AVG, 0 TD, 0 INT, 0 Sack, 84.4 Rating
Taylor Heinicke
vs. Bengals: 11/13, 80 yards, 6.2 AVG, 0 TD, 0 INT, 1 Sack, 92.3 Rating
(4 rushes, 26 yards, 1 fumble)
@ Patriots: 9/15, 86 yards, 5.7 AVG, 0 TD, 0 INT, 1 Sack, 76.0 Rating
(1 rush, 4 yards)
Even as he remained tight-lipped about the QB position, Rivera may have given away his true feelings about the situation, a nuance BMitch and Finlay dissected in their next segment after the interview.
"When the moment's appropriate, Brian, Ron Rivera will let everybody know," Finlay said coming back from commercial break.
"Go back to that statement," Mitchell said. "He said when you have a knock-down, drag-out competition, you have to tell people. He just told you that was not one of those types of competitions."
"He told you everything you needed to know right there," Finlay said.
"Basically he just told you it wasn't that type," Mitchell said. "Yeah, if Taylor would have came out there and just played lights out, yeah... But this is Fitz's job."
"It's Fitz's job," Finlay agreed.
Listen to Ron Rivera's interview at the 18-minute mark below.
