This was the text of one of Eric Bickel’s Tweets just before 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning, shortly after the Junkies discussed Ron Rivera’s recent comments about his time in DC:
“Ron Rivera needs to just go away already. Nobody cares who he "would" have drafted. He was ALWAYS going to draft Chase. He had as bad an eye for talent of anyone thats ever worked here. He changed his plan yr to yr & within season sometimes. He pandered to fans. Go away.”
So yes, if you hadn’t seen or heard about the comments Ron made on Adam Schefter’s podcast, the two EB alluded to were Ron saying he would’ve probably drafted Jayden Daniels if he were still here, and he preferred to draft a QB – specifically Justin Herbert – when the Commanders took Chase Young in 2020.
Cakes even said he anticipated EB’s blood pressure spiking before he played the audio of the podcast, and yeah, someone get EB some meds, because he. Went. OFF.
“Whatever. I know Drabby was a Justin Herbert guy, but having hosted this show for 28 years and following this team as closely as ever, that whole draft was about tanking for Tua,” EB said about the 2020 notion. “I remember saying on draft day that if Tua hits, no matter how good Chase is, we're gonna regret this pick. Tua was the guy that, even though he had the hip injury and that's why he slipped, was the one that people were speculating about.
Herbert was kind of a surprise.”
“For him to blame it on not having a mini-camp and not knowing what we had, that is maddening that he is blaming it on not having enough time to properly evaluate the personnel that we had on hand,” Cakes replied.
“Is he saying that because he inherited Haskins and he still didn't know what he actually had? I think that's what he's just alluding to,” EB shot back. “He had an owner in his ear telling him that I want you to play Haskins, and the truth is he pandered to the owner and played Haskins. I don’t think for a second they pondered drafting Herbert. I think they were locked in on Chase, and Schefter described it perfectly as a safe pick.”
Cakes and Bish both agreed that it could’ve been considered but shot down by Snyder because of Haskins, which is plausible because Haskins WAS a first-rounder in 2019, and it wasn’t necessarily a Josh Rosen-Kyler Murray situation.
“Then why did Ron take the job? He was hired five minutes after the season ended after he was fired in the middle of the year,” Valdez asked. “He clearly sat down with Snyder, and all he had to say is Haskins sucks, and we have three awesome quarterbacks that are gonna be at the top of the draft.”
“He didn't know that – he's too dumb to know that. He didn’t know that Haskins sucked,” EB said, but Drab shot right back: “Everybody in the city knew Haskins sucked after 10 minutes!”
“Yeah, but if he says that, maybe Snyder says okay, well, you're not my guy, and he wanted the job,” Bish replied. “He wanted the job to get 25 million bucks or whatever.”
Okay, so we’re all clear on that, it seems, but that was “the first in a long line of personnel whiffs for Ron” – but how about Ron saying that he probably would’ve taken Daniels if he was still here?
“So this is Ron, after the kid at the front of the class has already answered the question correctly, raising his hand and furiously at the back of the class trying to answer the question again!” Cakes laughed.
“I hate him,” EB began. “After he told us 100 times, and I agreed with him until he fell apart and you guys ruined him, that in Sam Howell, they found their quarterback? Did you think he was gonna pivot on himself?”
And then, the fury.
“GO AWAY! You're a nice human, but go away. You don’t need to make more money, and no one is going to hire you as a head coach in the NFL.
Go be a defensive coordinator somewhere in college, just go play Pebble. Go away!”
“The first and second round picks when Ron was here: Chase Young, who's no longer here and he was a big bust; Jamin Davis, in a make or break year, and Sam Cosmi, starter and good player,” Bish said. “Jahan Dotson, we’ll see, had a down year last year; Phidarian Mathis, who I don't even know if he's ever played, and last year Emmanuel Forbes and Quan Martin. Those are the top seven picks Ron Rivera's staff made – spotty at best.”
And before we let you listen to it all yourself, here’s Valdez from the top rope:
“Do you think Ron knows that his coaching tenure is basically over, and he's trying to throw his hat in the ring on the personnel side? Because he's not really talking about coaching, he's talking about personnel.”
“Who’s going to hire his old ass?” EB asked back. “Even if you’re right and that’s his plan, just look at his resume. He was atrocious. He brought his own drama, and it seemed like the talent in Carolina was all he had insight on. His draft picks were brutal and he changed his game plan within seasons, and I’ll never forgive him for starting out his tenure here in DC and just punting games and then pivoting midway through the season because they were backing their way into the playoffs with a losing record. He was SO BAD! He just treated this like it was a part-time job; coaching football got in the way of his tee times.”