Entering his fourth season as head coach of the Washington Commanders, Ron Rivera has become much more of a delegator. Handing off some responsibilities to the newly installed assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.
This began recently when Rivera said he had delegated scheduling responsibilities and how practice is structured – two things Craig Hoffman said – are typically the head coach's purview to his new hire. "You just start ticking off the kinds of things that head coaches can do. They can be very involved in either the offense or the defense, they can kinda be overseers of the schedule and quality controlling. All these different things," Hoffman said. "And Ron has just over the course of the last couple of years seemingly given them all away."
Hoffman, of course, noted that this being year four of Rivera's tenure in Washington, this could be part of the plan. That the head coach has established a culture in the building and best practices with the way things are done with the team and with the coaching staff, so he can step away from all of the day-to-day operations and move from an overly hands-on style like this was year one so he can look into larger projects that he feels might need more of his attention.
Before the Commanders practiced on Wednesday at OTAs, Hoffman asked Rivera after delegating responsibilities, what he sees as his best use: "Well a big part of what I'm doing more so than anything else is I'm just kinda observing more so the different groups out there now," Rivera said. "Talking with the younger coaches, talking with some of the younger players, seeing how they're developing and growing.
"I feel more like a manager at times than I do anything else. It's about making sure that I'm delegating the authority to these guys and letting them do their responsibilities with a very veteran coach like [defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio] I've been able to rely on him and his staff to go forward. Spending a little bit more time bouncing between the different groups."
For Hoffman: "I think it's a great answer. And ideally what you want from a head coach at this point in his tenure."
Rivera added that this is the most he has delegated during his coaching career and he has had to adjust to getting used to looking at personnel reports, which has been different. Why the change now, Rivera said, "Making the change more than anything else is trying to just get back to just football. And I think that's one of the things that's gonna come out of this for me personally. And I think getting back to what I really do more so anything else and that is just strictly around the team, the players, the coaches. That's more of what I'm looking forward to."
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