Ron Rivera enters year two as head coach of the Washington Football Team as the defending NFC East champions. But unlike other playoff teams from a season ago, many wonder if Washington can translate modest success into sustained winning.
So, what kind of team does Rivera think he has this year?
“I say we have the potential to be a really good football team,” Rivera told The Team 980’s Kevin Sheehan.
“I have some concerns, some things that these guys are gonna have to show me that they’ve learned and they’re ready to go forward as a football team and be the type of guys we think they can be,” he said. “I think that is… to be determined. Because, again, we don’t know who they are, we don’t know what they’re gonna be. This is what training camp is for. It is to develop and see where we are. To see if we have taken those next steps, which I believe we can, and if not, how can we improve and get better.”
When asked by Sheehan for his No. 1 concern, Rivera was quick to say “maturity.”
“I think we have to grow and mature as a football team. I don’t think we can show up and automatically assume we’re gonna pick up where we left off last year,” Rivera said.
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“I’m gonna make everybody approach this the right way. We’re gonna show up and we’re gonna start with the base fundamentals, start with the basics, and develop as a football team as we go along. If we don’t pay attention to the little details now when we need to rely on the base fundamentals, we need to fall back on the basics, we’re not ready to do that. So that’s what this [training camp] is about,” he told The Team 980.
When asked by Sheehan for an under-the-radar player how might explode during training camp, Rivera said he didn’t want to limit to an individual player and instead pointed to two position groups: the wide receivers on offense and the safeties on defense.
However, there were two individuals he did single out.
“But if there are two guys that I really want to see if they’re ready to take the next step, honestly, they’re both our defensive ends,” Rivera told The Team 980. “Montez [Sweat] and Chase [Young] are two guys if they take the next big step in their development as football players [they] can really take their game to the next level and that can help us out as a football team.”
And taking that next step is something fans have been thinking about and Washington's head coach acknowledged he feels the optimism coming from the fanbase, but Washington’s head coach doesn’t put too much stock in external expectations.
“Because as far as I’m concerned, really, the expectations that are important to us are ours,” Rivera said. “We have to understand that our expectations have to be higher than everybody else’s. But at the same time, we’ve also got to be realistic, we’ve got to understand what’s at stake and why we’re doing the things that we’re doing.”
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But does Rivera believe higher expectations like repeating as NFC East champions and making the playoffs are fair?
“Oh, yeah, I think so. That’s why, to me, you do what you do,” Rivera told Sheehan.
“We’re not coming here hoping to get something done. We’re not coming here ‘oh, this might…’ No, we’re coming here because we truly believe we have an opportunity, we have what it takes, we have the players we need to give ourselves the chance to win.”
Rivera said his first message to his team during training camp will be about what their intent is for the 2021 season. However, when asked by Sheehan if he lays out specific goals about winning a certain number of games or winning the division, Rivera said that isn’t something he does.
“No, our basic goal, our intent is to win. That’s it. Period,” Rivera told The Team 980. “We go from there, we define it as we go along.
“There’s a lot of mistakes you can make and a lot of things you can create by setting numbers, because, again, if I set a number last year saying, ‘We needed 10 [wins] to win the division,’ and we’re 1-7, now we put ourselves in a position where we’re not winning 10, so it doesn’t matter. All you have to do is to get into the playoffs as far as I’m concerned and then we’ll see what happens.”
Sheehan pointed out that part of Washington’s success in 2020 was because Rivera, who spent much of training camp and the early part of the season preaching culture, was able to adapt as the season went on and flexible goals led to the franchise’s first division title in five years.
But as far as the culture question goes, Rivera said his team is not a finished article entering year two of his reign.
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“Honestly, I’d say we are still developing,” Rivera told Sheehan. “Gosh, that’s a tough question to answer, just because I don’t know where we are right now in terms of this group, this team. That’s why I’m so excited about being here.
“As we go through it, as we get together today, we have our first set of meetings. How the players react to those sets of meetings, how players react to the first few days of practice, that will give me a sense for where we are as far as our culture is concerned going forward.”
As far as the roster is constructed, Rivera believes the organization has done a good job bringing together players who “fit what” the team is trying to do and “understand what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Two players who fit that bill were signed to contract extensions this week: defensive lineman Jonathan Allen and tight end Logan Thomas.
“Making sure that people understand what is expected of them, what the standard is. That’s part of my job is making sure that the players all understand what it takes to get to where we want to go," Rivera added.
Of course, just like in Rivera’s first season, the 2021 campaign will be played during the Coronavirus pandemic. Despite the NFL and NFLPA continuing to encourage players to take the Covid-19 vaccine, it was reported Tuesday Washington had the lowest vaccination rate in the league at 60%; below the league average of 84%.
“We’ve got some work to do,” Rivera told Sheehan about the team’s vaccination rate. "And we want to get these guys, as many of them, vaccinated when it's time."
When asked at his introductory press conference in Richmond on Tuesday, Rivera expanded on this and said he was “beyond frustrated" about his team's low rate.
“I’m truly frustrated. I’m beyond frustrated. Part of the reason I walk in with a mask on is I'm immune-deficient,” he said, referring to his battle with cancer. “So with this new variant, who knows? So when I’m in a group and the group’s not vaccinated, or there’s mixture, I’ve put the mask on for health reasons cause nobody really knows. I have to do that and I just wish and I hope that our guys can understand that.”
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And while Rivera’s concern over his own health, the coaching staff’s health, the health of his players, and their families is the reason for most of his frustration, he also made a point about how Washington’s low vaccination rate could impact the team’s ability to compete in 2021.
“It becomes a real disadvantage in terms of preparation. If you’ve got a guy that’s going to miss out on two weeks of work, I think when you get into the regular season and you wake up Saturday morning and they’d come in and tell you that you’ve got five guys that can’t play on Sunday and it’s your starting group, that’s going to shake your team up,” Rivera said. “We don't want to be in that situation. So it could be a huge, huge disadvantage.”
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