Burgundy & Gold Reaction: Ron Wants Patience…SERIOUSLY!!!

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October 25, 2023

by David Earl

It’s only year 4: be patient

Ron Rivera said something to this effect in his press conference this week.  As a result, I took a bit of a different approach in this reaction column. In my opinion, Rivera’s press conference lacked any genuine thought and showed a flawed vision from day one. This particular response to the fans hit harder than anything else he’s done while trying to develop a young team. The arrogance to make this statement nearly halfway through season 4 comes across as disingenuous and turning a blind eye to his complete failure in constructing this team. His plea to be patient because they are building a young team is ridiculous when you consider the following teams:

  • Philadelphia Eagles: Howie Roseman brought in Nick Sirianni after the 2020 season and a team with no clear quarterback or even young foundation for the future took off under Nick’s vision. Just in season two, after adjusting an offensive philosophy that didn’t suit Jalen Hurts‘ skillset, they set team records across the board offensively. The Eagles won the NFC and took the Kansas Chiefs down to the final drive of the Super Bowl, only to come up a little bit short. Roseman continues to have the perfect mix in building a foundation through the draft plus aggressive approaches in free agency and trades keeping this division rival among the elite teams of the NFL. His vision and its execution are precise with very few mistakes, and that fielded a contender in just 2 years.
  • Detriot Lions: Talk about a team that took on the identity of their head coach – year 2 showed great improvement. They took the eventual NFC champion to the wire, swept their division rival Green Bay Packers, and had strong showings against playoff teams. The most remarkable part of that season was after the Lions turned around a 1-6 start to the season to nearly make the playoffs, that success has carried over to this season, as they now have a 5-2 record. They are favorites to win the NFC North and are quickly becoming a team no one wants to play in the playoffs. This is the Detroit Lions people!

These are the two teams off the top of my head that turned around their franchise quickly. A division rival we have to watch dominate the NFC East since then and the lowly Detroit Lions that everyone thought would always be the loveable losers. At Ron Rivera’s development rate, Washington will take another 10 years to become contenders so let’s all be patient. It’s not like we are coming off two-plus decades of being one of the worst franchises in all the NFL, right? On to Ron’s press conference as this is where my typical reaction article will differ:

Monday Press Conference (10/23/2023)

The following quotes are from Ron in this press conference and reading the comments in this thread many fans are now fed up.

  • “I’ve been fine with what we’ve tried to do offensively,” Rivera said followed by, “I think we have found a young quarterback that gives us an opportunity. We’re trying to play the best football we can and at the same time grow a football team.”: This answer is reasonable in week 2, while acknowledging adjustments need to be made, but it is now week 7 and the team faced a terrible Giants team. Knowing Sam Howell has issues processing the field quickly at times, and also as a slow release at times, how is he okay with 52 pass attempts versus 19 rushing attempts this past week? This near 3-1 ratio not only showed a level of arrogance heading against a statistically bad defense, but a completely ignorant disregard for Howell’s overall deficiencies. These deficiencies which a veteran defensive coordinator in Wink Martindale typically takes full advantage of against young developing quarterbacks. This was an indefensible game plan by Eric Bieniemy which is apparently condoned by Ron Rivera.
  • “We’re not going to go around cutting a bunch of people, trading for a whole bunch of people, trying to hire a whole bunch of people. We’re trying to develop a young football team to be a very good football team for the future, and that’s what we’re going to continue to work on.”: This goes back to my opening remarks and just had to be reinforced again. This is exactly why Washington remains a below-mediocre team that plays far under the talent level they actually do have on this team. Ron refuses to aggressively address this team’s weaknesses, such as the offensive line and the linebackers. This neglect has smothered any effectiveness in a talented defensive line and a wide receiver group that should be beating most secondaries in the league. The lack of an impact linebacker neutralizes the defensive front in many ways while the offensive line, aside from horrendous pass protection, cannot establish a run game to open up any effective passing game. Of course, Bieniemy’s scheme has not helped much either but when they have tried to run it’s been mostly ineffective.
  • “I can’t predict the future,” he said. “I’m going to focus in on one game at a time because, the truth the matter is, that’s the only thing that matters right now and that’s getting ready for Philadelphia.”: Yes it is a week-to-week league, but Ron’s inability to show any forward-thinking has crippled Washington each year. One of the biggest problems in his mindset thus far is when this team puts together a small win streak the idea of hope begins to set in for Ron Rivera. Regardless of the fact many of the weaknesses still exist,  the team will begin a stretch of probable deflating losses that will showthe true mediocrity of this team. It is that very rollercoaster Washington has the fans on through Ron’s tenure.
  • “You have to be accountable for what’s happened now. That’s on me, it starts with me. I get that.”: You mean the same accountability while still saying the players need to execute on the field? Was it being accountable when you posted a message on the locker room door telling them to do their job? This is just a rinse-and-repeat answer from an HC/GM of this team that has no answer or solutions. These statements are fine the first couple of years, but when the team is barely marginally better than the day Ron took over, it just becomes incompetence. Ron has made no significant changes on the coaching staff or the roster, so why would the message be heard any differently? If there are no consequences for poor results there typically won’t be the significant improvements being sought. Simply put, it’s almost that simply Ron and his message has become stale.
  • “It does because, with a young quarterback, there’s hope. As long as we have that young quarterback and he grows and develops and we play consistent complementary football we have a chance.” That was Ron’s response after being asked if it feels different being 3-4 this year.  This is a delusional response. The offensive philosophy Ron agreed to bring in with Eric Bieniemy is just not conducive to the structure (or lack thereof) of this offensive line. The scheme being run with a young quarterback in Sam Howell was just a terrible mix for this team. It showed again in Howell being sacked 6 times against the Giants. The growth and development are being thwarted by the hits the quarterback is taking, and we are beginning to see that. I agree the offensive line is not at fault for all the sacks, but the pocket has been very inconsistent thusfar. When the game plan each week has had only minimal success in countering  the overall weaknesses between Howell and the offensive line, where is the hope for the fans?

Conclusion

This was Ron’s statement at the start of the season. Not only do I agree with Burgundy Blog when he said that “This is a serious delusion of grandeur,” it gave us a preview of what Rivera’s focus and attention to detail was actually going to consist of entering the season. Just the fact he’d feel vindicated if this roster won after his exit sure sounds like a head coach who already checked out before the season started.

Before I continue allow me to say one thing fact about Ron Rivera: the man is absolutely a class act outside of football. He is a person who genuinely cares about his fellow people while always looking to help someone down on their luck. His battle with cancer along with the embarrassment of Dan Snyder’s ownership compounded everything around him, and the fact thathe kept that locker room together was nothing short of remarkable. Ron is definitely a character guy with a great approach to diverting unnecessary, non-football related stress away from his players. For that, he is admirable and I did not want this column to take away from Ron the man.

Back to the topic at hand: with the exception of a couple of seasons in which he had an MVP quarterback and a great defense, Ron Rivera the head coach has just been a fairly average coach and a worse general manager. His statements asking the fans for patience after they’ve watched the quick turnaround successes of other teams, especially after 20-plus years of ineptitude, are falling on deaf ears today. The comments of “Fire Ron” and “Clean House” have begun to overtake the fan base, and rightfully so as his message is stale. This disingenuous approach may have also fractured any loyalists who continue to support Ron the head coach here in Washington.

The fact he still wants to claim that it’s player execution that needs to improve at this point of his 4th season, coupled with the excuse of a young quarterback is the definition of deflection. His continued failure to impose consequences on his staff is a clear indicator that, in Rivera’s eyes, it always has been a player issue and not a lack of coaching or development. That he continues to call out the players’ lack of execution but doesn’t make significant roster changes to shake things up just hints at the fact each player doesn’t have the incentive to address the overall play on the field . It’s a double-edged sword that Ron himself has forged over the years and has now come back to haunt him in year four.