Ron Rivera, Redskins held first full-team meeting on Monday

The Redskins new staff and roster have been settled at this point in the offseason, and now, it’s time for the team to start building toward the 2020 campaign.

The Washington Redskins have a new look in the aftermath of the early stages of the 2020 offseason. New head coach Ron Rivera overhauled the coaching staff in the months of January and February, and numerous depth pieces were added in the free agency period. Eight more additions were made in the 2020 NFL Draft, as well as four undrafted signings, and now, the roster numbers 87, more than enough to hold a full-team meeting.

According to the Redskins’ official website, Rivera held the first full-team meeting of the offseason with his staff and his players on Monday, May 18, documented by Redskins writer Kyle Stackpole in the following quote: “On a Zoom call with about 130 players, coaches and support staff, Rivera expressed his goals and vision to create a ‘sustainable winning culture,’ much like he did in his introductory press conference on New Year’s Day.”

There will be inevitable operational changes with the novel coronavirus outbreak preventing teams from congregating in single locations, but it seems as though that isn’t slowing down Rivera. He was able to get his team on the same page, and now, the expectation is that meetings will continue to occur as part of the virtual offseason training program, as training camp inches closer.

One defensive player offered feedback on Rivera’s first full-team meeting with the Redskins: Sixth-year safety and captain Landon Collins. In the Redskins.com article, Collins described Rivera’s meeting as “very good, very stern”, and in an NBC Sports article by Ethan Cadeaux, Collins expanded on his thoughts.

"Every experience with each head coach is different. It depends on the guys we have around. We have a fairly young team. A coach with a stern background coming in with a focal point of how he wants things to be run, just to get guys to grab their attention… I know he’s a guy that’s going to get the job done. That’s why he said what he said and the way he said it."

It’s unclear if the recent incident regarding Cody Latimer was addressed at the meeting, as Latimer is a recent addition, and new information is still coming to light on that front.

Early indications make it clear that things are at least moving in the right direction under Rivera. Whether that continues over time remains to be seen. But Washington needed a change up top, to facilitate a more gradual culture shift, and Rivera seems to be the necessary change agent to put that transition into motion. The process inside the building officially started on Monday. But there’s much more work to do.