Redskins coaches return to team facilities, start preparing for 2020

The Redskins’ new coaching staff’s next phase of preparation officially began on Friday.

Amidst a gradually declining pandemic, the NFL reportedly sent out a memo that allowed portions of coaching staffs to return to team facilities on or after June 5. The Washington Redskins took advantage of the opportunity, and per the team’s official website, they sent a number of their new coaches, including new head coach Ron Rivera, to settle in.

Unless we’re talking about running backs coach Randy Jordan or special teams coordinator Nate Kaczor, none of the coaches will have their old offices to return to. Instead, they’ll be taking residence in new, unfamiliar places. The establishment of familiarity has yet to take place, but Rivera knows it’s a process, and will ultimately take some time.

“We do have a lot to do,” Rivera said in the article, written by Washington Redskins staff writer Kyle Stackpole, linked above. “The biggest thing really is just starting to get everything set for training camp now.”

Training camp, of course, presumably won’t take place until August — as of now, it seems as though training camp processions won’t be uprooted by the novel coronavirus outbreak, save for slight changes, such as potential audience and locational restrictions. The Redskins, along with the other teams of the NFL, were made aware of an NFL order that will force them to hold training camp at their primary facilities in Ashburn, as opposed to Richmond.

The Redskins’ new coaches have a lot of time to lay a solid foundation before that time, and they’ve reportedly already been hard at work, along with players, to set in place their new scheme and foundation. Rivera and other coaches have expressed their pleasure with how focused players have been in Zoom meetings, and they’ll continue to keep in touch with their roster, all the while getting affiliated with their team facilities.

Rivera specifically said that the Redskins will look for opportunities to integrate their players in in-person workouts at the team facilities before June 26, at which point all team workouts will be required to cease. It’ll be a sort of play-it-by-ear system, which will undoubtedly test the coaching staff’s early communication with the roster. But it’s a situation which could ultimately strengthen the team in the long run.