3 takeaways from Ron Rivera’s revealing interview with The Athletic

The Washington Commanders‘ offseason is starting to heat up as we approach the home stretch of February.

With the franchise tag window open and free agency less than three weeks away, teams around the league have begun cutting players and restructuring contracts to free up cap space in preparation for the annual sweepstakes.

The Commanders are flush with close to $31 million in cap space, so they’ve yet to exercise any money-crunching maneuvers.

That could change in the coming weeks (or days), but fans have been clamoring for some insight into the team’s offseason plans. Speculation is fun, but it only moves the needle for so long until you long for the real thing.

Amazingly enough, Ron Rivera answered the bell in this regard during a revealing interview with Ben Standig of The Athletic. Between the QB search and addressing players’ futures, a lot was discussed during the Zoom call.

It’d take forever to get into all the details of their discussion, so let’s review some leading bullet points, shall we?

3 takeaways from Commanders HC Ron Rivera’s latest interview

3. Rivera isn’t afraid to deal homegrown talent for QB

Washington failed at trading for Matthew Stafford last offseason, but Rivera isn’t letting that dissuade him from dipping his toes back into the QB market.

In fact, the head coach believes the Commanders are still positioned to pull off a trade akin to the Rams’ acquisition of Stafford last offseason and the Buccaneers’ signing of Tom Brady the year before that, both of which led to championships.

"“For the most part, (the Bucs and Rams) were in place and went and got their quarterback,” Rivera said. “I believe we have the makings of a good football team. We have to be able to have the pieces in place to say that, and I believe we do.”"

It sounds like Rivera is ready to get his hands dirty in pursuit of a star QB. How dirty? Well, in speaking with Standig, the two-time AP Coach of the Year conveyed his understanding that the price tag could require trading away homegrown talent, as much as he might want to keep the team’s core in tact.

"“If you feel like you need to get those pieces, and you can get those pieces using draft capital or whatever capital you have in terms of player trades and all that good stuff, why not do it?” Rivera added."

Rivera makes a good point here. While guys like Jonathan Allen and Terry McLaurin should be untouchable in negotiations — we’d lump Chase Young in there, but that’s up for debate– nothing should prevent Rivera from parting ways with other impact players in the name of acquiring a franchise quarterback.

Based on these comments, Rivera is ready to do the dirty work.