Commanders news: Ron Rivera, Chase Young, Week 18 and rebuilding

Commanders in prime position to rebuild

It's been a hard slog for fans this season. The Washington Commanders have endured significant on-field hardship for the fourth straight campaign under head coach Ron Rivera. Now, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Josh Harris' ownership group has big plans for the offseason. This will likely start by firing Rivera and many others. But according to Ben Standig of The Athletic, the foundations they've laid in recent months couldn't have gone better to hit the ground running when the hiring/player recruitment process begins in the coming weeks.

"In terms of building for the future, neither [Josh] Harris nor Hollywood’s best writers could have scripted this outcome much better. Factor in roughly $90 million in salary-cap room, nine draft selections, including five in the first 100 picks, and the reboot that begins on “Black Monday” following Week 18, and it veers toward picture perfect. There’s no getting back what’s become a lost season. Washington didn’t sniff internal and some outside expectations in the fourth and almost assuredly final year under Rivera. It did escape purgatory, the league’s middle pack, where the luck required to land a star quarterback decreases dramatically. Whether Washington picks second or elsewhere in the top four of the draft, the bumpy road to that point alone couldn’t have been scripted any better."

- Ben Standig, The Athletic

The wheels of change are in motion. Trading Montez Sweat and Chase Young before the deadline. Hiring analytics guru Eugene Shen to influence the front office. These were moves that signaled a significantly different approach moving forward.

Buckle up.