Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera met with the media Monday after Washington’s 21-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans. The Commanders were in a position to win the game, but quarterback Carson Wentz was intercepted at the goal line to end the game.
As you’d expect, Rivera discussed Wentz and the overall state of the 1-4 Commanders.
But the most interesting part of Rivera’s Monday session with the media came when he was asked why the other three NFC East teams were ahead of Washington in their respective rebuilds. The head coach had a one-word answer:
“Quarterback,” Rivera answered.
Wow.
That answer was a headline-grabber, but Rivera discussed it further and attempted to provide context.
” They started with [QB] Dak [Prescott],” Rivera answered when someone mentioned the Cowboys winning with backup quarterback Cooper Rush. “They build around Dak, and the offense is built around Dak. Their backup is a guy that is very solid inside of what they do. The truth is that this is a quarterback-driven league, and if you look at the teams that have been able to sustain success, they’ve been able to build it around a specific quarterback.”
What Rivera is trying to say here is each of those teams have had their quarterback in place before this season, allowing those teams to build around the quarterback. And Washington just acquired Wentz this offseason.
Still, it’s not an answer that will likely make Wentz happy after publicly expressing that he was wanted in Washington multiple times.
Let’s look at each situation.
The Cowboys did build around Prescott but are winning now because of shutdown defense. Dallas does have multiple talented playmakers on offense.
The Eagles are the most talented team in the division. They have arguably the top offensive line in the NFL, a first-round pick at wide receiver and traded draft picks in the offseason for one of the NFL’s best wide receivers in A.J. Brown. The Eagles also have a good tight end in Dallas Goedert and a terrific defense that is strong on all three levels.
Philadelphia’s quarterback, Jalen Hurts, is playing at an MVP level right now because no team in the NFL has built around their quarterback like the Eagles. That’s not to discredit Hurts, as the Eagles treated this season as a make-or-break one for him in the offseason and he’s set himself up for a massive payday.
Finally, you have the Giants. Daniel Jones has been a disappointment. Yet, the Giants are 4-1 in Brian Daboll’s first season as head coach — the third head coach in Jones’ four NFL seasons. But now, Jones is playing well under the new regime.
Rivera’s argument can be made for Dallas and Philadelphia but doesn’t hold a lot of weight when it comes to the Giants. New York has been worse than Washington over the last several years and suddenly looks like a different franchise under Daboll.
Yet, in Rivera’s third season as Washington’s head coach, he holds a record of 15-23. He also makes all football decisions, meaning he picked the quarterback, the offensive line and the defense.
As for Wentz, he’s been far from perfect, but he isn’t Washington’s biggest issue. Wentz was the reason why the Commanders were even in the game Sunday, throwing two beautiful touchdown passes to Dyami Brown and leading the final drive to put Washington in a position to win.
Unfortunately for Wentz and the Commanders, they came up just short.
Rivera is still happy he made the trade for Wentz.
“No, I got no regrets about that quarterback,” Rivera said of Wentz. “I think our quarterback has done some good things. There’s been a couple games that he struggled, but you look at his numbers from yesterday, and you would say, okay, look, his numbers he’s had throughout the year, there times he was very solid.”
The Commanders have a short week as they face the Chicago Bears on Thursday night.
