OPINION:
The chesty claim by former Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera in 2023 hangs over the heads of general manager Adam Peters and coach Dan Quinn like an anvil ready to drop.
“If we go 8-8-1 this year and he fires me and next year they win the division and 40 of the 53 players we drafted and it’s the same quarterback, I’m vindicated,” Rivera told ESPN. “Send me my Super Bowl ring.”
I’ll bet Peters and Quinn would like to send Rivera something all right.
The reality is that the opposite has happened — the Rivera roster that Peters and Quinn inherited was so deeply devoid of talent that it will take more than the three drafts and free agencies that they have overseen since taking over in 2024 to build a competitive foundation for this team.
It’s the same problem Mike Shanahan had when he took over Vinny Cerrato’s pathetic roster in 2010. There were needs everywhere, and the misses on personnel decisions — every team has them — were costly.
The Commanders spent $271 million on free agents this offseason, and from what we have seen so far in the limited preseason work, they look more vulnerable than they did last season when they posted a 5-12 record.
We don’t know yet if Peters made the right decisions on his free agent signings. Washington generally received positive marks for those moves, but it is important to note that some of them were Plan B decisions when he was unable to land his first choices — such as center Tyler Linderbaum, a glaring miss right now with the struggles at that position.
Most of those signings were on the defensive side of the ball, which were desperately needed after last season’s bottom-feeding unit. And in the limited preseason action we’ve seen, the defense has flashed at times and looks to be more aggressive under new coordinator Daronte Jones.
The offense, though? Like Michael Spinks in the ring with Mike Tyson for the 91 seconds it lasted.
After the 17-13 loss to Detroit last week, with the image of quarterback Jayden Daniels under siege in the three plays he was on the field, Quinn told reporters he felt the team looked in “disarray.”
Four days later, in the joint practice with the Baltimore Ravens, from numerous media who witnessed the carnage, they looked worse. “Collapse” might be the best way to describe it, with the offense under attack much of the time, so much so that they weren’t even able to execute the vanilla preseason plays that teams typically run.
That’s what makes the situation so troubling. I know preseason football in all forms is often an illusion, not likely to resemble the team that will take the field in the regular season. It is often foolish to come to conclusions about what you see.
This is different, though. We are watching an offense that appears incapable of executing even the simple play calling of preseason because of an offensive line that seems unable to give Daniels the time to carry out anything other than handing the ball off for a run game that won’t frighten anyone.
With one injury — the torn triceps of left tackle Laremy Tunsil that have sidelined him likely for the season — the offense seems to have collapsed.
They are paying Tunsil $60 million for the next two years. It’s not enough.
The absence of the five-time Pro Bowl tackle has set off a chain reaction of disaster, starting with the decision to go with Nick Allegretti at center, letting Tyler Biadasz leave (even though the now-San Diego Charger is out for the season with an injury) and missing out on Linderbaum. Allegretti has been unable to stay on the field with a lingering calf injury, and his backups, Julian Good-Jones and rookie Matt Gulbin, have been woefully inadequate. Left guard Chris Paul has been shaky without the presence of Tunsil next to him, and right tackle Josh Conerly Jr., coming off his rookie season, has struggled at times in camp.
Their best lineman has been left guard Sam Cosmi, who wasn’t on the field against Baltimore because of an illness, the team said.
If he was sick before the joint practice, what he saw Wednesday probably really made him ill.
Safety Jeremy Reaves spoke the truth when he told reporters after the practice, “That’s how you win five games. And we got to be better. We got to be way better.”
I’m not sure how you fix it, other than another year of drafting and free agency to keep filling the holes in Rivera’s roster. I’m not sure Peters and Quinn will get another year.
• You can hear Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.
Contact the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.