Speaker 1: Welcome to the Commanders Today Podcast. I'm Julie Donaldson. The
Speaker 1: offseason festivities continue for head coach Ron Rivera. Team owners, executives,
Speaker 1: and coaches gathered in South Florida this week to prepare
Speaker 1: for the upcoming season. I had the chance to talk
Speaker 1: with head coach Ron Rivera to discuss this offseason, the
Speaker 1: Commander's new QB one, and the upcoming NFL draft coach
Speaker 1: Sonny Florida. Are you aware how cold it is right
Speaker 1: now up in DC? Yes? Because every time I call
Speaker 1: back home and talk to my kids, all I hear
Speaker 1: is that it is freezing out here. Yeah, sometimes it's
Speaker 1: not bad to be the head coach and have to
Speaker 1: come down to these things in West Palm. Beautiful scenery
Speaker 1: here at the Breakers. Have you stopped and pause though
Speaker 1: it all yet? No? You know, I'm on the competition committee.
Speaker 1: So I got here and I hit the ground working.
Speaker 1: We started on Sunday and we've been going ever since.
Speaker 1: What do you get from being on the competition command
Speaker 1: I know you've quite a few years now, like why
Speaker 1: take that step and what does it take? What do
Speaker 1: you get from it? Well? I really do believe it's
Speaker 1: about you know, trying to help and better the league
Speaker 1: and create positive situations for the NFL. UM. One of
Speaker 1: the things I do take from it is is I
Speaker 1: get an insight into the rules, get a better feel
Speaker 1: for those things. I think that helps me. UM. I
Speaker 1: think it it for us in terms of what we
Speaker 1: try to develop and help with more than anything else.
Speaker 1: Is you know, like right now we've got the whole
Speaker 1: thing with the inclusion, you know, trying to make sure
Speaker 1: that people are getting opportunities, UM, you know, to be coaches,
Speaker 1: to be um to be front office people in this league,
Speaker 1: and we want to make sure it gets opened up
Speaker 1: to everybody. As a minority coach, yourself as having one
Speaker 1: of the first females on your coaching staff, I guess
Speaker 1: the new rule wants to have a minority or a
Speaker 1: female that works with the offensive coordinator. Do you believe
Speaker 1: that that'll work? Is this a good step in the
Speaker 1: right direction? Well? I do think it's a good step
Speaker 1: in the right direction. Will the work Only time will tell.
Speaker 1: But you know what we've seen and everybody realized recognize
Speaker 1: it that one of the quickest pipelines to get advancement
Speaker 1: this league is through the quarterback position. So if you're
Speaker 1: coaching that position, if you're coordinating on the offensive side,
Speaker 1: you've created probably the best pipeline for people to get
Speaker 1: chances to take the next big step. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: hope it works. I believe it can. But right now,
Speaker 1: only time will tell us what would this mean internally
Speaker 1: for Washingtons. You already have Jennifer King there and I
Speaker 1: know when we first brought her and you said you
Speaker 1: wanted her to learn multiple rooms before she just kind
Speaker 1: of got that permanent position with the running backs. Could
Speaker 1: this be an elevation for her? Maybe something else? Um,
Speaker 1: it's probably gonna be something else. Um. You know we're
Speaker 1: gonna get We're gonna get Doug involved. You know, we've
Speaker 1: thought about this for a few weeks to be honest,
Speaker 1: when we first got wind of it, and so we
Speaker 1: started mapping it out. I sat down with Jason and
Speaker 1: Doug and we talked about how can we best find
Speaker 1: the best suit of candidate for that position. And we're
Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna continue to finish, you know, that process
Speaker 1: that we are. We're going to start pretty soon again.
Speaker 1: It's all about taking those steps because something needs to
Speaker 1: be done for sure, and that's where it happens kind
Speaker 1: of right here. Um, do you find this Is it
Speaker 1: friendly environment for you or is it like, wait, you're
Speaker 1: my competition. I didn't like that play that you pulled
Speaker 1: on us. That's a little bit about little both. I
Speaker 1: mean it's pretty friendly for the most part. And you
Speaker 1: get an opportunity meet a loz you guys. I mean
Speaker 1: it's hard to put a name to a face because
Speaker 1: you know, we didn't get a chance to interact the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, and there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: changeover and that's really kind of the nature of this business.
Speaker 1: So getting an opportunity to meet guys, see guys spent
Speaker 1: a little bit of time with him as cool. Do
Speaker 1: you guys talk about the moves made in free agency,
Speaker 1: because it seems like this free agency it was a
Speaker 1: little bit of the march madness compared to most very much.
Speaker 1: So we have we a lot of guys have talked
Speaker 1: too at Guys have talked about you know, why did
Speaker 1: we do this or you know we had to do that,
Speaker 1: and you sit there going wow, you know, the cap
Speaker 1: is right now having a major impact on a lot
Speaker 1: of decisions that we make as a league and as teams,
Speaker 1: and and and you know, we went through the same thing.
Speaker 1: You know, we get Carson Wentz m. Carson's salary obviously
Speaker 1: is what it is. It does have an impact on
Speaker 1: our salary cap. It does impact how we view players,
Speaker 1: and what we have to do now is figure out
Speaker 1: and work on best ways to get some of our
Speaker 1: other players taken care of. How much when you watch
Speaker 1: was kind of going on in free agency, does it
Speaker 1: impact your plan and can you anticipate like some of
Speaker 1: the salaries going some high and some of the key
Speaker 1: players moving as they are, and that's exactly what happens.
Speaker 1: You have to anticipate how it's going to impact not
Speaker 1: just this season, but the next season, in the season
Speaker 1: after that going forward. So you really got to make
Speaker 1: decisions that are going to impact your future. And you know,
Speaker 1: when you make a play like we did and we
Speaker 1: bring a Carson in, it does change our plans because
Speaker 1: one thing that we always looked at was let's find
Speaker 1: a guy in, let's draft him and then build around that.
Speaker 1: And with the players coming out of this year's draft
Speaker 1: and everybody's strong need for a quarterback and us picking
Speaker 1: at eleven, we felt one things we really had to
Speaker 1: look at is trying to obtain a veteran guy, and
Speaker 1: that's what we did in grabbing Carson. You told me
Speaker 1: heading into this time period that getting a quarterback was
Speaker 1: the number one priority and you had your options. So
Speaker 1: you go out and you get Carson. What is that
Speaker 1: next step? What is the next priority to be able
Speaker 1: to address here? Well, I think the biggest thing, Julie,
Speaker 1: is to make sure we have the offensive people in place.
Speaker 1: Can we protect him? Do We got to make sure
Speaker 1: that that offensive line is four to fight and we're
Speaker 1: going to continue to look at that to make sure
Speaker 1: we do have the right pieces in place. Didn't this
Speaker 1: about the playmakers? Do we have enough playmakers around him?
Speaker 1: You know? Will those guys coming back from injury be
Speaker 1: ready to play for us once we get into the
Speaker 1: into training camp and then get into the regular season.
Speaker 1: So we've got to look at all those things to
Speaker 1: make sure that that fits our offensive attitude, our offensive philosophy,
Speaker 1: and our offensive scheme. You have the draft coming up,
Speaker 1: eleventh overall pick, and I've been out to a couple
Speaker 1: of Pro Bowls as well. I imagine free agency and
Speaker 1: those moves again are shifting what you might want to
Speaker 1: do in the draft where are you in your plans
Speaker 1: and kind of knowing what you want to do with
Speaker 1: that spot in the six picks you have overall, Well,
Speaker 1: the biggest thing as we've gone through all these pro
Speaker 1: days is really getting a closer look at some of
Speaker 1: the guys that we've targeted, and quite honestly that several
Speaker 1: have gone to There's been a couple of guys that
Speaker 1: have stood out that we did have some questions about
Speaker 1: and feel really good about. So and we're not done.
Speaker 1: I'm going to hit the road again once we we
Speaker 1: we finish up here tomorrow, I'm gonna take a couple
Speaker 1: of days and then we'll be hitting the road again.
Speaker 1: You said three to five years to change the culture,
Speaker 1: you're now entering year three. Where are you from where
Speaker 1: you anticipated and expected this team to be? Well initially
Speaker 1: are Initially when we finished seas, Julia I was a
Speaker 1: little concerned obviously because we hadn't had a quarterback question
Speaker 1: answered yet. Coming out of this past week, feeling pretty
Speaker 1: good about where we are, feel very comfortable, very confident,
Speaker 1: and who Carson Wentz is and who we believe he
Speaker 1: can be for us. So we're pretty excited about that. So,
Speaker 1: um am I where I believe we can be now
Speaker 1: I do. I feel pretty comfortable, pretty confident. We've just
Speaker 1: got to make sure we make some really good decisions
Speaker 1: in the next month and a half and going forward,
Speaker 1: wish are the absolute best. It's uh, you're doing all
Speaker 1: the work. We just sit back and watch, looking forward
Speaker 1: to see where this team does go in year three
Speaker 1: with you, so hopefully you get to enjoy a little
Speaker 1: bit of West Palm Beach. Almost not all meetings locked inside.
Speaker 1: No they're not. They're not, Julie, But thank you all right,
Speaker 1: thanks co for my full conversation with Coach Rivera. Be
Speaker 1: sure to tune into Washington Football Today weeknights, five thirty
Speaker 1: and ten pm on NBC Sports Washington. And while you're
Speaker 1: at it, be sure to follow us on all of
Speaker 1: the Commander's social media platforms for the latest on the team.