ASHBURN — Three years into his tenure, Ron Rivera maintains the Washington Commanders’ success won’t “happen overnight.” But over those nights, the three other teams in the NFC East began their own rebuilds — and are now further ahead of Washington in arguably less amount of time.
Why is that?
“Quarterback,” Rivera said.
Rivera’s initial, single-word answer raised plenty of eyebrows Monday — a day after his team fell to 1-4 following a 21-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans in which quarterback Carson Wentz threw an interception at the 1-yard line with six seconds left. The Commanders now find themselves in an even deeper hole in the division as they trail the 5-0 Philadelphia Eagles, 4-1 Dallas Cowboys and 4-1 New York Giants.
The Eagles, Cowboys and Giants all underwent rebuilds around the same time — or in two cases, after — Washington.
Like Rivera, Dallas’ Mike McCarthy was hired in the 2020 coaching cycle and in three years, the Cowboys now have one of the best defenses in the NFL. In Philadelphia, the Eagles hired coach Nick Sirianni last season, made the playoffs in his first year and are now the lone undefeated team in the NFL. And in New York, first-year coach Brian Daboll has the Giants off to their best start since 2009.
“The truth is that this is a quarterback-driven league,” Rivera said. “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.”
That is generally true — look at Philadelphia’s rise with Jalen Hurts — but the explanation doesn’t fully explain what’s happening in the NFC East.
For one, the Cowboys have been able to succeed this season in spite of star quarterback Dak Prescott’s absence due to a thumb injury. Backup Cooper Rush has led the way over the last four weeks.
Rivera said Dallas has built its offense around Prescott, but “their backup is a guy who is very solid inside of what they do.”
Still, while Rush has done an admirable job of filling in, he was actually cut this summer when the Cowboys trimmed their roster to 53 players. Rush landed on the Dallas practice squad.
The Giants, too, have Daniel Jones — a quarterback who ranked among the league’s least effective over his first three seasons. New York’s regime was so unconvinced it had a franchise quarterback that new general manager Joe Schoen declined Jones’ fifth-year option in April. And five games in, Jones’ numbers aren’t remarkably better than what they’ve been in the past — he has just an 85.7 quarterback rating.
But if Rush and Jones are the difference makers for their teams, the cruel irony for Rivera is this: He picked Washington’s quarterback. Wentz is his guy, the one Rivera brought in to solve a problem the coach has struggled with for three seasons.
In March, the Commanders, under Rivera’s direction, acquired Wentz from the Indianapolis Colts in exchange for multiple draft picks.
“No, I got no regrets about our quarterback,” Rivera said. “I think our quarterback has done some good things. There’s been a couple games that he’s struggled, but you look at his numbers (against the Titans) and he was OK. … The way he performed (Sunday) it just shows you what he’s capable of.
“We chose him because we believe in him. We chose him because we looked at what we felt were things that pointed toward him.”
Wentz threw for a season-high 359 yards against the Titans, but he’s been uneven to start the season. Through five games, the 29-year-old ranks fourth in passing yards (1,390) and fifth in passing touchdowns (10). But Wentz’s six interceptions are the third-most in the NFL, with his latest one hurting Washington the most. Washington is averaging just 18 points per game, ranking 26th.
Rivera said he believes Wentz’s performance Sunday was a “good indicator of what his potential can be” for Washington. He said he thinks the Commanders have a quarterback they can build around.
But ahead of Thursday’s short turnaround against the Chicago Bears, the Commanders are again tasked with trying to muster another mid-to-late-season surge. Rivera’s teams have historically finished strong, though they haven’t always been able to completely erase their early-season deficit.
Sunday’s loss marked the fifth time in 12 seasons that a Rivera-led team started a season 1-4. Of those past four occasions — three of which happened in Carolina — none of Rivera’s teams went on to finish with a winning record. Only one of those squads made the playoffs.
That happened in 2020 when Washington won the NFC East in Rivera’s first year with a 7-9 record. That’ll be almost impossible to replicate this year.
“When the pieces change, sometimes the expectations change,” Rivera said. “Maybe they’re not as they were a year ago or two years ago.”
That’s a noticeably different tone from Rivera, who was confident in the offseason that the Commanders would make a significant leap in his third year. Asked what’s changed, Rivera pointed to injuries on the offensive line and incorporating a new quarterback. “There’s a lot of things that change,” Rivera said.
Rivera spoke to reporters hours after his successor in Carolina, Matt Rhule, was fired. Rhule was hired to rebuild the Panthers, but after 38 games — and an 11-27 record — Carolina owner David Tepper moved on.
With the Panthers, Rhule wasn’t able to find a solution at quarterback.
“Pressure is what you make of it,” Rivera said. “It’s about us being better top to bottom.”
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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