Ron Rivera would have entered this season on the hot seat regardless of whether the Washington Commanders were sold. A failure to post a winning record in three seasons and a playoff drought over the last two will do that.
A $6.05 billion purchase, however, makes Rivera’s seat a different kind of warm.
“I’m hopeful that he can be our coach for a long time,” Commanders owner Josh Harris told The Washington Times. “But obviously, this is a big season.”
The Commanders’ season begins Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals with Rivera knowing full well he has a new boss looking over his shoulder. The two men say that, so far, they’ve had nothing but positive interactions. But the reality is that Rivera needs to win — he’s acknowledged as much throughout the offseason.
To understand the pressure Rivera is facing, consider the history of new NFL owners inheriting their coaches — the leash tends to be a very short one.
Since 1994, there had been 17 franchises sold in the NFL — not counting transfers in ownership such as Mark Davis taking over the Raiders from the late Al Davis. In 14 of those situations, the owner inherited a coach. Six of those inherited coaches didn’t make it to a second season.
Of the eight that made it past the first year under new ownership, four made the playoffs that initial season and another (Steve Spagnuolo with the 2010 St. Louis Rams) improved his team’s record by six wins.
Those coaches produced in must-win situations — the kind of situation Rivera finds himself in now.
“I’ve got a lot to prove,” he said at the beginning of training camp.
Rivera has been here before.
In 2018, when the Carolina Panthers sold to billionaire David Tepper, Rivera got a taste of what it means to prove yourself to a new boss.
Rivera was retained after Tepper’s first year, even though the Panthers, who had lost Cam Newton to a season-ending injury, finished 7-9 and missed the playoffs.
But he was fired late the next season after the team started 5-7, despite coaching the Panthers to the Super Bowl in 2015.
His track record in Washington has been less impressive: One playoff appearance on the strength of a 7-9 season in 2020.
Rivera has talked about needing to handle this time around differently. In March, he said he wished he’d done a better job selling himself and his vision to Tepper. He said he planned to be more concise when it was time to make his case to a new owner of the Commanders.
After meeting with Harris, Rivera feels like he’s done that. He said he appreciated Harris’ willingness to listen and be available when the coach needs to pop in.
“This is a guy that owns different sports teams, so he’s in the business of sports, he understands it,” Rivera said, referring to Harris’ ownership of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and NHL’s New Jersey Devils. “Being able to sit there and talk to him, our plans, ideas and thoughts have been great. They’ve been ongoing conversations.”
With his other teams, Harris has shown a patient approach to coaches. In his first 12 years of owning the 76ers, for instance, Philadelphia has had just three head coaches — the NBA’s sixth-fewest in that span. This offseason saw him hire his fourth when the 76ers fired Doc Rivers and replaced him with Nick Nurse. But with both the 76ers and the Devils, Harris also retained the coach he inherited beyond the first year.
Harris said he doesn’t take switching out coaching regimes lightly. He said he starts by giving people the benefit of the doubt, but ultimately will do what’s best for the franchise.
“Listen, part of that is listening to fans, but not all of it,” Harris said. “You can’t ignore what the fans think, but generally, you have to make good long-term decisions. For me, it’s all about building a championship-contending team.”
Harris praised the work Rivera and his staff have done to build a “playoff-contending football team during a difficult situation.” He said Rivera has thought strategically about how he wants to build out the roster and what he wants to spend at each position.
“They’ve laid down some bets,” Harris said. “I just was talking with them. … It’s a pivotal season for the franchise.”
Though Harris doesn’t reference them directly, those bets for this season include trusting second-year quarterback Sam Howell can lead the offense and that the Commanders’ free-agent signings along the offensive line will lead to better protection in the trenches.
Rivera said he doesn’t necessarily view the decisions as “bets.” Rather, many of his choices this season were informed by his observations, his feel for what the Commanders needed to be successful over the long haul.
Take Howell, for instance. The coach witnessed the 2022 fifth-rounder’s progression last season, culminating in Howell’s impressive Week 18 win against the Dallas Cowboys. The showing gave Rivera the confidence that Howell could build on the performance, and that the 22-year-old’s cheap, rookie-scale contract would provide advantages in building out the roster. Harris, too, said it would be an “amazing watershed moment” for the Commanders if Howell proves to be the answer at quarterback.
But perhaps Rivera’s biggest “bet” was his decision to hire offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy away from the Kansas City Chiefs. In leading up to the season, the coach gave Bieniemy autonomy to make changes as he saw fit — and the two-time Super Bowl champion took him up on the offer. Washington’s practices were noticeably longer this summer, with the intensity ramped up to a different level. Rivera has said Bieniemy’s approach of making players “comfortable with the uncomfortable” is part of what appealed to him.
Bieniemy’s hire generated a level of excitement among fans that had been absent in recent years. But by doing so, Rivera arguably runs the risk of having fans clamoring for Bieniemy to become the Commanders’ next head coach — and a portion of them have already started.
To that point, Rivera doesn’t seem to care. “That’s the nature of the game,” he says, adding there are no guarantees. He wasn’t going to let his ego get in the way of doing what he thought was needed, he said.
“My pride is not as important as this team winning and succeeding,” Rivera said. “That’s what this is about and what I’m working toward. … My ego? It’s not that important to me.”
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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