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Ron Rivera

NFC East Notes: Redskins, Haskins, Giants

February 8th, 2020 at 6:58pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

New Redskins coach Ron Rivera has insisted he wants to have a quarterback competition, and that nothing will be handed to second-year incumbent Dwayne Haskins. Haskins doesn’t have any problem with that, and he said as much to reporters during a recent community event. “That’s cool,” Haskins said of Rivera’s remarks, via Peter Hailey of NBC Sports. “I’m just going to have to work hard and eventually take it over. Just do your best to be accountable for what you have to do and be ready to go.” That’s obviously the type of attitude that his new coaching staff will like to hear.

Rivera specifically shouted out Alex Smith recently and indicated he could even be back with the team in 2020, although that still seems pretty unlikely. By all accounts, Haskins will almost certainly be under center for the Redskins in Week 1 even though the staff plans to make him earn it. Haskins took over for Case Keenum midway through last season, and was up and down like most rookies. The Ohio State product struggled early on, but started to play a lot better in his last couple of games.

Here’s more from the NFC East:

  • The Giants traded for Leonard Williams at the deadline even though they weren’t headed to the playoffs and he was set to be a free agent, putting a lot of pressure on them to extend him. To that end, the team is “intent” on re-signing him this offseason, according to Ralph Vacchiano of SNY. However, he isn’t going to come cheaply. Vacchiano thinks the defensive lineman will be seeking a contract worth around $15MM annually. The sixth overall pick back in 2015, Williams has always been high on talent but a bit underwhelming on the field. He made the Pro Bowl in 2016, but has been more up and down since then. Still only 25, he should still be entering the prime of his career. New York gave up third and fifth round picks for him.
  • Speaking of the Giants, new head coach Joe Judge put together an interesting inaugural staff with some notable hires. Speaking recently, Judge dished on his thought process when bringing his staff together, via Paul Schwartz of the New York Post. “To me, it’s a big trust factor with the guys I have on the staff,’’ Judge said. “I have a personal relationship with a lot of these guys, professional relationships with nearly all of them.” There are a number of high profile coaches on the staff, including recently fired Browns and Cowboys head coaches Freddie Kitchens and Jason Garrett. Despite that, the rookie head coach insisted that he didn’t hire them because of their experience leading teams. “I didn’t set out to hire anyone with former head coaching experience,’’ Judge said. “That ended up being a plus of what different guys brought to their area.” On Kitchens specifically he said “what I love about Freddie is he brings an element of toughness and discipline to his room. He brings outside-the-box thinking a lot of times to how he approaches the game from a game-plan perspective.’’

NFC Coaching Turner, Peetz, Linguist, Harris,Whitted

January 30th, 2020 at 7:00pm CST by Marc Delucchi

Norv Turner will not be returning to the Panthers coaching staff, according to Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic. Turner had served as a special assistant to former Panthers head coach Ron Rivera. Rivera, of course, was recently replaced by Matt Rhule and has since taken over in Washington. While nothing has been reported, it would not be a surprise to see Turner follow Rivera to the nation’s capital to work with young quarterback Dwayne Haskins.

At the same time, Carolina blocked running backs coach Jake Peetz from interviewing for other positions, per Albert Breer of SI.com. Breer adds that Rivera wanted to take Peetz with him, but Carolina general manager Marty Hurney valued Peetz and the team decided to reward him with a promotion to quarterbacks coach.

Here’s some more notes from coaching staff’s around the NFC:

  • The Cowboys hired Texas A&M cornerbacks coach Maurice Linguist to serve as the team’s defensive backs coach alongside Al Harris. Linguist did not have a history with either head coach Mike McCarthy or defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, but his personality impressed the pair so much that they offered him the job on the same day of his interview, according to Dallas Cowboys reporter Lindsay Cash Draper. Harris had been an assistant with Kansas City, but more notably, played under McCarthy during his tenure in Green Bay at cornerback.
  • Harris’ former team will be making a change at wide receivers coach. According Rob Demovsky of ESPN, the Packers have let Alvis Whitted go and have begun the process of searching for his replacement. Whitted was hired just a year ago to join Matt LaFleur’s staff, but it appears LaFleur will be going in a different direction.

Redskins Rearrange Front Office

January 9th, 2020 at 4:36pm CST by Sam Robinson

Ron Rivera continues to make changes in Washington. In addition to the Redskins parting ways with football operations vice president Eric Schaffer, they will reassign another key front office executive.

Previously working as the Redskins’ senior VP of player personnel, Doug Williams will move out of a personnel role but stay with the team. Williams will now work as the Redskins’ senior vice president of player development, reporting to Rivera.

The former Super Bowl MVP played a key role in shaping recent Redskins rosters, doing so under Bruce Allen as the franchise separated from GM Scot McCloughan. But Rivera and a to-be-determined GM (who will likely be hired after the draft) will now be atop the team’s decision-making structure. Former Panthers exec Rob Rogers will be in that picture as well.

Rogers will join the Redskins as their senior VP of football administration. Rogers handled negotiations for the Panthers and managed the cap; he was with the franchise for all 25 years of its existence. Also heading up the Panthers’ analytics department, Rogers marks an interesting addition to the Redskins given his lengthy tenure in Charlotte.

Washington’s plan did not initially include parting ways with Schaffer, whom Mark Maske of the Washington Post reports was being tabbed to remain a key front office presence (Twitter link). However, that was contingent on Rivera being comfortable working with the 17-year Redskins exec. Schaffer will likely be with another team soon.

The Redskins are also promoting Malcolm Blacken to senior director of player development, where he’ll work with Williams, per ESPN.com’s John Keim (on Twitter). Blacken served as the Redskins’ director of player development for six years; Rivera will keep him in a familiar capacity.

Latest On Redskins Staff, Washington Interested In Pat Shurmur For OC

January 4th, 2020 at 9:29pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Ron Rivera became the first head coach hired this cycle when the Redskins brought him in, and he isn’t wasting anytime assembling his staff. Notably, Rivera is raiding his old Panthers coaching staff and bringing a bunch of guys with him.

Panthers offensive line coach John Matsko, receivers coach Jim Hostler, and trainer Ryan Vermillion are all joining Rivera in Washington, according to a Twitter thread from Joseph Person of The Athletic. Person adds that defensive line coach Sam Mills III will also interview for a spot on Rivera’s staff. Obviously, the new head coach is interested in getting the gang back together again. We had heard initially that he was likely to keep offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell, who did good work with Dwayne Haskins down the stretch, but that might not necessarily be the case.

We heard yesterday that Panthers offensive coordinator Scott Turner would get an interview in Washington, and there’s apparently another high profile contender. Recently fired Giants coach Pat Shurmur is getting consideration for the job, Grant Paulsen of The Athletic is told (Twitter link). John Keim of ESPN.com later tweeted confirmation that the Redskins are interested in Shurmur. That would certainly be interesting, especially with Shurmur potentially staying in the NFC East, though Keim says no interview is imminent and it’s unclear if there will be an interview at all.

Shurmur has never panned out as a head coach, but he’s been highly regarded as an offensive coordinator. Right before getting hired by the Giants, he received a ton of praise for his work with Case Keenum in Minnesota. Matsko had been with Rivera since he started in Carolina in 2011, so it’s not surprising he got brought along.

Giants GM Dave Gettleman On Not Wanting To Fire Pat Shurmur, Coaching Search

January 3rd, 2020 at 7:43pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Giants GM Dave Gettleman has caught a lot of flak from both the media and fans, but he is surviving for at least one more year. The team fired head coach Pat Shurmur after the season, but announced they’d be retaining Gettleman for 2020. With his job safe for the time being Gettleman made a couple of appearances on ESPN Radio and WFAN in New York and made some interesting comments, via Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post.

Perhaps most notably, Gettleman admitted that he didn’t want to fire Shurmur, the first coach he hired, and that the order came directly from ownership. “Came from above,” he said of the decision. There were reports that co-owner Steve Tisch was pushing for Shurmur’s firing, and his view ultimately won out with controlling owner John Mara. Many questioned the decision to bring back Eli Manning for 2019 and pay his hefty salary if they were going to bench him after only two games, but Gettleman insisted ownership played no role in making that call.

Gettleman was previously the GM in Carolina, where he worked with recently hired Redskins coach Ron Rivera. Gettleman revealed that New York would’ve been interested in a reunion, but they didn’t have the chance because they waited until after the season to fire Shurmur, whereas Washington had a head start. “Before we could turn around,” Gettleman said, “the [Redskins] deal was done.”

The front office head also revealed that it was Shurmur who originally identified and brought quarterback Daniel Jones to his attention. Gettleman then fell in love with the signal-caller from Duke, and ended up taking him sixth overall. Gettleman said on both radio programs that he would be willing to give up some of his power on personnel decisions to a new head coach depending on the candidate. With ownership calling the shots, he might not have a choice.

New York has been busy, already scheduling a slate of interviews, which you can keep track of via our head coaching search tracker. Below are a list of names we’ve heard about as of right now:

Redskins Rumors: Snyder, Rivera, Kerrigan

January 1st, 2020 at 4:47pm CST by Sam Robinson

Although since-fired team president Bruce Allen took most of the heat for the Redskins’ personnel decisions during the 2010s, Dan Snyder has continued to play a role in the franchise’s football operations. Allen was also believed to be on the side of drafting Dwayne Haskins, but John Keim and Jason Reid of ESPN.com write Snyder appeared to lead that charge — even though the owner once criticized for his big-ticket moves has contributed less input on that front in recent years. Some in Washington’s building placed a third-round grade on Haskins, per Keim and Reid. Haskins was viewed as a first-round pick for most of the pre-draft process. While Ron Rivera is expected to have more control over Redskins personnel matters than Jay Gruden, sources informed the ESPN duo they still expect Snyder to be involved.

Here is the latest out of Washington:

  • New defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio confirmed the Redskins will shift back to a 4-3 base defense, Les Carpenter of the Washington Post notes. Both Rivera and Del Rio have used 4-3 bases for most of their respective careers, so this should come as no surprise. However, Snyder is believed to have made this a point of emphasis, per Keim and Reid. The Redskins have not deployed a 4-3 base defense in 11 seasons, though with teams’ increased nickel usage, transitions in front-seven schemes are not as significant as they once were. This will make Washington’s starting lineup interesting, however, with the team having three talented interior defenders — Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne and 2019 sack leader Matt Ioannidis — up front.
  • Ryan Kerrigan just completed a down year, registering a career-low 5.5 sacks and missing the first two games of his career. The productive Redskins edge defender is going into a contract year, but Keim tweets Kerrigan and previous Redskins management had engaged in extension talks in 2019. Kerrigan, 31, would like to stay with Washington on a third contract.
  • Rather than retirement, Alex Smith will continue his efforts to return to the field. The Redskins quarterback has missed the past 22 games because of a gruesome leg injury that required numerous surgeries. “I still have dreams of getting back to where I was and getting back out there,” Smith said, via NBC Sports Washington’s Ethan Cadeaux. “This has been a crazy ride with a lot of unforeseen turns, but without a doubt, that’s still my goal.” Smith, 35, is set to count $21.4MM against Washington’s cap this season. No cap savings can come of a Smith release until 2021.

Redskins Hire Ron Rivera As HC

December 31st, 2019 at 8:15am CST by Rory Parks

The Redskins didn’t let him get away. Washington will hire former Panthers HC Ron Rivera as its next head coach and will give him a five-year contract, per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter). The hire will be announced tomorrow.

Washington fired former head coach Jay Gruden in October, which allowed owner Dan Snyder to get a jump on the hiring process. That may have been crucial, because when Rivera was let go by Carolina earlier this month, he immediately became one of the most qualified coaching candidates on the market, and he would have had other suitors, like the division-rival Cowboys and Giants. But Snyder, who perhaps realized that his silver tuna acquisition of Mike Tomlin was never going to happen, acted quickly to bring Rivera to Washington and keep him there.

Rivera, who played linebacker for the Bears from 1984-92 and who was a part of Chicago’s Super Bowl XX victory, became the team’s quality control coach in 1997. He paid his dues and moved up the coaching ranks, ultimately becoming the Bears’ defensive coordinator in 2004. But it was his stint as the Chargers’ defensive coordinator from 2008-10 that solidified him as one of the best defensive minds in the game, and he parlayed that status into a head coaching gig with the Panthers in 2011.

The Panthers never captured the Lombardi Trophy with Rivera, but he did get them to Super Bowl 50 at the end of the 2015 season, and he earned Coach of the Year honors that year. Including playoffs, Carolina went 79-67-1 with Rivera at the helm.

Although Redskins QB Dwayne Haskins may never be Cam Newton, Rivera obviously feels comfortable enough with the Ohio State product to accept the Washington job. Indeed, many believed it would be difficult for the Redskins to attract a top HC candidate, so it’s a good sign for Washington fans that Rivera apparently believes in the direction the team is heading. And now that Bruce Allen is out of the building and Rivera is in, perhaps the team can bring in a top exec as well (though Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports tweets that the team may not complete its front office changes until after the draft).

As far as Rivera’s staff is concerned, there has been speculation linking his former defensive coordinator in Carolina, Steve Wilks, to the same job in Washington. Though Wilks is currently under contract with the Browns — and therefore in limbo — John Keim of ESPN.com says he will not be coming to Washington (Twitter link). Indeed, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets that Rivera is targeting former Jaguars and Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio as his defensive coordinator, which could make for a very strong staff in the nation’s capital. Schefter says Del Rio is the leading candidate for the job.

Joe Person of The Athletic says (via Twitter) that Eric Washington and Sam Mills III could be other names to watch for the DC job, and La Canfora says Rivera is likely to retain offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell.

The hire has been well-received, and given the way Snyder handled the Rivera hire and the Allen dismissal, perhaps Redskins fans can feel a bit of optimism heading into the new year.

Coaching Notes: Giants, Rhule, Redskins, Dolphins

December 30th, 2019 at 6:45pm CST by Ben Levine

We heard rumblings that Baylor head coach Matt Rhule will be the Giants’ top choice to replace Pat Shurmur, who was canned as head coach earlier today. Yahoo’s Charles Robinson tweets that the organization is “motivated and borderline excited” to hear of Rhule’s various requests, and “they’ll be ears” if the coach asks to revamp any areas of the organization. This was a topic of contention last year when Rhule interviewed with the Jets.

Meanwhile, NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo clarifies (on Twitter) that while Rhule would have the “leeway to make big decisions throughout the building,” the coach doesn’t necessarily want full personnel control.

Speaking of, Executive Vice President (and co-owner) Steve Tisch said he plans to take on a bigger role with the organization in 2020.

“I am involved. I would like to be more involved. I will become more involved,” he said (via ESPN’s Jordan Raanan on Twitter).

Let’s check out some more coaching notes from around the NFL…

  • Those waiting for Ron Rivera‘s impending hiring by the Redskins will have to wait a bit longer. NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport said negotiations between the organization and their presumed next coach good drag into Tuesday (Twitter link). However, the two sides are still expected to come to agreement on a deal.
  • The Dolphins let go of offensive coordinator Chad O’Shea earlier today, but the organization doesn’t doubt his ability to coach receivers. Sources told Tony Pauline of Pro Football Network (Twitter link) that the 47-year-old is viewed as a great wide receivers coach, but “people inside the building didn’t view him as a good coordinator.” The longtime assistant spent 10 years with the Patriots as the club’s WRs coach and joined former New England DC Brian Flores in South Beach when Flores became the ‘Fins head coach this year.
  • O’Shea wasn’t the only member of the Dolphins who won’t be back next season. Veteran offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo told NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo that he and the organization have decided to part ways (Twitter link). Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald tweets that the Dolphins have also let go of safeties coach Tony Oden.

Redskins Fire Bruce Allen, Expected To Hire Ron Rivera

December 30th, 2019 at 8:43am CST by Rory Parks

The Redskins have fired team president Bruce Allen, the team announced in a statement. Although some recent reports indicated that Allen would remain in the organization in some capacity, perhaps as part of the club’s stadium detail, that is not the case. The Redskins have completely cut ties with him.

Washington is also expected to hire Ron Rivera as its next head coach, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports (via Twitter). Rivera is meeting with the team today, and as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets, today’s “interview” is expected to be more of a coronation than anything else. Owner Dan Snyder has acted quickly to get the coach he wants before any other interested clubs could get a crack at him, and it looks like he has his man.

Rivera was fired by the Panthers earlier this month, but his strong track record in Carolina immediately catapulted him to the top of the list of head coaching candidates in this year’s cycle. He amassed a 76-63-1 regular season record, a 3-4 playoff record, and, most notably, a Super Bowl appearance. The Panthers did not win it all under Rivera’s watch, but he is highly-regarded and commands respect.

The same cannot be said for Allen. The Redskins went 62-97-1 during his 10-year tenure and qualified for the playoffs just twice in that time. He also became a divisive figure for Washington fans, most of whom are likely glad to see him out of the organization.

With Allen gone, senior VP Eric Schaffer will see his role increase, as Mark Maske of the Washington Post tweets. One of the purposes of today’s meeting between Rivera and the team is to ensure that Rivera — who is also expected to have significant say in personnel matters — is comfortable with Schaffer.

Snyder’s statement regarding Allen’s dismissal reads, in part, as follows:

“Like our passionate fan base, I recognize we have not lived up to the high standards set by great Redskins teams, coaches and players who have come before us. As we reevaluate our team leadership, culture and process of winning football games, I am excited for the opportunities that lie ahead to renew our singular focus and purpose of bringing championship football back to Washington D.C.”

Ron Rivera To Meet With Redskins Monday

December 29th, 2019 at 7:11pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Ron Rivera to the Redskins buzz continues to heat up. Rivera will meet with Washington brass about their head coaching vacancy Monday, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link). The Redskins want Rivera, and they hope to complete a deal with him on Monday, “before any other teams become involved,” a source told Mark Maske of the Washington Post (Twitter link). Maske later tweeted that there’s a “growing belief” that a deal will get done Monday, barring any last-minute complications. 

We heard yesterday that the Redskins were interested in the former Panthers coach, and the interest is apparently mutual. Washington started the year off with Jay Gruden as coach, but fired him early on. They’ve been linked to a number of high profile coaches since then, including Urban Meyer and Marvin Lewis. There was a recent report that Rivera was telling people close to him that a deal could come together quickly, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he’s Washington’s new head coach by the end of tomorrow.

Rivera had been in Carolina for the past nine seasons before being canned with a handful of games to go. Nearly immediately after his firing, reports emerged that he wouldn’t be out of a job too long. It’s going to be an offseason of change for Washington, as front office head Bruce Allen also appears to be on his way out.

The Redskins have been a dumpster fire the past couple of years, but there are some bright spots. Rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins made major strides down the stretch, and rookie receiver Terry McLaurin looks like a star in the making. We should know more about Rivera’s future very soon.

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