Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera, fresh off his media visit at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, was quite cooperative in shedding light on a handful of franchise decisions heading into 2023.
With a hat-tip to our guys at SI’s NFL Draft Bible, a quickly Top 5 Takes review on Wentz, Payne, Howell and more …
On the decision to release QB Carson Wentz: “A lot of things that we have to look at as far as our team is concerned. Everything from the cap to the position itself, and the situational circumstances we went through last year. He’s a heck of a young man. He’s a solid man and I want to wish him the best. I really do appreciate everything he did for us, and the opportunity that he had coming here.
“He did the best he could, and we really appreciate that as well.”
On tagging $19 million defensive tackle Daron Payne: “Just showing the commitment to trying to get him signed and keep him here. He’s a guy that’s been very integral to the development of this football team and this defense as well as the other guys that he plays alongside. And we just wanted to make sure everybody understood that we are serious.”
On the upcoming free agent class: “We’re taking a long look at free agency and what we could potentially do to help ourselves. I know we talked about our own guys that we want to get done specifically now and see if we can, get those things done. The sooner you can get those things done, the more positions you can feel in free agency.
“That’s probably the most important thing, so if we can fill some of those spots coming up once we get into March and get into free agency.”
On a visit with Patrick Mahomes: “One of the first things we talked about was all of our personnel and listening to him talk about our guys. He had an understanding of who we had. We talked a little bit about Eric (Bieniemy, who moves from Mahomes’ Chiefs to the Commanders’ coordinator job) and I told him I’d made the comment that (while Sam Howell) is going to start out as QB1, he’s going to have to earn it and Eric feels the same way. He likes him, he likes who he is. He likes his skillset.
“Then he talked about the other positions and all the things that he felt we could do in getting the ball in those guys’ hands. He liked our five skill-position guys. So that was a really nice conversation we had in terms of all of our different offensive weapons we have.”
On QB Sam Howell: “If you go back to his junior year coming out, this is a guy that had some very good grades on him as far as being draftable. … Secondly, things that he showed us over a period of time. … During the season when you watch the practice tape and he just had some moments that just showed you did a really good job and then got the opportunity (in the season-closing win) against Dallas. I thought he came out and played the type of game that you’re looking for as far as the quarterback’s concerned.
“He’s got a tremendous skillset. … (But) again, he’s not (locked in as) our starter. He’s coming in as a QB1. He’ll get a great opportunity to be our starter, but we do want to find a veteran quarterback. You know, we have Taylor Heineke, who’s a free agent that we’ve got to work through that as well and then we’ll see what happens from there.”
