Ron Rivera was not mincing words Tuesday, when he was talking with the local media (at the owners meetings) about his quarterbacks.
The Commanders head coach is heading into his fourth season and yes, he will start a fourth quarterback in his fourth season opener as Washington’s coach.
“I think its open right now, I really do. All I said was that Sam [Howell] was going to get the first crack. I didn’t say that Sam was the guy. He’s going to have to come in and earn it. And if Jacoby [Brissett] comes through and earns it, I’ll play Jacoby.”
Ron Rivera say Sam Howell “more than likely” QB1 pic.twitter.com/oeik0Hedar
— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) February 8, 2023
When the Commanders conduct their many practices and three preseason games. what will be the determining factor for Rivera in the determining whom his 2023 starter will be? “I’m going to play that guy that we believe at the end of the day gives us the best chance at winning football games.”
Rivera was asked how he would handle the competition for the starting quarterback.
“From my experience and watching how things unfolded for Andy [Reid] when I was with him. How we did things in Chicago with [Former Head Coach] Lovie Smith. These were guys that came in, had a plan and had guys compete, rotating guys, tracking every snap making sure it was as equal as possible.”
One thing we are hoping to do is to work with one of the teams that we end up getting as a preseason game partner. We hope to do that; we will see how that unfolds whether we are allowed to with the league because, again, they have to schedule it and make sure the schedule fits then we can talk about it with them. We would love to do that because it creates the kind of opportunity to get more in-depth. So we’ll see how it all goes.”
Rivera expressed he feels it is more difficult to evaluate a quarterback competition. He stated quarterback rather than merely being one of the positions, “is THE position.”
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbykgy681k112p8 player_id=01eqbvhghtkmz2182d image=]