Ron Rivera has a tall task ahead of him in fixing the Washington Redskins’ broken culture, but will the team be better in its first year under him in 2020?
The Washington Redskins had a dreadful 2019 season. They were the first team to fire their head coach last season. While they remained inherently dysfunctional throughout the year, Washington did make a phenomenal hire in landing former Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera as Jay Gruden‘s successor in the nation’s capital. Does he made the Redskins notably better?
On this week’s episode of Stacking the Box, FanSided‘s Matt Verderame and Mark Carman, along with former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz, project the immediate impact Rivera will have on the Washington professional football franchise. We expect the Redskins to be better, but will they be exponentially better during Rivera’s first season in the nation’s capital (44:33)?
Verderame is very much in on the Rivera hire. Though he doesn’t think Washington will be a playoff team in 2020, he anticipates the Redskins to be noticeably better and hover around .500. He says playing in a bad division and inheriting a fourth-place schedule should give Washington a few more wins this year than they would have otherwise. Rivera will be a difference-maker.
Schwartz, who played for Rivera on the 2011 Panthers, thinks Washington will be significantly better than what they were a year ago. Even though he feels Washington is only a six or seven-win team at best, that’s markedly better than they were last season. With Washington expected to draft Ohio State Buckeyes defensive end Chase Young No. 2 overall, you have to be excited.
Are the Redskins a candidate to go worst-to-first in the NFC East? It’s possible, given how lackluster the division was a year ago. Though mutually exclusive entities, it was strange to not see a team go worst-to-first in the NFL last year, as it almost always happens. Then again, a third-place team in the San Francisco 49ers went all the way to the Super Bowl, so there’s that.
Overall, Washington has competency at head coach and a solid defense. The owner is dysfunctional, but Daniel Snyder isn’t cheap and will spend the big bucks to theoretically improve his team. As long as quarterback Dwayne Haskins improves in his second season in the league, Washington will not be an easy out in 2020. Rivera will not allow that to happen. They’ll be alright.
Here are a few other topics discussed on this week’s episode of Stacking the Box:
- Schwartz walks us through an Andy Reid play call (33:10)
- Have we heard last of Mason Rudolph–Myles Garrett feud (34:40)
- What to watch for at NFL Combine? (47:15)
- Schwartz talks stretching, yoga in his old age (50:30)
All this and more!
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