Ron Rivera On NFL Draft Needs; QB Situation

Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera discussed the team’s offseason outlook, his relationship with Eric Bieniemy, what he looks for in a quarterback and more, on location at the NFL Combine.

On what went into the decision to release QB Carson Wentz:

Well, you know, there's 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 placing the franchise tag on DT Daron Payne:

Well, more so anything else just showing the commitment to trying to get him signed and keep him here. I mean, 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 he is approaching the upcoming free agent class:

I think the biggest thing more than anything else is we're taking a long look at free agency and what we could potentially do in free agency 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. It takes a lot of pressure off of the draft in terms of what you need to do, what you have to do, what you must do, as much as to the point where you get to what you want to do. 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, we'll see what happens.

On what went into the recent staff changes:

With [Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator] Eric [Bieniemy] coming in and some guys that he wanted to have, and we talked about the entire staff going forward and he talked about the direction he wanted to take it. Bringing in a guy like [QB Coach] Tavita [Pritchard] in is a guy that has played the position. He's been in one place for a long time, but it's been a pro style type of offense. He and Eric have had a relationship, I think, for the last ten years. So, they're very familiar with each other and you see it when we brought Tavita in and sat down. I visited with him and interviewed him and then listened to his philosophies on football and his ideas and stuff. I could see why he and Eric are very similar.

On a particular type of quarterback they are looking for:

A guy in Kansas City has number 15. No. One of the first things we talked about obviously was all of our personnel and listening to him talk about our guys. He had an understanding of who we had. He understood we talked a little bit about Eric [Bieniemy] and I told him I'd made the comment that he's going to start out as QB one, 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. He told me he's a guy that they looked at at one point when he was there. So he's familiar with [QB] Sam [Howell]. 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:

Well, 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. I believe you go back and you ask some scouts what their grades are, you're going to see some pretty high grades. That's what I did. I looked at our people's grades and we had some very good grades on him, so we feel very confident in his ability. Secondly, things that he showed us over a period of time. He played a lot in the pre-season, that was something we did on purpose. We wanted to see him because we liked him that much. 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 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. Got a good arm, the kind of arm that you do look for. That's one of the things and again, he's not our starter. He's coming in as a QB one. He'll get a great opportunity to be our starter, but we do want to find a veteran quarterback. You know, we have [QB] 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.

On Buffalo Bills Head Coach Sean McDermott as a defensive play caller:

Very aggressive. Very aggressive. He's very thorough, and does a very good job. I'm sorry to hear [Defensive Coordinator] Leslie [Frazier] step away. He's a tremendous football coach and I know he'll be missed, but I know he is coming back in a year. But, as far as Sean's concerned, very aggressive play caller, always ready. He did a great job for us and because he did a great job for us, he earned the Buffalo job.

On what he made of the recent hiring cycle and the diversity:

Well, I just think it's one of those things where as we go through this, I think we just gonna need to continue to interview and get to know more about all the coaches. I think we gotta continue to do some of the things that we've tried to do as far as the coaches of color in terms of creating more opportunities to get out there. You know, I have a friend who's a businessman in LA and we were talking recently about it and he said, Ron, one thing I always tell my salespeople is you gotta get to know your customers. So if they don't know you, they're not gonna trust you and they don't trust you, they're gonna buy from you. And I think that's what we gotta do is create more opportunities for these coaches to be put in front of the decision makers so they know who they are and now the possibility of getting the opportunity I think will increase. So, we've just gotta continue to do that as much as we can.

CLICK BELOW FOR MORE NFL DRAFT CONTENT

Purchase the 2023 NFL Draft Guide

• 2023 NFL Draft Big Board & Position Rankings
• Scouting Reports
• NFL Mock Drafts
• Declare/Return
• Senior Bowl Tracker
• Shrine Bowl Tracker
• NFLPA Bowl