Foreword.

Ron Rivera was an unwanted catalyst behind the unneeded name change
for the Washington Redskins to "Commanders", more commonly known as
"Commoders".

Ron Rivera stabbed the Commoders owner in the back multiple times by
leaking team information to the press.

Ron Rivera stabbed John Gruden in the back when some of the
information he helped leak inadvertently smeared Gruden.

Ron Rivera and the NFL attempted to portray him as some sort of
military hero when he never served a single day in the uniform of
his country. He was a woke military brat.

Ron Rivera went to UC Berkeley, and we all know what kind of un-
American marxist leaning person goes there.

Any NFL owners considering hiring this dishonest untrustworthy
individual would do well to explore other options.

* * *

The Washington Commanders wasted no time in starting anew.

After his team fell to the Dallas Cowboys Sunday and finished its
season with a 4-13 record, Washington owner Josh Harris fired Ron
Rivera early Monday. Harris enlisted former Golden State Warriors
general manager Bob Myers and former Minnesota Vikings GM Rick
Spielman as part of an advisory group to help him and his limited
partners search for a new head of football operations and head
coach.

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Commanders GM Martin Mayhew and executive vice president of
football/player personnel Marty Hurney will stay on with the team
through that search process.

The Commanders’ moves came at the start of a day of change for
several NFL teams. Just after midnight, the Atlanta Falcons fired
their coach, Arthur Smith, and more moves are expected across the
league as team owners reshape coaching staffs and front offices.

Keep track of the firings across the NFL

In Washington, Rivera’s departure ends his four-year run as coach
and kicks off a wave of changes that will overhaul the team’s
executive leadership.

“We’ve done it in a bunch of sports, and I’m highly confident we’re
going to do it here,” Harris, who also owns the NBA’s Philadelphia
76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, said in November.

Rivera set out on his own rebuild four years ago, when former
Washington owner Daniel Snyder appointed him head coach and top
football executive. Rivera had spent the previous nine seasons
coaching the Carolina Panthers and was widely respected as a coach
and leader.

The chance to control Washington’s football operations was a selling
point. So, too, was the chance to fix the team’s culture, which had
eroded in 20-plus years of Snyder’s ownership. Rivera soon became
the primary voice of the team as it navigated two name changes,
multiple NFL- and federal government-led investigations into its
workplace and operations and probes by three attorneys general.

“That was a lot,” Rivera said last week. “A lot more than I had
anticipated there.”

Who will be Washington's next head coach? Here are some names to
watch.

In 2020, his first season in Washington, Rivera was diagnosed with
cancer and underwent chemotherapy and proton radiation while
continuing to coach. He didn’t miss a game. In 2021, the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration searched the team’s headquarters as part
of an investigation into the head athletic trainer, whom Rivera had
hired, for illegally providing controlled substances to players. In
2022, rookie running back Brian Robinson Jr. was shot twice during
an attempted robbery in D.C. just before the start of the season.
Just a few months later, Snyder announced his intent to explore a
sale of the team, setting in motion the process that led to Harris’s
$6.05 billion purchase.

“[I] was trying to keep the focus on the players,” Rivera said last
week as he reflected on his time in Washington. “... This is a
player’s game. You don’t have the players, you don’t get the players
doing the things that they’re capable of, you’re going to struggle.
And that’s, I think, part of what we’ve had to deal with.”

Rivera’s ability to shield his team from the turmoil was no small
feat, and players often said it was among his greatest strengths.

“I can think of coaches right now who couldn’t take on a task like
this,” left tackle Charles Leno Jr. said in 2022. “They wouldn’t be
able to control what they can control.”

But on the field, the Commanders failed to develop into a winning
team. They went 26-40-1 (.396 winning percentage) over Rivera’s four
years, winning their division once and finishing last twice. They
churned through eight starting quarterbacks, and only one player
(defensive end Chase Young) whom the team drafted or signed during
Rivera’s tenure earned a Pro Bowl nod or an all-pro selection.

Rivera remade Washington’s roster almost entirely and built a staff
primarily of coaches he had worked with in the past. In 2020,
quarterback Alex Smith and an improved defense helped Washington
back to the playoffs after it won the NFC East with a 7-9 record.
But Washington went 7-10 the following season and 8-8-1 the year
after that.

In the Commanders’ locker room, sadness, relief and reflection

When Harris purchased the team in July, he urged patience. Thousands
of fans attended training camp practices, and the team said it sold
out every home game at FedEx Field. But a 2-0 start quickly
spiraled. Quarterback Sam Howell, who impressed early in the season,
struggled in the latter half.

“That’s the hardest thing for anybody,” Rivera said of the team’s
quarterback changes. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re here or [if]
you’re at one of the other places that are looking for [a starting
quarterback]. … If you get a head-coaching job where there’s a guy,
you better relish that, and you better succeed, I’ll tell you that
right now.”

Washington’s defense also struggled, especially after its leading
pass rushers, Young and Montez Sweat, were traded in October. Rivera
spent the final five games of the season calling the defense after
firing coordinator Jack Del Rio.

Shortly after he was fired, Rivera issued a lengthy statement
thanking the team’s fans and new owners and lauding the players for
their “professionalism, toughness, work ethic and dedication to the
game.”

“I believe we began to change the culture of this organization in
meaningful ways,” he wrote.

“Ron helped navigate this organization through some challenging
times. He is a good man and thoughtful leader who has positively
contributed to this organization and the NFL,” Harris said in a
written statement from the team. “… To deliver upon our ultimate
goal of becoming an elite franchise and consistently competing for
the Super Bowl, there is a lot to do and first we must establish a
strong organizational infrastructure led by the industry’s best and
most talented individuals.”

Twelve GM candidates to watch for the Commanders

Now, the team turns the page, and to assist with the search process,
it got creative.

Myers, an NBA analyst for ESPN, was an executive with the Warriors
for 12 seasons (2011-23). He was twice named executive of the year
for his decisions that included the hiring of coach Steve Kerr, and
he helped the Warriors to four NBA championships. He stepped down as
GM in June.

Spielman spent more than three decades in NFL personnel, starting as
a scout for the Detroit Lions and later becoming GM of the Vikings
(2012-21).

The group quickly issued a slew of interview requests for both
executive and head coach candidates, including 49ers assistant GM
Adam Peters, Bears assistant GM Ian Cunningham, Browns assistant GM
Glenn Cook, Eagles assistant GM Alec Halaby, Chiefs assistant GM
Mike Borgonzi, Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and Ravens
assistant head coach/defensive line coach Anthony Weaver, according
to multiple people with knowledge of the requests.

Teams can begin to hold virtual and in-person interviews for the
president of football operations role, but it must wait until after
the divisional round of the playoffs to speak with coaching
candidates in person. They can talk virtually before then.

Changes in Washington may not stop with the revamped football
operations. Harris could also alter the business side this year, and
he is expected to continue to improve the dilapidated FedEx Field as
the team makes plans for a new stadium.

For the first time in decades, Washington may be regarded as one of
the top landing spots for prospective coaches and executives — if
not the top landing spot. The team needs a full renovation, sure.
But it is projected to have the most salary cap space in the NFL in
2024 and will have five draft picks in the first three rounds,
including the No. 2 selection.

“What we want to do is create a culture in Washington where players
around the NFL say, ‘This is where we want to play,’ ” Harris said
in November. “We want to create a culture in Washington where the
best and the brightest executives — business, coaches, front office,
everyone, marketing people — they say, ‘We want to be at this
place.’”