WFT's Rivera, Fitzpatrick Share Same Timeline

Head coach Ron Rivera and quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick look to build on the present and not focus on the future.

As of now, quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is the Washington Football Team's "guy."

Head coach Ron Rivera admitted that he did pursue the "bright [and] shiny" quarterbacks this offseason, such as Matthew Stafford, Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson, and Aaron Rodgers, but came to the conclusion that developing a foundation in Washington would be better decision moving forward.

"Who wouldn't check in with those teams and do their due diligence too see what the cost would be to get a guy [quarterback] of that caliber?" Rivera said. "We didn't have all the pieces in place to say, 'All we have to do is get a quarterback [and then] we can win now.' I felt that ... we could continue to put the rest of the pieces in place ... get a veteran quarterback and see what happens."

Rivera wasn't on board to draft in this year's Top 10. He's trying to build for the future in Washington, not give it away.

"We're trying to build a team, not give up building blocks," Rivera said. "If we mortgaged our future on a player -- and maybe he isn't the right guy, and maybe we can't afford to keep our core -- it could have really set us back."

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Going into his 17th NFL season, Fitzpatrick was looking for a starting job and this offseason was really his first chance to choose where he'd like to play. With uncertainties at the quarterback position in the wake of the failed Dwayne Haskins experiment, Washington popped up on his radar.

"It's always been a couple of backup jobs here or there, and 'Which one's closest to Disneyworld?'," Fitzpatrick said. "There was the appeal of the youth of this team [Washington], and of Coach Rivera and everything I'd heard about him. So, it had all of those things wrapped in it and made it an easy decision for me."

Rivera is ready to work with Fitzpatrick. Maybe in the future. But definitely in the present.

"We've got our fingers crossed that we're doing the right thing," Rivera said. "We do want to try to keep our own; we feel really good about our own. We'd like to get everything else in place and then take a step back and address that position and say, 'Now it's time, guys. Let's roll.'"

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