Dan Staying Out Rivera's Way
Ron Rivera, before he was even officially named head coach in Washington, said he only wanted control of the 46-man roster on game day.
"I don't want personnel control," Rivera told Silver. "I just want to be able to pick which 46 are active for game day, and have a collaborative relationship (with a GM)-- and, if there's a conflict, be able at least to go to the owner and state my case."
That's not exactly what he said at his introductory press conference but he did say that the Redskins front office would work together as a team (collaboratively) and if there was a tie, Dan Snyder would essentially break it.
Those decisions are still to come. Free agency and the draft will loom large.
Here's what you need to know. Rivera may not want full control over personnel. He may want to do everything collaboratively but make no mistake about it, at least for now, he's the new sheriff in town.
Snyder is not standing in his way. Snyder is not protecting anyone.
Eric Schaffer and the Redskins mutually parted ways. Schaffer was the most respected and smartest individual in the building. Why is that important? The Redskins under Bruce Allen, Vinny Cerrato and Snyder often made baffling decisions that didn't exactly reek of common sense. Rivera had his own guy and Schaffer, the belief is, wanted to ascend to President after all the years of being beat down by others.
Schaffer's smarts probably bailed out the Redskins more times than we know.
Snyder didn't prevent Rivera from moving Doug Williams out of personnel to a much better role for him.
Many coaches from a (3-13) season were fired or allowed to leave and obviously nobody can blame Rivera for doing that.
There's also no chance Allen would have fired if Rivera wanted to work with him, so you can add that to the list.
Now the question is: Who will be the general manager and who will be the starting quarterback for week one?
Rivera said he doesn't know and won't know for a while. I'm sure he has a good feeling one way or the other about Dwayne Haskins already. Could Alex Smith make a comeback. Will Case Keenum be re-signed. How about a good young veteran option? Teddy Bridgewater?
The other question and issue is this: Can Snyder stay patient if things are not going well and let Rivera chart the course? He didn't under Mike Shanahan despite contractual obligations.
Rivera has to hope that Snyder steps back like former Panthers owner Jerry Richardson was. "I was fortunate that I had an owner who stuck with me past the second year (in Carolina)," Rivera told Silver, back when he knew he was taking the Redskins job. "If you talk to people in the military, they'll tell you it takes three-to-five years to completely change a culture. It's about making sure, first of all, that everybody understands what the intent and what the vision is. Then you have to map out how you're gonna get there. And as you start to do that, you've got to find out who's in and who's not in."
They may not have said it. He might say he doesn't want it but make no mistake about it..Riverboat Ron is not shooting blanks. He's the man in charge. He's the man with all the power and control. He certainly won't hire a general manager that has more juice or authority than him.
And if he can win, he'll forever keep Snyder's hand out of the Redskins cookie jar.
Chris Russell is the Publisher of Maven & Sports Illustrated's Washington Redskins channel. He can be heard on 106.7 The FAN in the Washington D.C. area and world-wide on Radio.com. Chris also hosts the "Locked on Redskins" Podcast and can be read via subscription to Warpath Magazine. You can e-mail Chris at russellmania09@Gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @Russellmania621.
