Washington Post: For Year 1 in Washington, Rivera Leaned on McDermott and Beane's Experience

[Doc]

Curious to see McCaffrey's health status going forward.

[Sherlock Holmes]

5 minutes ago, Augie said:

Hey! Maybe you should start one of those hypothetical trade threads where we get him for a 7th rounder and a bag of used balls. He’d be so happy to escape he’d insist on renegotiating his contract downward. THOSE threads are ALWAYS so enjoyable! 

 

 

You're right!!! It was last season when I last made those types of threads every week about him... it's the start of a new off-season, thus time to once again start them up!!

[hondo in seattle]

When I was in the army, we used to do a "After Action Review" after every mission.  I didn't know that pilots take off their rank.  Cool story, I thought:

 

In normal years, Rivera and his wife, Stephanie, would host groups of players and their wives for dinner. After eating, Stephanie would have dessert with the wives in one room while Rivera held court with the players for a “debriefing.”

 

“It’s what the military fighter pilots do after every mission,” Rivera said. “They literally take their ranks off of their uniforms and put them in the middle of this round table and they sit there and they have a forum and discuss what just happened. It’s a chance to be brutally honest.”

[Thurman#1]

On 2/20/2021 at 11:51 PM, JohnC said:

The Haskins pick was a surprise to the coaching staff. Their former HC, Jay Gruden, had no interest in Haskins, especially as a first round pick. He considered him a project and a third round value. It was the owner and a faction of the front office that included Allen that made that ill-fated selection. Gruden on a recent podcast stated that he was surprised and upset with the Haskins selection. The manner in which that pick was made without the input of a part of the personnel department demonstrated the chaotic and tumultuous state the organization was in. When you have a mercurial and incompetent owner it's not surprising that you have a failed organization. 

 

Before Rivera agreed to take the job he required the owner to give him the authority to not only make the football decisions but be the person responsible to staff the front office. Because the owner was besieged with tawdry sexual claims against him and the organization the owner was willing to cede authority to someone else in order to take the attention off of him. 

 

The Washington Football Team's house is in order. That is the starting point. Where there was no hope there now is optimism. It starts with the top. 

 

 

 

Well said.

 

It's been a long time since that team looked headed in the right direction.

[eball]

On 2/20/2021 at 5:28 AM, GunnerBill said:

 

I think McDermott and Beane learned plenty from Ron Rivera. But Ron Rivera is a decent, humble, guy and he recognised that two of his protégés now had knowledge that could help him and he reached out to them. That is a good leader and a good teacher. One who acknowledges that sometimes you have to learn from those you have taught. 

If I’m wrong I apologize but I seem to recall NoSaint as being one of the posters who just never seems to quite buy in to what McD and Beane are doing...hence the “I don’t think Rivera learned anything new” angle.  
 

[JMF2006]

On 2/20/2021 at 5:28 AM, GunnerBill said:

 

I think McDermott and Beane learned plenty from Ron Rivera. But Ron Rivera is a decent, humble, guy and he recognised that two of his protégés now had knowledge that could help him and he reached out to them. That is a good leader and a good teacher. One who acknowledges that sometimes you have to learn from those you have taught. 

 

Well they did turn this team around in less than 4 years and I would guess Riverboat wants to do the same to the Generals.

 

We Trust in the Process

[JohnC]

11 hours ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Well said.

 

It's been a long time since that team looked headed in the right direction.

There is nothing innovative or exceptional about the lessons learned from the people formerly associated with the Carolina football team. The takeaway from that Carolina experience is basic. In any large and multi-faced organization there has to be a guiding principle from top to bottom that everyone not only understands but also buys into to. The Washington example is easy to dissect. There were too many factions not only competing with one another but were expending energy sabotaging one another. The blame for this constant depleting in-fighting and intrigue was the owner who wanted a system a system in which at his whim he could act out his foolish whims. 

 

I'm impressed with what Ron Rivera has done in a relatively short period of time. He has brought an order and coherency to a chaotic and unfocused organization. The word "process" gets gratuitously thrown out a lot but in the case with McDermott/Beane in Buffalo and Rivera in Washington that word has meaning and substance. 

[Saxum]

Ironic it took someone with cancer to deal with an organization filled with it.

[Saxum]

Another non-payfence article on "How Bills helped Ron Rivera, Washington Football Team’s rebuild in 2020"

https://www.newyorkupstate.com/buffalo-bills/2021/02/how-bills-helped-ron-rivera-washington-football-teams-rebuild-in-2020.html