Chris Simms said “it’s over” for Ron Rivera and his time as the Washington Commanders’ head coach.
The writing appears to be on the wall for Ron Rivera and his tenure as the Washington Commanders’ head coach.
Any hopes for Washington (3-5) making a miraculous run to the playoffs appears to be effectively extinguished when they traded Montez Sweat to the Chicago Bears (2-6) and Chase Young to the San Francisco 49ers (5-3).
With the Commanders revealing their hand by trading their top two pass rushers, NBC analyst Chris Simms said on his show, Simms Unbuttoned, that he would call it quits if he were in Rivera’s shoes. Simms also noted that even if the Commanders upset the Philadelphia Eagles (7-1) this past Sunday, they were going to trade Young and Sweat.
“If I’m Ron Rivera, I quit today,” Simms said. “It’s over. They told you it’s over by what they did [on Tuesday]…I had heard on Sunday, even if they won, I think there was people high up in the front office that were like it’s over, we want to trade no matter what.”
While beginning a rebuild and accumulating picks may have been the direction some of the Commanders’ front office chose while their struggles persisted, Simms said there was back-and-forth in the building over the direction they should take.
“There was a little bit of a civil war in the building still going like “hey, we still can turn this around and do all of that.’ They lost, obviously, so that wasn’t even a discussion, and yes, I would say now [with] those two guys being gone, Ron Rivera, does he want to finish out the year? Does he want to quit? I don’t know, but it’s over.”
While beginning a rebuild and accumulating picks may have been the direction some of the Commanders’ front office chose while their struggles persisted, Simms said there was back-and-forth in the building over the direction they should take.
“There was a little bit of a civil war in the building still going like “hey, we still can turn this around and do all of that.’ They lost, obviously, so that wasn’t even a discussion, and yes, I would say now [with] those two guys being gone, Ron Rivera, does he want to finish out the year? Does he want to quit? I don’t know, but it’s over.”
However, since that season, things have gone downhill and Washington appears to be on its way to a third straight year without making the playoffs. With the cascade of changes that have happened around Rivera, none of which were bigger than Josh Harris becoming the new owner, the ice he’s standing on appears to be getting thinner with each passing Sunday.
Even with everything that appears to be going against Rivera, Connor Rogers said on Simms Unbuttoned that he doesn’t expect Rivera to quit.
“Knowing him, I think he finishes out the year, but it’s a weird situation,” Rogers said.
The Commanders will look to get back on track on Sunday when they head to Gillette Stadium to face the New England Patriots (2-6) at 1 p.m. ET.
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