Ron Rivera is under fire, some of it is deserved, the critiques of how his team started the year are justified. I don’t hold him accountable for the team’s performance after the Sweat and Young trades, but he’s certainly responsible for the poor performance to that point. That said when you have a bad season as a coach the narratives around you get dumb, frustrated fans fed and led by media outlets looking for clicks and attention arrive at some profoundly crazy conclusions.
Narrative: Ron is a terrible coach because he didn’t know what he had in Sam Howell. The logic is that he’s a terrible talent evaluator for not recognizing the genius of Sam Howell sooner. This situation is eerily similar to Bill Belichick having Tom Brady on the bench until a Drew Bledsoe injury, Anthony Lynn having Justin Herbert sitting behind Tyrod Taylor until he punctured his lung, Dick Vermeil having Kurt Warner on the bench until Trent Green was injured, Kyle Shanahan having Brock Purdy on the bench until Jimmy Garoppolo got injured. The only difference being that all of those quarterbacks had extended streaks of success, while Howell appears to have fizzled out some, so the criticism appears to be even more misguided.
Narrative: Ron is a terrible evaluator of talent, probably one of the worst to ever pick players. Here’s a draft analysis done by PFF two years after the 2020 draft and the Commanders got an A-. Here’s a 2021 draft class regrade from PFF, their initial grade was an A-, their grade a year later was a B, not spectacular but hardly terrible. Here’s a regrade of the 2022 NFL draft after the 2022 season and the Commanders were ranked 25th, not good, but certainly not the worst draft and there’s reason to believe Jahan Dotson will flourish with a more consistent quarterback improving this grade. Finally the 2023 draft class, which it’s really too early to grade, particularly with the Commanders in full tank mode, was graded average by PFF (B), ESPN (B), and the NFL Network (C). So no, Ron isn’t the worst talent evaluator in league history, in fact he’s not even close.
