It's fair to say that in Ron Rivera's four years as the head coach in Washington, the Commanders' quarterback situation was far from ideal. Case in point, in the 67 games that Rivera coached in D.C., the following eight quarterbacks got starts: Alex Smith, Dwayne Haskins, Kyle Allen, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Taylor Heinicke, Garrett Gilbert, Carson Wentz, and Sam Howell. Not exactly a murderer's row of signal callers, and as longtime fans of franchises who haven't had sustained QB success could tell you, if you don't have that position figured out, you're in deep trouble. However, according to Ron Rivera, there's an alternate reality where the Commanders could've nabbed their eventual franchise quarterback in the NFL Draft.
Washington entered the 2020 NFL Draft with both the 2nd overall pick and the knowledge that LSU quarterback Joe Burrow would be the 1st overall selection of the Cincinnati Bengals. For all intents and purposes, that meant that Washington would be on the clock for multiple months attempting to determine whether the first 1st Round pick in the Ron Rivera era — hey, that rhymes! — would be a quarterback, or whether it would be Ohio State edge rusher Chase Young. In the end, the pick ended up being Young, who Rivera said that Washington believed would be an impact player. However, the former Commanders head coach didn't dance around an answer when ESPN's Adam Schefter asked if he could go back in time and select a quarterback, who it would've been.
“I think we felt pretty good about Justin Herbert as someone we liked looking at,” Rivera said during his appearance on the Adam Schefter Podcast. “You know hindsight is easy because it is an opportunity to look back and say we could've done that, and we really could’ve, but who knows.”
Of course, had Washington selected Justin Herbert instead of Chase Young, things would be much different in both D.C. and in LA. That's not to say that Rivera would still be coaching the Commanders if they had decided to pull the trigger on Herbert — the lack of weapons that Washington has had on their roster over the last four years in comparison to what Herbert had to work with in Los Angeles is significant — but the fact that they didn't was just the first death blow in what would ultimately be an unsuccessful tenure in Washington.
Have the Commanders found their franchise QB in Jayden Daniels?
Until Jayden Daniels takes the field for the first time, we won't have a definitive answer to this question, but for the first time in over a decade, there is legitimate reason for Commanders fans to be excited about their quarterback situation. Daniels — much like Robert Griffin III did in 2012 — arrives in Washington on the heels of a Heisman Trophy winning season with plenty of fanfare and high expectations, and Rivera, who was fired by the Commanders way back in early January, considers himself a fan of the quarterback he anticipated drafting, had he kept the job.
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