Ron Rivera: Howell ‘Didn’t Deserve’ Extra Pressure
Former Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera admits he made a mistake by over-hyping quarterback Sam Howell.Â
With the benefit of hindsight, Ron Rivera says he placed too much pressure on Howell to be the franchise quarterback.
“He didn’t deserve to have that put on him,” Ron Rivera said. “He’s a good young quarterback, has some talent and some ability, and I think that’s something I should have backed off on.”
Rivera also said that filling in for fired DC Jack Del Rio reminded him what he loves about coaching.
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While his time as a head coach is probably over, Rivera says he has ample opportunity to become a coordinator.
“I would’ve loved a different model just because, in hindsight, now you really see how much more time you spend on personnel and as a coach, that’s not necessarily what you want to do,” Rivera said.Â
“What I really enjoyed more than anything else the last five weeks was just being right in the middle of everything. Now your only focus is just that one thing. That’s what you do; you want to teach.”
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“Sometimes you do have to take a step back,” Rivera said.Â
“You take a step back you learn and grow from it. It’s like I told other players, if you look at this year as a lost year, you’re [hurting] yourself. You should look at it as a year to learn and understand why things happen. This was probably the greatest learning experience I’ve had in a while this year. I mean, a lot of things came to light at certain times this past season that I think going forward will really help me.”
