Key quotes from Rivera and Mayhew presser

Ron Rivera and General Manager Martin Mayhew spoke with the media on Tuesday to discuss their 2022 plan for the Washington Football Team. It was mainly Rivera answering questions from the media. Their presser was an important step for the team to solve the anxiety or to distinguish the frustrations that fans have with Washington after a disappointing 2021 season. Were his answers sufficient? How many of Rivera’s answers closed the gap on what the fans could look forward to in 2022? 

Here are some key quotes from the presser:

Rivera on evaluating quarterbacks: “Well, I think first you start with your own evaluations and go from there. We’ve talked about some things today. In fact, we had a very good meeting earlier. And one of the things that we talked about again was, the four options we have on the roster in free agency, in the draft and potential trades. You gotta look at all avenues. Then you’ve gotta kind of predict and look at ones that intrigue you, and then go from there.” 

When asked about which route was out of the question for the team, Rivera also stated that nothing was out of the question.

Rivera on being aggressive in the draft with the current roster: “We feel very good about the roster. We do. We like the things that we’ve done. We like the guys that we have. We feel there are a couple spots that we most certainly do feel we need to upgrade.  Just a few. And so again, putting ourselves in the right type of situation, I think is what we’re doing.”

Mayhew on Brandon Scherff: “Yeah. Well, Brandon is an outstanding player. Seven years here, five Pro-Bowls. I mean, you can’t replace that kind of production. Very respected in the locker room and it’s been great getting to know him. It’s my first year here being around him and seeing his work ethic. But I think our fans should know, we’ve made every effort to get something done. We’ve continued to work on that. Last year we made an offer to be the highest-paid offensive guard in the history of the National Football League. and we’ll keep that dialogue going on and see where things go.”

Rivera on the defensive line play this season:

“Well, initially I think if you want to talk about pure football, I think the one thing was expectations. Everybody’s expectations across the board players included mine, coaches, fans everybody was probably a little bit out of whack. I think one of the biggest things that we tried to do was we tried to show what we were capable of and who we are instead of trying to just go out and play football the way we were supposed to. I thought guys, and I talked about this, was that there was some things that we were doing when we weren’t supposed to do, we were popping gaps when we were trying to make plays instead of staying home and just knowing the play doesn’t care who makes it. If you were supposed to be, you make your play and that’s probably the biggest thing early on. And I think as a season wore on, as we started to lose is that was a little bit difficult.”

Rivera on handling character concerns with players:

“Well, then we most certainly will do our due diligence if that’s the case. That’s the thing that we have to do more so than anything else is really take a look at all those situations, circumstances and really kind of go through the process. Obviously, we’d have to find out what the League has going on and saying with things and situations like that. It’d be no different than any other position that we’ve gone with. We’ll go through a very diligent process. I know Martin and his group will certainly do that because when it does come to it, these are the guys that really handle the investigations for us.”

In relation to quarterback Deshaun Watson, Rivera said that he cannot talk about players currently on other team rosters, but that they are going to explore all avenues. 

Rivera on linebacker Jamin Davis:

“I think what it did for us in terms of that was getting a better feel, understanding for what we think he really can become and that is he can be an edge guy for us. He can be an inside/outside linebacker. I’m trying to get it straight with the 3-4 and the 4-3. In the 4-3, he could be an outside linebacker. He can be a guy that can go out in space and run. We see his ability to run and run through contact. He could run with running backs. He could run with tight ends. He’s a run through contact guy that can learn to get downhill and take those double teams off and help his D-line up front. I think that is where he belongs right now. Will he become an inside middle guy? There’s a chance still. I was pretty excited to watch him come in that situation and not have to worry about trying to control or command anything as far as playing the position. I’m excited. I really am about him and potentially if we can find the right inside guy, whether it be David [Mayo] or Jon [Bostic] or somebody else to work with those young guys as they develop.”

Rivera on Terry McLaurin:

“You guys are killing me. His agent is going to read your articles. He’s going to listen to what I say. Terry is somebody that we most certainly do want to make sure we get something worked out going forward. We want to do it the right way. Those are things that are obviously in discussions with us right now as we start preparing for the offseason.”