Send them down the river? Yes, No, maybe so.
by Alex Zeese
November 21, 2023
I hear it – the losses keep adding up. We are all mad. We are all tired. We have seen this over and over again for over three decades. The head coach has clearly worn out his welcome with the fans, and I don’t see players running to the defensive coaching staff right now. We all are ready for change, and while we want it there are very good reasons to wait, just as there are good reasons for Josh Harris to make the move and get rid of coaches Rivera and Del Rio mid-season. I am not going to tell you that there’s a right answer to salvage the season.
Let me be clear: there’s no good answer. There’s no right answer. This is a no-win situation, and there’s no hero who’s going to save the season.
It’s clear at this point that after seasons end the team will have a new head coach. It is simply a question of whether there will be anyone given the “interim” label between now and week 18? When you get past your anger at this latest loss you will realize the team realistically cannot fire coaches before a Thursday night game. The window between Sunday and Thursday is to short for that move to be made. No matter what, firing the defensive coordinator and the head coach must wait till black Friday.
Again, there’s no good answer.
However, there may be good reasons for Harris to stick with Rivera through the season. I assume that Rivera’s contract is no different from any other head coach’s deal. They are guaranteed through the duration of their deal, so no matter what, the team will have to pay him through the remaining time on his contract. There are always exceptions and outs to any contract, such as morality clauses, and things like that which I’d let Steve discuss, but I doubt Rivera has any special clauses in his deal that make it cost prohibitive to fire him early.
The biggest reason Harris may want to hold on to Rivera through the season is reputation. Many have discussed how Harris doesn’t want to be seen by the fanbase as another Dan Snyder, who meddled with coaches and lacked any sort of impulse control. However, with each loss, the risk of loss of reputation with the fanbase grows smaller. The real risk is his reputation among the rest of the NFL. No matter what we all think of Rivera’s on the field product, his reputation with the rest of the NFL has always been stellar. Among other NFL coaches and other owners, he’s a high character individual. That’s something even the driver of the “Fire Ron” bus has to admit. Harris does have to have some concern that if he fires Rivera right now – how will that move be seen by the next head coach he wants to hire?
Again, there’s no right answer.
The big case I can see being made for firing Ron now is that you can get enough time to look at Eric Bieniemy and see if he could be a potential NFL head coach. I have some doubts if coach Bieniemy is right for the job at the interim, as he is not exactly some great tactician as a play caller. His strength is in coaching up players, running a good hard practice. If Bieniemy does get his long-deserved shot to be an NFL head coach, he deserves the chance to bring in coordinators who can help him with filling the holes in his coaching game, something he won’t be able to do mid-season.
Again, this is a no-win situation.
Lastly, assuming Harris does fire Rivera & Jack Del Rio, who would take over on the defense, and do any other coaches leave as well? Most the coaching staff on defense are Rivera loyalists, while I doubt Rivera would ask anyone to quit in solidarity, do we think that his nephew is going to want to stick around coaching linebackers, what about Luke Del Rio, would he stay or go out of family loyalty?
And who would take over the defense? None of the remaining coaches have much experience as a defensive coordinator. Given the terrible performance of the secondary you couldn’t possibly give it to Brent Vieselmeyer. Jeff Zgonina has been the D-line coach here but never has held a position high than his current one. There are only two people who could make sense from the current staff to take over, and they haven’t had a DC job in over a decade. The safeties coach, Richard Rodgers, was the defensive coordinator at Holy Cross for several seasons, but that was over a decade ago. The other name is Steve Russ. He’s coached multiple positions on the defensive and offensive side of the ball during his career and was a defensive coordinator for one season in 2007.
Again, there’s no one here who will save the season.
No matter what they do, this team isn’t going to salvage their season. In the best case scenario we will see one or two more wins, and I don’t know if changing coaches makes a difference there either way. This year’s over folks, and now the Harris team is on the clock to hire a new front office and replace this coaching staff. The honeymoon is over.