Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera. Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

Commanders' Ron Rivera still hopeful even after trades

By Adam Gretz | Last updated 11/2/23

The Washington Commanders are 3-5 and just traded away two of the best players on their defensive line -- Montez Sweat and Chase Young -- prior to Tuesday's NFL trade deadline. That would seem to indicate that they might be throwing in the towel on the season, but head coach Ron Rivera is not going to listen to any of that talk.

In fact, he still sees a path forward this season for the Commanders to try and win football games and he is using a past experience in Carolina for his inspiration.

Rivera said on Wednesday that he sees this situation as an opportunity to go out and win football games with different people, and compared it to his time with the 2014 Panthers when he made some changes late in the year, went on a four-game winning streak and then won the NFC South with a 7-8-1 record, allowing them to even win a wild-card game.

"I've gone through this before," Rivera said. "Do we have that opportunity? I think this is what this is. It's the same kind of opportunity."

That season was a launching point for the 2015 season where the Panthers went 15-1 and reached the Super Bowl.

There are, of course, some problems with Rivera's comparison here and his dreams of putting together a second-half run.

The first is that his personnel changes in 2014 were not really trade-related. He was not losing players off of that roster and needing to replace key starters.

Also, if the "new players" that he wants to try and win with this season were capable of doing that he probably wouldn't have had them sitting on the bench behind Sweat and Young. If Sweat and Young were not good enough to win games with, it is hard to believe the Commanders have better players sitting on the bench behind them that will give them a better opportunity.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle is that a losing record is not going to be enough to get the Commanders into the playoffs this season. Certainly not a division crown like his 2014 experience had. The NFC wild-card race is such a mess that a 3-5 record only has them one game back of the seventh playoff spot, but they would still have to jump over four teams to get into that spot.

The Commanders also play one of the most difficult remaining schedules, still having to play Dallas (twice), Miami, Seattle, San Francisco and a very tough New York Jets defense.

Credit to Rivera for still wanting to be optimistic and hoping to compete this season. The reality of the situation just does not seem favorable for them.

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