Ron Rivera: 'I informed' team owner Daniel Snyder of decision to waive Dwayne Haskins
There was no great mystery to solve here.
Ron Rivera confirmed what was widely assumed when the Washington Football Team released Dwayne Haskins on Monday.
The decision was his. He checked with team owner Daniel Snyder first, of course. But he made the call.
“I made the decision,” Rivera said Wednesday, per the Washington Post. “I informed the owner of my decision. He was supportive, and it was just something I felt we had to do. It was something I felt was in the best interest of both parties.”
Haskins was never Rivera’s guy
Rivera’s admission arrives as no surprise. He wasn’t with the team when it drafted Haskins in the first round of the 2019 NFL draft. Rivera benched Haskins twice this season, including during Sunday’s dreadful showing against the Carolina Panthers. He had also stripped Haskins of his captaincy last week following a breach of the NFL’s COVID-19 protocol.
That Rivera made the call is obvious. It remains noteworthy.
Snyder was previously ‘fixated’ on Haskins
Snyder is widely believed to have handpicked Haskins with the No. 15 pick in 2019. He was reportedly “fixated” on the Ohio State quarterback and didn’t sit in on any interviews with Haskins at the scouting combine.
That scenario embodies the top-down meddling from Snyder that has plagued his tenure as team owner since he bought the franchise in 1999 — a 22-year reign of dysfunction, failure, incompetence and alleged misconduct.
For long-time fans who witnessed the Joe Gibbs glory days that came with three Lombardi Trophies, nothing would be sweeter than the ouster of the franchise’s much-loathed owner and his shameful shadow. Since that option isn’t on the table — for now, at least — Snyder stepping back and letting football-competent people make competent football decisions is the next best thing.
And it appears that he might actually be doing just that for the first time since buying his favorite team.
Has Snyder actually ceded football control?
Snyder vowed to hand Rivera the keys when he hired him last offseason. Rivera arrived as a respected, no-nonsense coach and manager with years of NFL experience. It was the exact kind of hire made by a franchise owner ready to cede control to somebody who knows football better than him.
Still, this is Snyder we’re talking about. Was he really going to let Rivera run the show? Could he truly resist his urges to control?
So far, it looks like he has.
In making decisions like waiving Haskins and cutting Derrius Guice in August, Rivera is acting on what appears to be legitimate autonomy in football decisions. Is that autonomy due — at least partially — to Snyder’s focus on an onslaught of off-field legal battles? Perhaps. The culture change promised and needed in Washington extends well beyond the football field.
Until — and if — Snyder is compelled to sell, any sign of his ceding power in the organization is a step in the right direction. And Washington fans will rejoice.
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