Ron Rivera was outspoken, forthright and straightforward Tuesday in his weekly appearance on the Sports Junkies (106.7 The Fan).
Rivera appealed to NY Giants coach Joe Judge (or anyone else) wanting to speak out about the WFT organization and team should know the circumstances before choosing to caricature the team.
Jason Bishop called Joe Judge an idiot but Rivera did not take the bait. Yet, he was very open thereafter.
Eric Bickel straightforwardly told Rivera, “I don’t like some of Chase Young’s answers… I need him to say, ‘I am going to be there’ ” (OTA’s). Rivera responded, “That’s all right, I’ll deal with the answer. Just remember, that is on me, that is not on you guys.”
Bickel asked, “Are we going to get this deal done? Are you confident Terry McLaurin is going to be here long term?”
Rivera interjected “I love Terry, and we are going to do everything we can, so everybody please relax. Let us do our job, trust us. Believe me this is a heck of a football player…”
Regarding Brandon Scherff, “It is about getting the numbers correct… It’s a good group (OLine); you want to keep as many of those pieces in place.”
They transitioned to how Rivera has had to play six quarterbacks in two seasons. “We have four options (draft, trade, free agency, our roster) and we are going to explore everyone of them.”
Concerning good quarterbacks not wanting to come to DC? “What cures all of that? Winning. W-I-N-N-I-N-G, if you start putting points on the board and winning, people will come back. People will appreciate what is going on.”
Rivera said he will probably not be at the new team name unveiling, stating he is planning on being at the Senior Bowl or East-West Shrine game. He reiterated there is much work to be done.
He also insisted he still does not know the new team name, saying the less he knows about other things than football the better. He said the uniforms and helmets are very nice however.
There is much more; here is the link to hour 3 of the Sports Junkies, with Coach Rivera appearing at 17:15.