The 2022 season will be Ron Rivera’s third season as head coach of the Washington Commanders. Since being hired by owner Daniel Snyder on Jan. 1, 2020, Rivera has been Washington’s top decisionmaker on the football side.
In his first season, Rivera chose to keep vice president of player personnel Kyle Smith on board as his top personnel guy. After the 2020 season, Rivera would finally hire his own front office, bringing in former Detroit Lions general manager — and former Washington cornerback — Martin Mayhew as his new GM. Rivera also hired his former GM in Carolina, Marty Hurney, as executive vice president of player personnel.
In their first offseason together, Rivera and Mayhew were busy, adding Ryan Fitzpatrick, Curtis Samuel and William Jackson III in free agency. In the 2021 NFL draft, the Commanders selected Jamin Davis, Sam Cosmi, Benjamin St-Juste and Dyami Brown, among others.
The results were mixed for several of those new acquisitions in 2021.
Now that we’ve seen a full year of Rivera and Mayhew, how do the pair rank among the NFL’s top decision-makers?
Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com recently ranked every NFL team’s GM from 1-32. The combination of Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane was ranked No. 1 overall.
Rosenthal ranked the combo of Rivera and Mayhew at No. 22:
This is Rivera’s third offseason in Washington, and the team is no closer to finding a quarterback. On paper, the defensive front looks incredibly promising. On the field, the unit was worse than the Taylor Heinicke-led offense a year ago. Rivera and Mayhew were facing an uphill battle when they arrived in Washington, but it’s hard to see a lot of progress made when most of the roster’s best players came before they arrived.
Unfortunately, that is last, as 10 GMs, or GM combinations, were listed as “too new” to be ranked. Rosenthal’s reasoning was he wanted the GM to have one completed draft with his current team before ranking them.
Ouch.
Everything Rosenthal said is true. As of now, the Commanders are no closer to finding their quarterback. Yes, they traded for Carson Wentz, but the jury is out on Wentz after failing in each of his last two stops. But, Washington is betting on Wentz’s talent and this being his last chance to get his once-promising career back on track.
To be fair to Rivera and Mayhew, this also feels like another case of someone crushing them for the Wentz trade. On paper, the trade would favor the Colts for getting out of the contract and also landing draft picks. However, considering the quarterback market, if the Commanders didn’t trade for Wentz, they could be forced to take one No. 11 overall in a draft many believe lacks a top-flight quarterback prospect.
If Samuel returns to his former status and some of the early 2021 draft picks produce in 2022, people will view Rivera and Mayhew differently next offseason.
Ultimately, everything still hinges on Rivera’s bet on Wentz.