After 4 seasons of no success, the Washington Commanders parted ways with Ron Rivera and decided to give Dan Quinn a chance to lead the Commanders football team. Rivera had an abysmal 26-40-1 record with the Washington team, which includes 4-13 in the past season. It’s not a surprise that the Commanders are looking to revamp everything.
Kurt Benkert, the former Packers QB weighed in on how the Washington team will be different this year and he backed his statements with some undeniable stats. He compared Rivera’s time with the Carolina Panthers, where he won 76 regular season games and led the team to the NFC Championships in 2015, and pointed out how the 62-year-old was able to perform with a flawless team but folded when the real challenges presented themselves. Dan Quinn, however, is different in that regard.
Benkert went to a podcast with Pocket Presence and the host asked him about the future of the Commanders now that Quinn is picking up from where Rivera left. The retired QB described Rivera’s career to be mediocre and pointed out some noticeable things about his time with the Panthers.
Rivera’s 76-63-1 career with the Carolina team has had a lot to do with Cam Newton. Panthers’ good defense at the time, Cam Newton’s “anomalistic” plays and the team’s affinity to run the ball have always worked out to aid Rivera’s success.
“They played good defense. They controlled the ball, and they ran the s**t out of the ball and did some weird things with Cam Newton,” said Benkert and added, “The running joke has been, Ron Rivera will lead your team to 8-8.” Rivera was 26-40-1 with Washington, per Pro Football Reference.
There is a huge contrast between Rivera and Quinn as far as records are concerned. Coming back to the podcast, the QB pointed out a few things about Dan Quinn and how he’s different from Ron Rivera. Quinn, in his second year, lead the Atlanta Falcons to Super Bowl LI. Quinn was 43-42 and also led the Falcons to an NFC Championship in the 2016 season.
But numbers don’t equate to emotions, so Benkert elaborated why Quinn would be a better choice to lead the Washington Commanders.
Dan Quinn working with a ‘house of cards’
The retired QB pointed out that regardless of Quinn having a strong team, his luck was always plagued with roster mismanagement or players getting injured, and players missing games making it a “house of cards” of sorts as things kept falling apart during his head coaching tenure.
“Dan Quinn has had a really, really good team that was always in the playoffs, always competing, and it wasn’t like some gimmicky s**t. And then they had some roster problems that made them fall off. Some big injuries. Some people that you were paying a lot of money that were not playing in games because they were missing time. Like, it was very much a house of cards with what Dan Quinn was working with,” said Benkert of Quinn’s situation.
The former Packer elaborated that Rivera never really had to face this problem, and the output that the former Washington coach would give will be mediocre, ranging from a 6-10 season to a 9-7, with one or two good seasons in between. However, Dan Quinn has been pretty consistent with his output and that ‘he’s had success every single place he’s been to’.
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