It was time for Ron Rivera to go, but he still deserves appreciation in Washington

There's no doubt that it was time for the Washington Commanders to move on from Rivera, after losing eight consecutive games to close out the 2023 season with a 4-13 record. The Commanders severely lacked motivation and discipline throughout the year, despite those things formerly being strengths.

It was clear that Rivera submitted to his fate early on, and the losing culture it enabled had dire consequences on the rest of the season for Washington — most notably the stalling out in the development of QB Sam Howell.

That said, just because a coach gets fired doesn't mean they were always a bad coach. It's easy to get caught up in the moment in today's clicks-driven society, and to disproportionately focus on negatives while ignoring positives.

So let's remember the positives that Rivera brought to Washington. He came in with a proven record of success from his Carolina Panthers days, including two NFL Coach of the Year awards and an appearance in Super Bowl 50, and for three years he helped make the Commanders look at least semi-respectable — which is impressive given the cards he was dealt upon his arrival.

In 2020, Rivera's first season in D.C., he took over a team that had gone 3-13 the previous year and was a dysfunctional mess off the field. The end of previous coach Jay Gruden's tenure had been clouded by misbehavior that allegedly indirectly led to severe consequences on the field, while GM Bruce Allen was forced to fall on his sword because the culture was not, in fact, "damn good."

Of course, the primary culprit behind that was team owner Dan Snyder, who found himself at the center of a massive sexual misconduct investigation that began the same summer Rivera was hired. Also notable that offseason? The team decided to finally drop its old moniker... without a replacement in mind.

Then there were the headlines surrounding Rivera himself, as he was diagnosed with lymph node cancer. All of this happened before he'd even coached a single game for what became temporarily known as the Washington Football Team, making his job perhaps the hardest in the entire NFL.

How did he respond? Well, all he did was lead the WFT to a division title and playoff berth that season. The team won five of its final seven regular-season games as players bought into Rivera's leadership. 

They played smart, mistake-free football during that stretch, looking like a well-coached team that maximized its potential — notably in a 23-17 victory over the previously 11-0 Pittsburgh Steelers. Oh, yeah, and he beat cancer.

The next two seasons brought ups and downs, but one thing was consistent: players loved Rivera. He instilled a true sense of family in a locker room that had lacked any direction whatsoever before his arrival, and that was still dealing with off-field distractions every week given the endless Snyder drama.

It's quite unfortunate that the year Snyder was finally out of the picture, and that the Commanders' fanbase had been reinvigorated with hope and optimism, also had to be the year Rivera decided to phone it in and ultimately leave Washington only minimally better off than it was beforehand.

That said, it doesn't change the fact that before the bottom fell out, he was a primary catalyst behind helping the Commanders out of a very dark time, providing leadership for an organization in which such a task seemed nearly impossible. That can't ever be taken away from him.

So while it was the right time to part ways, let's take a moment to appreciate the good things that Ron Rivera did during his time in D.C. rather than dwelling on the bad. At the end of the day, he's a human being first and foremost.