Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera has made clear his intentions at quarterback: There is urgency to make a major move, and to make it now.
"Is there a sense of urgency?" Rivera said. "I think there always is, just because that's the most important position on your team. ... It is something we want to get right."
But "always'' didn't happen last year, when Washington bid too low on Detroit's Matthew Stafford, leaving him free to be traded to a Rams team that won the Super Bowl - and leaving Washington with journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick, lost to injury in Week 1.
How much does Washington need it to happen now?
So much so that beat writer Ben Standig is suggesting that Rivera would even trade the team's best player in order to acquire the right QB.
"I think almost anyone on the roster is available if the result is Washington improving at quarterback,'' writes Standig at The Athletic. "In Young’s case, that would mean the Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson level.''
It is worth noting, on a journalistic level, that The Athletic didn't write this explosive angle with a three-inch headlines atop it; indeed, Standig would seem to be sitting on a massive story here and yet he forms this as a sort of "throw-away line'' and buries it down in the 19th paragraph of a mailbag column.
At the same time, Standig is a responsible beat writer. It might be a throw-away line, or even his own opinion and nothing more - but it's an opinion that merits respect.
In Rivera's two-year tenure as the Washington Football Team coach, he's started quarterbacks Dwayne Haskins, Alex Smith, Kyle Allen, Fitzpatrick, Taylor Heinicke and Garrett Gilbert. Since 2000, the WFT has started 24 different quarterbacks.
Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson or Deshaun Watson fixes all of that.
Said Rivera of where the franchise is now: "I think we've put ourselves in a pretty good position."
And that might mean putting Chase Young on the trade block.
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