Scott Turner enters year two as the Washington Football Team's offensive coordinator. While he's still young and largely new to his position, make no mistake, he has plenty of experience and DNA on his side.
Turner has more talent to work with this year, including a quarterback that he and the staff believe in. Ryan Fitzpatrick needs to be stable, but the electric speed and playmaking ability of Curtis Samuel and Dyami Brown should compliment already proven target Terry McLaurin.
Turner has last year's experience to build off for 2021. He also has his father, Norv, as an unofficial part of Washington's staff.
Norv Turner, the former WFT head coach, returned to the team facility a couple of weeks ago for the first time since being fired by owner Dan Snyder. He can now be wherever he wants — something that was not possible last year due COVID regulations.
“It's great. Last year was tough because he would have been out here, but obviously with all of the COVID regulations and rules we couldn't have him in here," Scott Turner told reporters Thursday. "Just to see him and have him be here and not only here but staying at my house around my kids and hanging out with my mom here too was great. He watches our tape and we talk all the time anyway, but just having him here in the meetings with guys was good. He worked with most of our staff and a lot of our players that we had in Carolina, so they were happy to see him and he was giving them all a hard time.”
Norv Turner was the offensive coordinator until Rivera was fired by the Panthers, yielding the responsibilities to his son for the final four games of the season.
“When Scotty told me, ‘hey we invited him to practice.’ I said it is kind of cool having Coach (Norv) around," WFT coach Ron Rivera said last month. "I was very fortunate to have worked for him and have him be part of my staff in Carolina. Very familiar with Coach, I really do value his opinion. I think it’s kind of cool to have him around to look at things and be able to talk to him about what’s going on and what he thinks.”
The thought of the Turner's return to working with Rivera was always an option. Would the elder Turner want to come back? Were the bitter feelings strong enough to keep him away?
There's now an answer. Norv Turner will be around and even when he's not present, he can still more than help.
Norv Turner will continue to have access to all of Washington's coaches tape so he can review and advise from afar. Essentially the setup will be similar to how it worked for Mike and Kyle Shanahan.
This can only help WFT as Norv Turner, one of the more respected offensive minds in the game. Now, he's essentially working for Washington for free.
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